Corporate Psychology Services
Do You Have People Problems in The Workplace?
As a manager, challenges with staff can often be the most difficult part of the job. There may be political issues to deal with, bullying, mental health issues, relationship problems; all of which impact the ability of your organisation to perform on time and on budget. Sometimes, there are special kinds of problems that you may feel out of your depth dealing with, especially if you haven't received specialised psychological training.
Difficult emotions, when they manifest in the workplace, can seem quite complex and often it's beneficial to receive help from a professional who is familair with assessing and resolving emotional issues. Henshaw Consulting offers Corporate Psychology Services to tackle difficult emotional problems head-on, leaving you free to focus on what you’re best at – getting the important work done.
Is this your personal "too-hard-basket"?
Q: Do you experience the following issues at work?
Conflict of Motivation
The vision and values of your organisation may seem clear, yet employees can sometimes pull in different directions, draining valuable company resources. The end result is expensive in terms of lost productivity, staff turnover, absenteeism and low morale. Employees occasionally also have subversive agendas they are motivated to see to fruition. Examples are: to gain power and ascendency within an organisation, to bring down an enemy, to use the organisation’s resources for personal gain or to maintain security of employment at all costs.
These agendas can be motivated by an employee’s perceived personal survival, so they may take precedence over “getting the job done”. Instead, “appearing to get the job done” seems to become more important, which in turn can beget an atmosphere of defensiveness, mistrust and secrecy.
Safety Issues
Companies are required by law to meet exacting safety standards, especially stringent in the resources industry. A great deal of training and education is given to staff to ensure compliance with safety regulations. Yet in spite of it all, safety compliance can sometimes remains an issue – why is that? Employees may not need more education; they probably already know the facts. However if their primary motivation is at odds with their motivation to comply with safety regulations, non-adherence can result.
For example, a mining company might educate staff and contractors in correct safety procedures. There may be a comprehensive reporting system in place that requires staff to report hazards in the workplace. Yet if a contracting company has won a lucrative and competitive mining company tender to provide services onsite, its primary motivation may be to ensure its own economic survival in favour of its rivals.
Let’s say the contractor company has won the tender on the basis of competitive pricing and minimum disruption to the mining company. Then employees may be unwittingly forced to choose between reporting multiple safety hazards (thus adhering to the mining company’s standards) or not reporting them (thus adhering to the contractor’s promise of minimum “hassle” to the mining company). Employees who are seen as “a nuisance” risk losing their jobs, so they may choose the path of least resistance (non-reporting of hazards) in order to maintain their employment.
The motivation of employees is not always obvious and it can be very helpful to conduct a thorough assessment to identify the deeper, underlying motivations of individuals who disrupt productivity and work flow. Once the results are in, an intervention can be taylored to suit your needs with the aim of reconciling individual and corporate motivation, thus offering hope about a possible way to move forward.
Mental Health Issues at Work
The poor mental health status of just one employee alone can cause ripple effects that disrupt the functioning of the team as a whole. Each mental health issue has specific, recognisable features, requiring specialist intervention. If you notice the presence of any of the indicators mentioned below, it may be time to consider professional help:
Personality Disorders
Some personality disorders include symptoms of a poor sense of identity, difficulties regulating emotions and an overwhelming sense of inner emptiness. As an attempt to defend against these overwhelming feelings, the afflicted persons may act out their inner dramas externally in the workplace. For example, a defensive strategy that disrupts team functioning is called “team splitting”. This is where one group of employees are unknowingly pitted against another group of employees in an elaborate manipulation designed to distract the personality-disordered person from experiencing his or her inner emotional chaos. It serves to shore up the person’s popularity, self esteem or power in the workplace.
Examples of common personality disorders are Borderline Personality Disorder (manifested as interpersonal dramas, manipulations, crises and chaos), Narcissistic Personality Disorder (manifested as bullying, deceptions, impossible standards and sense of entitlement, but also often high performance) and Antisocial Personality Disorder (manifested as aggressiveness, legal infringements, unpredictability and impulsivity).
Depression
Someone with depression in the workplace may be lacking in energy, motivation and optimism. There may be unexplained absences or poor performance, distractibility and difficulty concentrating. Depression can be onset by relationship breakdown, addiction or other significant personal losses. Depression, though readily treatable, is common and likely to affect a number of employees at some time or another. It can be draining to be around a depressed person and the feeling of pessimism can have a dampening impact on fellow employees.
Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder (PTSD)
Someone suffering from PTSD can be anxious, hypervigilant and mistrusting. Because the world around them seems so unsafe, a person with PTSD may be easily triggered by seemingly innocuous events and express intense emotion that might cause alarm to fellow employees. A normally ordered workplace can become chaotic and relationships can break down when a key player displays difficult behaviours. It may feel like walking on eggshells around the person. Although there are effective treatments for PTSD, it can be difficult for work colleagues to understand what’s going on and offer the right kind of support.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Someone with OCD is often quite anxious and driven by obsessive attention to detail at the expense of the bigger picture. This is sometimes known as "perfectionism" and although it has its advantages, it also has disadvantages. Priorities can become skewed as details are focused on and the bigger picture may get overlooked.
Dealing with a person suffering from OCD can feel like you’re in an unreal world and as if nothing you ever do is good enough. It seems as if the person is not paying attention or listening to what you’re really saying. At the same time, the person’s underlying motivation can be difficult to work out; chances are even the person him or herself may be unaware of it.
Targeting Motivation and Mental Health:
A warm and personal approach works well in addressing issues of motivation and mental health and this is what Henshaw Consulting offers. Through targeted interviewing and assessment, I aim to uncover what the issues are that disrupt work flow for employees. Sometimes, as a result of a thorough assessment process, new and valuable information can come to light that influences a more effective choice of intervention. Working with strong emotions is a specialty at Henshaw Consulting and there are many effective ways of addressing them and moving towards achieving balance and resolution.
At the end of the assessment process, I will provide you with a report outlining the findings and recommendations for intervention. Qualitative and quantitative research methods are used as well as standardised, psychometric testing. This can take place over a day or two and gives you a number of options about how to intervene, depending on your budgetary and time constraints. Following the intervention, a final report sums up the results and recommends a maintenance plan.
Call Henshaw Consulting on: (08) 9322 1123 to organise a confidential discussion about how we might address your issues. I am happy to help relieve your burden by tackling the emotional problems you'd rather not deal with while you get on with the important work of achieving your company's objectives.
