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Welcome to Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass. Jon is the founder and CEO of image group international, an award-winning image consulting and personal branding pioneer established in 1989. This podcast will bring you old-school wisdom, inspiring ideas, strategies and hacks for the new tech world. Here you will learn everything about personal branding: the system, the techniques and the right mindset to have a successful personal brand, image and reputation.

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Good morning, everybody, and welcome to another episode of my podcast. Before we start our chat, please remember to connect with me on social media. My Twitter is John underlying Michael, in my LinkedIn is John Michael. And you can always find me as image Group International on Facebook. Today, I will share with you the importance of conflict resolution. And in this episode, we'll focus on the workplace perspective. But everything that is said today can also be applied beyond the corporate world, meaning, of course, your personal life. From the outset, I will note that conflicts are inevitable, and in a person's day-to-day life, including the workplace, that could be at times more common than normal. In the company, conflict can cause a massive degree of frustration, pain, discomfort, sadness, anger, and of course, in the current environment, we're living in, probably also mental health. And that's clearly evidenced by the evidence all around us. So it's impossible to deny that understanding conflict resolution strategies is not important to the workplace; of course, they are, and it's essential that you learn how to deal with them. And it's also, you know, distinguishing a good business from a bad one when the strategies are not in play. So what does that all mean? Well, first of all, every organization has a culture, it's either intentionally created or ad hoc, but certainly there's a culture. And it's important that of course, you know, whatever culture you're going to be working with, is that you resonate with that particular culture. Otherwise, it's only a matter of time before conflict arises and how to judge a lot of that particular culture before you get in there. So we avoid a lot of conflicts is, of course, looking at your values, looking at their values, and do they sort of sync, and if they die, that's probably a good sign that eventually conflict will show up somehow. But anyway, conflict in the workplace is virtually unavoidable, as we've already discussed, and can take many forms. You know, it could be, for instance, between two employees. Although in my experience, even when there are two employees, it's probably a third employee or third person; it's what we call the hidden hand. So it's rarely just two, but it could be just too, but generally, there's a third person that you don't see was not so openly visible, although, you know, could be very COVID. So between, you know, it understands that and, of course, it's where your intuition would come in as well, could be a conflict between entire teams. And of course, if you've worked in big corporations, big organizations, especially, you would see all between supervisors, leaders, and team managers that they might manage or lead. And, of course, that's also common. And when there are so many people together, there are so many different agendas going on, potentially, there's going to be conflict. So it's how do you manage this, and then prosper through it, and, you know, create new possibilities. So waiting for the company to resolve the load without doing anything is not the most effective way to deal with it. In fact, conflict tends to escalate if not handled properly. And unresolved conflicts often result in lost productivity, stifling creativity, creating barriers to cooperation, collaboration among employees, and even eventually, with clients, especially if it starts to sort of spill over. And the importance of dealing with this is essential because you're going to look at conflict, like arguments, fights, all sorts of, I suppose, disagreements as a bit like, if you don't deal with it, it's like you're putting a dead body into a cupboard. You think the problem will disappear, but I can tell you this? It won't because the dead body eventually will start to smell. And before you know it, basically, people will start to notice that something's, you know, an underlying odour. You use that term from a visual perspective; that is not going away and potentially getting worse. You cannot avoid it. So courageous action is what's required, and This is part of some of the things I'm gonna be sharing with you in a few moments. So good thing work in conflict resolution skills equate to good employee retention, right? Leaders who did not know how to deal with conflicts end up seeing the good times go in search of a healthier and safer work environment. And in the current environment worldwide, this is happening. And this is happening big time in organizations right across the board. And basically, the big question is, how do you deal with these conflicts in the company? Right? And the answer to this question is, I've separated sort of six insights to help you today. And the first one would be to define what kind of behaviour is acceptable in the workplace. In this case, we'd call this the rules of the game; what are the rules of the game? What are some things that are a yes, and some things that just forget it? So accepting particular behaviours, depending, you know, the environment, the culture you've set up, is an essential component here to give people a sense of what are some of the things you must do, and I don't like using words like muscle and sound, but the reality is some things you just got to do. And some things are acceptable; if you're unable to, you got to be very clear. And from a leadership point of view, you've got to be very succinct about that. Now, in my experience, right now, a lot of