30 plus years working as a Chartered Accountant, then with families and businesses for the past 15 years as a mediator and working as a family business advisor, I’ve seen the same 3 issues arising time and time again. Deal with these 3 and you’ll find a lot of your conflicts disappear:

1. Don’t be too proud to ask for help.

In New Zealand we aren’t great at talking things out. I’ve noticed a real stigma around asking for help managing conversations. For some reason, people who are happy to pay a professional to help with home renovation won’t do the same when their personal or business relationships need improvements. To these people, be courageous and seek help.

Solution: By having that expert person in the room to keep the conversation focused, each person can be themselves without having to manage the conversation as well.

2. Deal with the issues arising in your relationships early.

If things aren’t going as smoothly as they once were in your business or family relationships, please acknowledge it. For example, people may not be as cooperative as they once were. Make sure that you take stock early, not later when conversations are more difficult or uncooperative behaviour has become an issue.

Solution: Nip things in the bud before tensions or frustrations boil over and become full blown conflicts.

3.Keep the faith and stay hopeful.

Even if an argument has erupted into anger or a person has crossed the line and done something out of frustration, things are not irretrievable. Remember that there is always hope that a relationship can be reconciled enough for progress to continue for the business or family.

As an accredited mediator, registered family dispute resolution provider and trained family business advisor, I work with families, family businesses, executives, management teams and communities, to have powerful and constructive conversations. In this way I help people to resolve their conflict to keep friends and family who are in business stay in business – and stay together.

To make it easier for people to connect with me and understand the services that I provide, I’ve launched a new website so feel free to share it with your network: https://rosemariebrown.nz/

My motto for clients is that “I will help them enjoy the freedom of being able to deal with issues constructively so they can move forward in a positive way.”