Years ago, a pastor and his elders were locked in conflict. Early on, the pastor shared a vision with the elders that they needed to become more evangelistic and community minded. The leaders, knowing their church was dying, embraced his vision and hired this pastor to move them forward. Sometime later, however, these longstanding leaders began grumbling about the changes […]

This week we’re discussing causes of conflict in today’s workplace. One of those causes is obstinance. There are some people who love to cause trouble. If you say yes, they say no. As a junior loan officer, my job required me to present loan proposals to the bank’s loan committee. One of the members of the committee prided himself on […]

This week we’re discussing some of the causes of conflict in today’s workplace. One of those causes is hatred. Years ago, at a Graduate School of Banking event, a comedian asked everyone to stand. He then asked us to look to the person to our right. He then asked everyone to look to the person to their left. Then he […]

This week we’re discussing some of the causes of conflict in today’s workplace. One of those causes is deceit. While working as a lender at a large bank part of my job was to recruit new bank customers. On one occasion, after years of hard work, I finally landed an account from a high-profile company. A superior of mine, however, […]

This week we’re discussing some of the causes of conflict in today’s workplace. One of those causes is greed. Years ago, I helped a contractor establish a bonus plan for their branch locations. The bonus plan worked fine and everyone played by the rules except for one manager. He became greedy and manipulated the numbers to increase his part of […]

Since the level of conflict in our culture seems to be rising, this week I want to share some of the primary causes of conflict in the workplace. Anger is the first one. Some people are situationally angry, others are more persistently angry. Years ago, I worked with a persistently angry person. Many days this person could be pleasant, but […]

Two researchers from Harvard Business school reported in the Wall Street Journal about a study they completed on “happiness.” According to Grant Donnelly and Michael Norton, their study focused specifically on wealth and happiness in millionaires. They surveyed over 4,000 millionaires to determine if increased wealth brings happiness and if their happiness was impacted by whether the wealth was earned […]

Steve and I were recently discussing the level of anger that seems to be growing in our country. He made a great analogy. If the boiling point is 212 degrees, he believes many people are currently walking around at about 190 degrees. If a negative event happens, suddenly that person may boil over. Their anger can cause a chain reaction […]

Recently, my wife and I visited the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington D.C. On the north wall of the memorial, Dr. King was quoted as saying, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of convenience and comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Unfortunately, our nation has been […]

As a Polish Jew, Sonia Warshawski survived six years of beatings and murders in the Auschwitz death camp, even though most of her family didn’t. The day the British liberated the camp a Nazi soldier shot Sonia, yet, she survived. For the last 30 years Sonia has flourished as a tailor in a dying shopping mall. While all the other […]