cultures in the corporate world, especially at the airy fairy, from the point of view that the rules are not so clear cut and not so clear unless, of course, it's to protect legally, or the reputation in the organization, from, you know, a macro perspective, reputational damage, and so on. That's a different story; I'm talking about more from the point of view of everyday dealings between team members. So there's not a lot of times, it's more general, you know, general, and I think HR plays a big part here because, in my opinion, in recent times, they've really, really gone to sleep about understanding this from the point of view of being very proactive and empowering, where, you know, they've created at times what I've seen in corporate cultures, a lot of victims blaming, and victim acceptance, and also at the same time with the promotion. So I don't see that as a positive. And I've seen a lot of negativity from that and a lot of hurt on all sides. So my second insight, of course, is not to run away from the conflict. And I mentioned that earlier, you know, you cannot avoid conflict; it will be there. And we live in right now in a conflicted world. And, of course, let's assume you're also doing work with digital, and you're on social media, and so on. I mean, for instance, Twitter is full of conflict as an example. So you cannot avoid it; the way to avoid it is basically to disappear. And that's not probably the smartest strategy. So it's about becoming really smart about this. Now, some things are out of your control, I get that, especially in the online world, but it could be taken back into the workplace. Of course, it's just to deal with that. And how do you deal with that? Well, first of all, you got to be courageous. As I've noticed previously in some of the other episodes with this, courage comes from, certainly, your confidence, okay, courage basically builds your confidence. And, of course, it's all underpinned by integrity. So if that's missing, you, no courage is missing. And of course, then you run away from problems, if that's the issue, you can always correct this, it's a matter of, again, as I've noted, again, in numerous episodes, about facing the mirror, and just looking at this from a deeper and more self-reflective perspective, because it's, you know, in conflict, there's always it takes minimum two parties, as also noted, there's probably, you know, a third party that's known as you know, the hidden hand. So it's not just, you know, them, that's the problem, if you're in a conflict, you're also part of that problem. So it's about looking at it at the whole conflict holistically. The third insight is, don't look for one person to blame. So look for the cause. But definitely also the symptoms. Because if you don't look for the symptoms, what will happen is it will only happen again down the track, so you could actually get compromised on that particular conflict. But at the same time, it will only come up down the track if you do not get a resolution. So, of course, deal with a cause that definitely, at some times, you do need to put a bandaid before you start the operation. But at the same time, just remember that it will only be very superficial and long-term I can guarantee you will come up unless, of course, the person leaves that workplace to go somewhere else. But if those, let's say you know, the conflict is also part of the person staying in the organization. It's just gonna happen again, in, you know, with different people and different circumstances It's so it's, it's essential to look at the symptoms. Now, I will suggest that many organizations don't look at the symptoms; they just look at the cause. Why? Because we live in a culture where, you know, it's basically superficial and also, at the same time, it's like living for today, as opposed to looking at this deeper and getting down to what, what's the issue here? Right? Okay. So basically, you're going to look at the cause. And the cause, of course, is what actually started this particular conflict. And, of course, the symptoms, or any variations, are only an expression of what the causes are. So you're gonna look at this a little bit deeper. And that's what I mean by holistically. The fourth insight is also to experience conflict in the workplace or even your personal life as an opportunity for growth. And what I mean by that, whatever time you've been in a conflict, and you've taken her on board to take responsibility to deal with this conflict and get a resolution, overall, long term, right, that's what you need to do. You become much stronger in that process if you don't want it to come back. And that's where courage comes in, as I've noted earlier, okay. So it's taking that opportunity for growth looking at, okay, are we going to prom right now how are we going to deal with this particular conflict? All right. So you work out your plan. And through that, obviously, through that whole process, the endgame for that will be for you that you will definitely have greater personal growth. And this is essential because personal growth, as we've noted previously, is part of a lifelong self-education journey. Okay? And this is it, you know, you're not going to learn this stuff at school, okay? It doesn't matter how many more degrees you do. The reality is this is lived experience. So the more you practices in the real world, in, you know, in the workplace, and that's definitely the real world, you're going to pick up a lot of insights, okay, that you're not going to learn anywhere else, it's great to read in the book, but you're going to put this into practice. And the testing side leads me to create space for dialogue. Remember, you know, it takes two to tango, right? And in this case, there might be the hidden third hand again. So from that point of view, it's allowing both sides to have their own story about what happened. Yeah. So if it's you, or if it's somebody else, a colleague that you want to support or partner, etcetera, it's about getting really