Mediator Musings: Self Improvement

By: Sara Barnes

It’s been a whirlwind month and with all the pressing matters, both personal and professional, I haven’t found the quiet time I need to write. 

I’ve been collecting graphics about various self-improvement topics. Conflict resolution in all its forms involves people working toward making things better—often including the hard work toward self-improvement.  I hope these are helpful for you in your journey. 

Here they are, in no particular order:

  • Managing Stress—Less stress, less unresolved conflict. Stress can feed conflict.

  • Communicating effectively—We all need to get better at saying what we mean.

  • Self-confidence—With confidence, we can face conflicts and keep ourselves on track.

  • Time Management––Conflicts involve aspects of time. More time management = less conflict.

  • Being Resilient—Change is challenging; build your resilience muscles, reduce conflict.

  • Managing Your Brain—Our amazing human brain is our biggest asset to help resolve conflict.

  • Personal Control—Understanding what you do/don’t control helps with conflict analysis.

  • Body Language—A huge percentage of conflict is affected by body language choices.

  • Handling Your Biases—Biases = conflict, but there is much that can be done to help.

  • Improving Your Memory—Keeping track of details helps to avoid conflicts.

  • Overcoming Obstacles—Obstacles are not always conflicts if we reframe our thinking.

  • Building Trust—Conflict is more easily resolved when trust is built or rebuilt.

  • Being a Leader—We all have leadership capacity; positive leaders can prevent conflicts.

  • Emotional Intelligence—The more work in this area, the stronger the conflict resolver. 

  • Making a Difference—We all want to make helpful changes for the better.

  • Understanding other Generations—More work on biases; information helps.

  • Learning Organizations—Blame and shame can be replaced with learning and teamwork.

Read the full version of this Mediation Musings essay here.