With an anti-bullying seminar called “Don’t Be a D---,” you know Zandra Ross isn’t your business-as-usual emotional intelligence teacher. Still, her quirky humour and sometimes profane expressions are deceptive, because Ross is deadly serious on the importance of combating workplace bullying, addressing mental health, and building emotional intelligence.
Ross speaks of studies that show those in management and human resource management spend three out of every 10 hours playing referee in workplace conflicts. If workers sense management is blasé about their struggles with another employee, it can be simply because management is already snowed under by other conflicts, making it hard to see the seriousness in each case.
Whatever the case, it all adds up to lost money – not just through lost productivity for the managers, but also with employees. It is part of what drives absenteeism, too, which is another way that lateral violence and workplace bullying take their toll on companies, by assailing mental health.
For over 25 years, Zandra Ross has been both a consultant and coach, leading workplace seminars and workshops all over Western Canada to help improve team relationships. Every workplace offers a new challenge with different players and different dynamics at work, so Ross says she feels like Dr. Phil sometimes as she conducts assessments for solving team strife.
As modern life grows more stressful and people’s fuses grow shorter, emotional intelligence training in the workplace is more important than ever, the coach says. Ross practices client discretion but alludes to an escalation in having to deal with incidents like employees physically assaulting each other in front of customers.
With 2020 looming, Zandra Ross is hoping more businesses start their New Year by recognizing the need to build emotional intelligence between their teams. Ross gets that there’s no point running a workshop if it’s not engaging and fun for the participants, and that’s why she brings a less formal, often zany approach to her sessions, which can be scaled and customized as cases require.
The busy Prince George consultant wants business owners to understand that gossiping, bullying, back-talk, aggressiveness, and disrespect indicate their business is failing to meet its potential. Investing in emotional intelligence training means investing in their bottom line. As employees improve their EIQ, they become more adaptable, more engaged, and happier, and businesses become more productive and more profitable.
When asked what the bottom line on emotional intelligence coaching is, Ross says, “If your team is undergoing any type of relationship dysfunction, low EI is at the foundation of it all. If you don't raise the EI bar for your team, your team will flounder and, ultimately, fail.
For more information about Zandra Ross’ services, visit her website at www.zandraross.ca.
