Blog

Fall highlights nature at its finest, reminding us that even in transition there is beauty and restoration. For our audience of families, small businesses, and workplaces alike, change never stops—what matters most is having the right support systems and sound people practices in place to weather the seasons well.  When people find calm after a fall, it ripples outward—lifting families, improving teamwork, and bringing balance back to everyday life. That’s my business: helping people, teams, and families thrive! 

The best way to approach someone who is difficult to work with starts with listening—and listening some more. Some people simply have high conflict personalities but for most of us conflict is about a need not being met. Questions will always be your secret weapon! When you lead with a question, it lowers the defense response and invites context for perspective and background you may not have initially considered.

The pace of change in workplaces hasn’t slowed one bit. Conflict situations remain just as common—sometimes even more intense—than before. It allows us to address challenges before they spiral, preserve important relationships, and create solutions everyone can live with. Read about five of our go‑to tips for responding during conflict. 

 Building conflict capacity—is knowing how to recognize, respond to, and recover from conflict—creates space for growth and healthy conflict management. Sometimes people not only need solutions, they also need empathy and someone with specialized skills. If your family or team dynamics are tense, conversations are strained, or you just need a neutral presence to help move things forward—why wait for a full-blown crisis to get support from a Mediator. Early is key!

 Three of the most important areas where businesses make mistakes when managing people are onboarding and development, addressing conflict early, and employee recognition. If organizations focus on getting these three things right, it will create a greater employee experience and workplace where people don’t just show up—they thrive!

 Leading people is one of the most rewarding yet challenging aspects of any business. Conflict, stress, and underperformance in a work environment can bring out things like frustration, avoidance, or even resistance to change. One of the hardest things in a workplace setting is managing poor performers. However, doing nothing is NOT an option! Leaders must address performance concerns with clarity, fairness, and a commitment to improvement.

Thanksgiving often doubling as the unofficial family reunion—where it is guaranteed to bring those we love under one roof, in one group chat, sharing a meal, evoking feelings of nostalgia and unforgettable memories, and even the expected little dose of chaos. For many tradition and togetherness mean the stress from travels, past held grudges, hurt feelings from sensitive topics like politics such as the recent election. Couple it all together and we have a recipe for family conflict simmering alongside the fried turkey. 

The phrase “Give ’em the Pickle” was born and became synonymous with providing excellent customer service by doing whatever it takes to keep customers happy, even if it means going beyond standard procedures. No the customer is not always right, the employee is not always right, but what can you do as the business owner and organization to make it right? This can equally be applied to being a leader. What as a leader can you do to make difficult workplace situation feel right?

Yes, you need a company dress code policy; and your dress code would be smart if used as a way to attract and retain the best and the brightest. Less formal work environments are becoming more and more the acceptable norm. Better Teams. Better Relationships. Better Performance. means putting more emphasis on how work gets done than how employees look getting it done.

June isn’t all about barbecues and fireworks. It’s also known as the Effective Communication Month. In this month’s issue, we pause to reflect on three meaningful themes that resonate deeply with our values at BMS: Juneteenth, Military Appreciation, and Effective Communication. Communication is the secret sauce to relationship building for strong teams, happy workplaces, and even smoother backyard barbecues.

Although the calendar no longer reads May spring is still in and beach weather has arrived with sunshine, vacations, and longer days – summer brings much anticipation as we bid farewell to the cooler days of spring with another edition of our newsletter blog shifting the focus to mental health as May being Mental Health Awareness Month.

Through our Mediation work, its apparent that proactively navigating some of the HR challenges much earlier could effectively help workplaces prevent conflicts within an organization. From there, our HR Small Business Bootcamp was born and the positive feedback for this invaluable learning experience encourages us to continue to provide these resources. 

Effective communication is the foundation for all relationships — business and personal. When we as individuals in positions of influence whether as leaders in the family, leaders in the business, and leaders in the workplace use words carelessly or even harmfully, it comes at a significant cost. Leaders should only speak words that build up, affirm, and guide toward a better outcome.

As bosses, leaders, corporate executives, small business owners, non-profit managers, people managers what are you doing meaningfully for those who work with you? Too often our focus is consumed on the client and the customer forgetting about the managers in our organizations and frontline employees.

What an unbelievable year! Interestingly enough, as we wrap up the year I can’t say I am happy to see it go. This past year has been one of the most incredibly difficult years I have ever experienced, yet I am eternally grateful for where we are.

Thanksgiving is notorious for football, food, and family feuds. Be it the mother-in-law who fails to acknowledge Thanksgiving at your home means you are the host and insisting on waiting for your sister-in-law to arrive to cook all of the main dishes is unsolicited and problematic…no matter the scenario Thanksgiving is always ripe for conflict.

Cancer has touched all of us in some way. We can beat cancer with education and information. The key is prevention and the key to prevention is awareness. Early detection is the best chance of successfully treating cancer and reducing one’s risk has even greater likelihood of preventing one from ever being diagnosed.

I must dedicate this month’s issue to everyone who was able to join and participate in our ADR Community Resource Fair – Blue By You – Conversations with an Officer!

Can you believe the first month of 2022 is now almost a memory? February is upon us. As I take the last day of this month to reflect away from the hustle and bustle of the business…

Wheeeww! Its been a doozy. Although 2021 was an unprecedented and challenging year, personally and professionally I have so much to be thankful for.

November is now behind us. We made it through Thanksgiving; some of us, at least, I hope. So I don’t mean to start a rumble amongst family here but its the holiday season and I have…

Okay, Okay, Okay! Maybe not a goblin but I have certainly been a ghost the past several months. I know! What was supposed to be a mental health break…

WHAT A YEAR! I think we can agree we were all taken to task in 2020 emotionally, mentally, psychologically, physically, and spiritually. However, I don’t want to talk about 2020 anymore…

It twas the night before Christmas…the year of COVID! In just a few days the year 2020 is ending and I still can’t believe the year is finally coming to a close. Usually around this time…

WHAT A YEAR! I think we can agree we were all taken to task in 2020 emotionally, mentally, psychologically, physically, and spiritually. However, I don’t want to talk about 2020 anymore…

Greetings and Happy Halloween! I no longer observe the day but recognize it is a time honored tradition. The significance of this particular day today is a challenge to only think about…

Tomorrow marks the last day of the midterm of 2020 which means we’ve made it halfway through the year and summer is officially upon us. With it, has been a tsunami of emotions…

Memorial Weekend. Usually around this time the Thursday or Friday leading into the holiday weekend I and my family from as far west as Arizona and as far east as Virginia would…

GREETINGS! Family, friends, and colleagues. I hope this edition of our newsletter finds each of you safe well and practicing good health essentials.

Welcome to Mediation: The Unknown Option! I am excited to share with you in this kickoff issue some unbelievable things we were blessed to be able to accomplish this past year.