Professional Development Courses

What is a Remote Mediation and How Do You Make It Work? Remote mediation is a type of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that allows people to resolve their disputes without having to be in the same physical location. Remote mediation is a growing trend in the legal and business world for many reasons.      • It provides access to justice for people who would not otherwise have it,      • it saves time and money, and      • it can be done from any location that has internet access. Remote mediation is becoming more popular because of the increasing number of cases that are being filed from different parts of the world and multinational companies that have different branches in different regions. Why You Should Consider Remote Mediations for Your Business? It can be challenging to find the time and opportunity to sit down face-to-face with someone and work through a conflict. Remote mediation offers a solution for this problem.  In ess...

We meet all kinds of people in the workplace. Some of these people can be good to chat with, and others can be seen as mentors that can help you grow in your position.  Then there are some people you try to steer clear of as much as possible because you find them challenging to meaningfully interact with.  According to a study , difficult co-workers can compel an employee to leave an organization.  This article will give you some tips on dealing with difficult people, how learning this ability can help you in your personal life and how you can learn this skill. Benefits Of Learning How To Deal With Difficult People Learning how to handle difficult situations and people is a life skill. There are also a number of benefits for learning how to deal with difficult people that you should consider. Some of these benefits are:      • Better managing the fears that lead you to avoid conversations     • Interact more effectively with the individual   ...

 Negotiation is the art of dialogue that nearly every professional needs to survive in competitive industry in this day and age. Perfecting your negotiation techniques is key to making business deals work to your advantage.  Negotiation comes into play in a variety of situations, such as asking for a raise, negotiating job offers, working on budget increases, buying or selling a property, or even figuring out vacation coverage at work. It takes a variety of skills to be able to come out ahead at the bargaining table.   If you do not arm yourself with strong negotiation techniques, you will lack the confidence and the ability to strike a favorable deal. If you love getting the better end of the bargain, here are the negotiation techniques you must learn as a professional.      1. Planning  Never proceed to the bargaining table until you have planned what you’d like to address. Planning is crucial to being successful in a negotiation because it give...

A workplace is a group of diverse people, each coming from their own unique background, having different mindsets, values, and beliefs. In any context where you have such a diverse group, there is bound to be constant friction and conflict in a number of different areas.  Hence, it is not uncommon for a workplace to have a range of difficult people to deal with . There is almost always a conflict brewing somewhere, and there are many possible causes.  It may be caused by inequality in a department, disrespect from a co-worker, or a simple misunderstanding that ends up taking on a life of its own. As we know, the real world is not some utopia where everyone always lives in a land of pure kindness.  Alas, ours is not a perfect world and we have to make efforts along the way  to better navigate our world. A great start on the path is using robust strategies to deal with difficult people in the workplace. Although frustrating and draining, recognizing destructive and unb...

Businesses thrive based on the collaborative efforts of various teams and departments with different projects, management styles, and other factors. Inevitably, even the best teams disagree from time to time. Regardless of whether your team is present in person or working remotely, conflicts can arise. This is where dispute management techniques can help your organization to save time and money that is spent when conflicts are not effectively managed.  There is no doubt that conflicts cost organizations hunderds of millions of dollars per year. Picincu estimates that conflicts cost American companies more than $300 billion per year.1  These cost take on a variety of forms from diminished work performance and low employee morale to loss of revenue and the negative impact conflict has on employees’ mental health.  What Is Dispute Resolution? Whenever a conflict arises in a business of any sort, dispute resolution is used to help address it. The term dispute resolution refer...

 We all negotiate every day. You may be negotiating with a child about bedtime, or a boss about a raise. You may be trying to get a colleague to come around to your point of view on a project, or you may be convincing a friend what type of food to order for dinner. One underappreciated area where negotiation skills can be of great benefit is career advancement. Negotiation boils down to persuading others to see things from your point of view. If you want to advance your career, you are going to need to persuade others that you deserve the advancement. To persuade others that you should be advancing, you are going to want to learn negotiation skills . Advancing in your company If you want to advance in your company you likely have an idea in mind about what that will look like. You have thought about what skills and competencies you will need to achieve that goal. Your focus needs to now shift to persuading others that you are worthy of that advancement. One fundamental concept of n...

People often talk about how important it is to keep your goals in mind in order to achieve them. This can come up in many settings; difficult conversations, mediations, negotiations, etc. It’s not as common for people to come up with ideas how to keep those goals in mind. 1. Write your goals down In advance of a meeting or conversation, it can be helpful to take the time to write down the goals that you have for that meeting or conversation. Just taking the time to think about the goals and writing them down in advance can go a long way towards helping you fully realize and understand what your goals are. You also have the added benefit of having those goals written down in front of you, which helps you to keep those goals in mind while having a difficult conversation . You can even use your goals as a checklist that you can tick things off of as the conversation goes. 2. Remember to breath before you talk Often in life we feel a need to respond quickly when someone says something that...