Marti Kitchens Cobb, M.A., LMFT – Above and Beyond Conflict
by Richard Stokes
To quote from one of my favorite English TV programs, The Office: “The people you work with are people you were just thrown together with. You don’t really know them, it wasn’t your choice, and yet you spend more time with them than you do your friends or family. But probably all you’ve got in common is the fact that you walk around on the same bit of carpet for 8 hours.”
The reason I share that is because at one point or another we’ve all had to deal with or put up with a challenging co-worker and as the quote says, it’s not really by choice, it’s because that’s who you have ended up working with.
For our August meeting, we’re going to be hearing from Marti Kitchens Cobb, M.A., LMFT, with Above and Beyond Conflict. She is going to be talking to us about conflict resolution in the workplace with people who have difficult personalities. Marti has been practicing in her field as a mediator since 1984 and she tells me that the presentation we’ll be hearing is the most fascinating and most requested of any topic she speaks on.
Some of the things that she is going to be touching on and you can expect to leave with a better understanding of are:
- What are the most difficult personality types?
- What behavior is typical for them and what to expect from them?
- Understanding why their logic is illogical
- Techniques on how to better handle these types of personalities
Marti says that the reason why this topic is so important right now is that 15-19% of the general population has a personality disorder. That’s just about 1 in every 5 people. And, if you are hiring out of the general population you will not be able to avoid employees with serious problems.
The key thing that Marti would like us all to leave with is that once you have identified who your difficult employees are; start to apply some of the techniques she will be teaching us and see how they work for you.
This is going to be a very interesting presentation so come prepared to listen, interact and ask questions during the meeting. If you want to look up some additional information on your own here are 3 other resources she suggests:
- It’s all Your Fault by Bill Eddy, LCSW, JD
- Games People Play by Eric Berne
- Do a Google search for ‘conflict resolution.’ There is a plethora of information on the subject but you will have to sort out that which applies to your situation.
- Invite your colleagues, co-workers, friends and peers to this month’s meeting and if you haven’t yet registered here’s the link: North Metro Medical Managers Association.