clear on all, basically, the issues regarding this particular conflict. And it's essential to do that. Otherwise, your own cognitive biases and belief systems that are, at times, biased because that's what we are, as human beings, will get in the way. And instead of getting this conflict to a resolution, you can potentially make it a lot worse. And that's the last thing we want to do. And I've seen so many cases like that happen. And, of course, that's why I mentioned the third hand because, at times, you might not be able to understand why we aren't getting this deal done. Conflict solved? Why because there might be a third hand, and this is essential now in the corporate world, and everywhere with his groups, okay, especially large group, you're gonna get politics. So do not take lightly what I've just said about the third hand; there's always something going on that at times, you might not be actually seeing. But that's where your own awareness will come in your intuition and your critical thinking skills that would say, okay, something's not exactly right. You know, that's why I'm going back to the course. And this is why it's essential. It can't be lazy about this. And I suppose you can be lazy, but anything that we're talking about is your life. And my last insight is to know how to listen, which basically means not listening from the point of view of already having the answer, but listening, listening to really get what the other person's on about. And genuinely, you might get the elements, their emotion, that specific would come through that. It's about zoning out and really taking on board what's been said, okay, because it's not about just hearing it, it's about really getting it, okay, and of course, at the same time having empathy and you know, being impartial especially, especially if you're going to be there as part of a solution and not to get caught up with either story. So in my own experience, there have been many times. Of course, there's been conflict. And, of course, as professional coaches, we have helped resolve conflict and the consequences that basically led to this particular conflict with two clients that I was called into to actually mediate, okay for a resolution. And the story goes like this: I'm not going to go too deep because I couldn't break privacy here. But the story was very simple. And this is not, you know, it wasn't an easy mediation. But virtually, it was two big organizations, very big organizations. One was the government, and the other one was non-government. And specifically, one was very left-wing in politics. The other one was very right-wing in politics. So we've got a dichotomy we've got, you know, like one certainty on one side, that one's black, the other ones, white ones, you know, it's like opposites, right? So the story here was to bring them together. And, of course, through research and conversations, my insights got into the disguise basically had a lot of common buys used it. Okay, they actually believed in a lot of similar things. And what happened was that some of the politics going on and the toxicity of other stuff was actually stopping these guys from connecting. So it was very transactional. So I brought back at this moment in this negotiation, or relational element, now, you can only do that, okay? Good luck if you're dealing with a psychopath; it's not going to work. Okay. Because, whatever they'll say to your face, I'll probably do the opposite the moment they walk out the door. So it's about, you know, getting some common ground. And the common ground here was personal values, including family, okay, including a family that really, it's like, what's that got to do with it in the workplace? Well, guess what? It had a lot to do. And specifically, we built that relationship. We did quite a few sessions in meetings and just went over some of the stuff that was a few arguments along the way. But hey, that's expected. And in the end, we're going to resolve now the results, of course, were fairly extraordinary. And of course, it was also noted in some of the media that, you know, how did this actually happen, because they were fighting so much previously. So that was like, you can create miracles out there if you're coming from the right space. And that was the intention of this particular mediation. So we got a resolution, which created many good possibilities for the two organizations involved in government and non-government. And, of course, they move forward to the next episode. And then the next creation, the same thing. Also, that particular story can be used. From a personal perspective, it can be with partners, friends, colleagues, clients, etc. So it's up to you, it's, you know, it's who are you going to be? Basically, when you get into this conflict, you're going to make that decision. And I'm not talking about playing the tough guy here. And all of that stuff. Its tough guy type of stuff is really not what we're talking about here. And that stuff really works. So I suppose we've come to the completion for today. I want to basically thank you and trust that this episode was useful for you. I can't ask you to rate the show on Apple podcasts. And once you do, please send us an email confirmation. And we'll send you a book. The real world guides authentic personal branding. You can find me on social media. My Twitter is Jon_Michail, my LinkedIn is Jon Michail, and you can find me as Image Group International on Facebook.  I want to thank you all, and I look forward to seeing you next time. Cheers.

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Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass" Podcast is sponsored by Image Group International, a global team of practical, digitally savvy personal brand and image strategists based in Australia, committed to maximizing your impact, influence and authority in the business world. To learn more and apply for your personal coaching, seminars and group workshops, please visit imagegroup.com.au or call 1800 631 311.