Conflict Management Skills for Women
SkillPath Seminars

Delivery Method

Seminar

Target Audience
Women professionals in the workplace

Summary
In this seminar, you’ll learn how to handle every difficult situation with poise and confidence.

Description/Agenda

You’ll learn …

• How to stick to your guns and not back down on important issues
• How to not allow unresolved anger and resentment to damage an important relationship
• Ways to banish anger and frustration when dealing with difficult people
• How to stop people from taking advantage of you
• And much more

In this seminar, you’ll learn how to handle every difficult situation with poise and confidence. Discover how to keep unmanaged conflicts, disagreements and out-of-control emotions from harming your important working and personal relationships.

Program hours: 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Conflict management strategies that work

• Not all disagreements have to end in arguments—you’ll learn proven strategies for constructive resolutions
• How to respond to someone who gives you “compliments” that sound more like insults
• The 6-step approach to win-win conflict resolution
• How to separate the 2 sides of every conflict—people and issues—and deal with each effectively
• Putting yourself in their shoes—how empathic listening helps you see both sides of the disagreement
• Practicing everyday conflict resolution skills
• 8 critical mistakes successful conflict managers never make
• Overcoming your personal stumbling blocks to agreement
• How to turn the points of disagreement into a framework for resolution
• How your personality affects the way you deal with conflict
• Choosing a conflict management style that fits the situation
• Conflict as a positive motivator: 7 benefits of a well-managed crisis
• Dealing with the 4 most common sources of conflict that lead to disagreements

Getting a grip on your own anger and emotions

• Accepting responsibility for your anger: You become angry, no one makes you angry
• How to understand what’s really bugging you
• Chronic anger—recognizing the physical symptoms that warn when enough is enough
• How the appropriate expression of anger is a necessary step to resolving conflict
• Expressing yourself without accusation, sarcasm or hostility
• Graceful “exit lines” that allow you to postpone a confrontation until your emotions are under control
• 7 steps you can take to experience your feelings without acting them out
• Assertiveness, the anger antidote: How to ask for what you need—and get it
• How to stop playing old “hurt tapes” in your mind and substitute positive esteem-building images
• How to avoid tears when you’re really angry—and what to do if you can’t
• Safe ways to blow off steam without venting it on people
• “What’s this really about?” How to get to the root of a problem instead of just battling the symptoms
• Recognizing how anger acts as a defense against feelings you don’t want to feel

How to respond to others’ anger

• How to validate someone’s anger without fanning the flames
• One sure-fire way to let the situation cool down before trying to resolve it
• Avoiding words that act as “emotional triggers” when you’re dealing with someone who’s upset
• How to respond to a put-down without losing your temper
• How to quickly de-escalate an emotional confrontation with a boss or co-worker
• When confronting an angry person head-on may spell disaster
• How honesty and understanding will help you keep your cool when dealing with an out-of-control person
• Effective strategies for defusing an escalating argument
• How to make sure you’re not “asking for” the very behavior from others you find hard to handle

Conflict communication skills

• How to overcome the feeling that negative feedback is a personal attack
• When negative feedback is justified: How to acknowledge your mistake without overapologizing
• The real differences between how men and women handle feedback and what we can learn from each other
• Idiolects, dialects, registers and genderlects: The surprising differences—and similarities—between how men and women communicate
• How to turn negative self-talk into positive affirmations
• How to recognize the difference between valid feedback and a personal put-down
• The common false assumptions about the differences between male and female communication styles
• How to avoid the 8 most common pitfalls to giving negative feedback
• A 4-step approach to delivering feedback that’s specific, nonaccusatory and gets results
• Dismissing the belief that “criticism” and “disapproval” are synonymous
• How to address a chronic disagreement and arrive at a mutually acceptable action plan for resolution
• When positive strokes may be more effective than negative feedback in changing an undesirable behavior
• How you can reduce day-to-day hassles by establishing positive relationships with chronically difficult people

How to take care of yourself

• Weaving family, friends and co-workers into an emotional support system
• Relaxation skills you can master to control stress and relieve tension
• How to handle rejection and still feel good about yourself
• Setting your limits—how to say “No” without generating anger or guilt
• What to do when your body says “fight or flight” but neither is called for
• Getting rid of your fantasies of retribution that can do you more harm than the person you’re mad at

All Date/Location Information