"Conflict Resolution" and the Workplace

Berenice De la Croix's presentation on "conflict resolution" was an extremely valuable lesson for me to understand how to deal with a conflict in inter-personal relationships and at the work-place. In fact, over the long weekend, I was involved in a serious conflict with some friends of mine. In fact, the issue that we argued about was actually a minor issue, but I guess that everybody was trying to push his agenda as always and convince the others that he was right.

Honestly speaking, when arguing I am not very keen on accepting other peoples' points and ideas and I can keep on arguing for quite a long time. However, Berenice De la Croix's presentation taught me that one of the ways to deal with a conflict is to compromise or accommodate your opponent.

I remember that she mentioned that being "assertive" means that you should be both tolerant to other peoples' opinions and at the same time express your vision on a particular issue in an opened and sincere manner. Therefore, "assertiveness" does not mean that one should be a "stubborn" and neglect automatically other peoples' opinions, but listen carefully and acknowledge whenever the other person could be right in his (her) own view. Personally, this was a valuable lesson that I learnt from Berenice De la Croix's presentation and I can see that it already helps largely in inter-personal relationships as much it helps at the workplace.

Thanks, Berenice!

The Cultural Gap and the "Bulgarian Stallion"

This post aims to throw reveal the controversy around the blog name "the Bulgarian Stallion". In fact, this name was chosen with no deliberate thoughts in mind and obviously I was not aware of some connotations attached to this name. The night before I was about to choose a blog name, I watched the movie "Rocky" with Silvester Stallown, quite an old movie about a famous boxer from Philadelphia. In the movie he was referred to as the "Italian Stallion", I do not know why.

I liked this name and when I had to create a name for my blog, I decided to refer it somehow to Bulgaria. And because it had to be my own blog, I decided to name the blog "the Bulgarian Stallion". Only later I found out that this blog name had some sexual connotations attached to it, not familiar to me. For that reason I would like to say at this point that the choice for this blog name had nothing to do with any of those meanings. Obviously, I have not been aware of this meaning from a cultural point of view.

However, now that I know what it refers to, I am glad that by accident this blog name brought some movement and discussion among people. And believe it or not, I will not change it as long as it makes people think and question themselves why there is such a blog name. As Roy Blumenthal suggested, we have to be original and unique in the way we represent ourselves. Thus, with regards to the blog name, let it be!

"The Team and I"

Brad’s session was an insightful introduction into the importance of teamwork at the work-place. In fact, Brad taught us that at any given time anybody in the team could be a team leader and respectively the roles could change as the agenda of the conversation changes. As a result, anybody could given the chance to contribute to the team’s effort and it helps bring about understanding and communication among the team members.
Above all, Brad’s presentation helped me realise that teamwork is essentially about tolerance, understanding and respect among the team members. Obviously, there could be a certain degree of competition even among the team members; however, a team functions well if the members are willing to advance the interests of their collective will rather than individually.
As Brad said, team members should think in terms of “WE” and in terms if “I”, as most people tend to think!

Stress Management-How to Fight Stress?

Shameen Naidu’s session on stress management was one of the most emotional experiences of this programme for me. Apart from revealing some general information about the causes of stress, stress management and the consequences of stress, she really took us through a stress-relieving practice that left all of us in a good shape after the session.
In fact, the same day I was extremely stressed about something and yet her hypnosis made me feel much better, forget my fears, problems and worries, and look at life from a much more positive perspective. I am looking forward to meeting her again and I will definitely make use of some of these self-relieving exercises in the future.

THE ENTREPRENEUR?

The entrepreneur?
Marius Venter’s session was a very relaxing introductory session into what entrepreneurship really means. By giving us various interesting exercises, he aimed to engage us into an activity that we perform as both entrepreneurs and businessmen. Honestly speaking, prior to his presentation I did not have a clue of what all these complex terms, such as “entrepreneurship,” mean and I was also not interested to know.
However, his presentation and various exercises revealed the number of skills and strategies that we should develop and employ when entering the world of work. In fact, his presentation revealed once again that the process of finding and securing a job is a matter of developing your skills and abilities in various directions. Eventually, you would find a job that does not only test your strengths and abilities in this specific sector or area of expertise, but a job that takes you through a life-training course!

My Friend or my Enemy? "THE CUSTOMER"

Who is in fact the customer? My friend or my enemy?

Aki Kaliatakis’ presentation was extremely insightful to me in terms of revealing new ways to look at the issue of customer care and customer service into the realm of the work-place. Indeed, he illustrated that professionalism into the work-place does not only revolve around being competent about your own product and advertising your service, but also about how you treat your customer. As far as I understood, the way you built up your communication with the customer is completely driven by your own inter-personal skills and attributes.
As much as you can follow your company’s procedures and guidelines in terms of customer service, yet your relationship with the customer should be a reflection of your true-self. And only then the communication and interaction would be real, as much as the smile on your face would reveal the joy and satisfaction you have gained from dealing with that specific customer.
Aki’s presentation was also impressive in terms of the approach he chose to deal and interact with us-his audience. Consciously or unconsciously, we (or maybe I) believed every word that he said. The jokes he made and the references to his own personal life revealed him as an honest and a very pleasant person to me. He really made this session an unforgettable experience for me!

Education and Work! Do they go together?

In today's post I would like to refer to my understanding of the gap between EDUCATION (ACADEMIA) and the WORKPLACE. I agree with some people that education is not necessarily useful and efficient if it has not been applied (anyhow) to the world of work in practical terms. Yet, I believe that all the skills that you have developed throughout your years of education could be found helpful into the world of work one day.

In this sense, I am referring back to a comment that I made earlier in one of my previous blogs. Not always people study a particular discipline, because they believe that they would find themselves solely performing a job in this particular field. Essentailly, EDUCATION has always been a tool for acquiring KNOWLEDGE and SKILLS, and people tend to speculate today that specific education should facilitate only one kind of job. In other words, if you studied B.Com, it necessarily means that you should ultimately end up into a career of accounting or finance.

No, I do not agree. As Roy Blumenthal mentioned before, as Andrew Hofmeyr indicated earlier this week and as Lisa Garson emphasised today, education is in fact a constant process of training, a process of rediscovering your skills and then applying them to the job market. In similar terms, Lesley Emanuel stated earlier that every day is a job-interview day.

In other words, education is in fact a constant process of traning and re-developing your skills, a process of building up your strenghts and abilities in various sectors. When the ancient Greek philosopher, Plato, wrote his dialogues, he made it clear that primarily the purpose of EDUCATION is to provide you with KNOWLEDGE about yourself and about your relationship to the world. He also mentioned that EDUCATION and WORK are not two separate entities, but they are rather inter-linked and you always employ what you have learned before to various practical tasks. Thus, when you are given a certain type of job, the skills that you have learned before will come across in one way or another.

In this sense, I believe that EDUCATION and the WORKPLACE are not separated form each other, they rather co-exist. And as we have discussed throughout our various sessions so far, one does need to look solely at the jobs available that suit his (her) degree and qualifications, but to look at the jobs that suit your strenghts and qualities. In this sense, Ijeoma picked it up very well throughout her blog, illustrating Andrew Hofmeyr' point:

"Expose your qualities, not your qualifications"!

For that reason, I draw particular attention to these few points. All of us, the participants in this program, should remember that all that we have learned so far will not be wasted and it will be useful for us in one way or another. And we should all try and apply those SKILLS and KNOWLEDGE to the world of work somehow. Ultimately, the job-searching process is a process of testing your strenghts and abilities and not necessarily a process of finding whatever suits your degree qualifications.