Psychotherapist sheds light on reasons behind common behavioural issues in the workplace at CIPD Midlands Conference.
Karen Meager, a leading psychotherapist, founder and lead consultant at Monkey Puzzle Training got to the heart of most common behavioural issues experienced in the workplace, revealed the science behind it and provided strategies to help overcome these limiting behaviours at the CIPD Midlands conference which took place on Sunday 9th October 2016. During the event, organised by the eight CIPD branches in the midlands area, Karen highlighted some of main behavioural issues that organisations are facing and gave a fascinating insight into the brain activity that affects just how and why people act the way they do.
During her one workshop, Karen, who is an expert in business strategy and psychology revealed that interviews she had conducted with over sixty managers had identified three frequently occuring behaviourial problems in employees: arrogance, laziness and bullying. The UKCP registered psychotherapist and NLPtCA-recognised Supervisor then went on to explain that these ‘problem’ behaviours can be affected by a range of triggers, including fear of failure and issues with authority figures and that many have roots in early childhood experiences, when certain parts of the brain and its associated responses were forming.
“If someone’s behaving like a two year old, they are probably relying on strategies they learnt as a child. You need to first get them back into ‘adult mode’ before you can start to work with them,” explained Karen.
Karen who is also the co-author of ‘Real Leaders for the Real World’ (Panoma Press) and soon to be published ‘Time Mastery’ (Panoma Press) emphasised that conflict resolution and negotiation are essential as life skills and not just as an effective HR tool. She advised the audience to tackle behaviour issues at a behaviourial level and not make it personal. She also warned that if they are addressing behaviour effectively, it is probably going to get worse before it gets better.
Karen, concluded by summarising the ways in which leaders and managers can find solutions to the employees who display signs of laziness, arrogance or bullying. She encouraged organisations to take small but positive steps forward, rather than looking for a larger, quick fix approach. “Organisations are often taken in by the idea of big fancy change intervention, but in reality, these usually aren’t what make the difference. If you can tackle the issues that are affecting people’s behaviour at the root cause, it becomes much easier to make progress. Taking small steps in the right direction to help tackle behavioural issues in the workplace is essential to creating a stronger, happier and more productive workforce.”
