Doc Watson's column on community safety, conflict, leadership and the human side of getting along. Published monthly in the Beaumont Business Journal.
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Published monthly in the Beaumont Business Journal.53 articles in the archive.
You know what they say about old dogs and new tricks, and I certainly qualify as the former. The latter, however, is still possible as evidenced by a recent change of behavior which can help create safer spaces for everyone by using to a prudent and simple procedure: begin all gatherings with…
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Conflict and confrontation are just facts of life. To one degree or another we all face situations where two wills clash or the needs of one are in conflict with the needs of another. Some of us are more comfortable dealing with conflict than others, and while some of us avoid it at all costs,…
Read the articleViolence: workplace violence, road rage violence, domestic violence, violence between neighbors, violence among strangers, family violence, racial violence, political violence, religious violence, ethnic violence, urban violence, sectarian violence, tribal violence, senseless violence, random…
Read the articleIt's a time honored concept that to change one's behavior and acquire a new habit one must fundamentally do two things: make the effort and repeat the behavior – do it and do it again until one doesn't have to think about doing it or struggle to do it as it becomes a part of who we are and not just…
Read the articleA recent opportunity to deliver a presentation to a Texas state group of elected officials and their deputies confirmed what I've read and experienced for many years, reinforcing the indisputable fact that many people on the front lines of customer service interaction don't receive effective…
Read the articleMany people aspire to be “the leader” only to find it's lonely at the top. For some it's their first experience with having to consider what others need instead of mainly focusing on one's own individual needs. And if that doesn't present a daunting challenge, just wait until a new leader realizes…
Read the articleOne of the benefits of speaking and training in the field of customer relations is having the opportunity to sit down and listen to those who on a day in/day out basis serve on the front lines of interaction with customers be it by phone, internet, or in the “trenches” environment of face-to-face…
Read the articleAmerica's homespun philosopher, Will Rogers, once said, “never miss a good chance to shut up”, the English poet Thomas Carlyle wrote, “silence is golden”, and Dr. Jordan Peterson concisely counsels, “you can be pretty smart if you can just shut up”. The good book of James evens instructs, “be quick…
Read the articleFor those interested in either establishing or honing their conflict management and communication skills I'll suggest a few fundamental resources which have proven to be great foundations upon which to build. And regardless of where we find ourselves on this road of life getting along with others…
Read the articleI am deeply indebted and very grateful for having been inspired and challenged by many great teachers and mentors throughout my life. A short list must include the names of Glenn French, Dr. Bill McDonald, the inimitable Mildred Yates, Dr. Harold Clifton, and pastor and professor Jim Seratt. Of…
Read the articleFor many of us life's “big wheel” has not only kept on turning but seems to be spinning with a dynamo hum much faster than we ever expected or imagined And with the seventh decade of my life quickly approaching one of the issues occupying my attention is “how do I share my life experiences with the…
Read the articleFrequently and often multiple times in a single day we engage in negotiating in one form or another be it discussing where we join a friend for lunch or making a major purchase, and “working things out” with someone is just part of life as we know it. But it can be stressful and become a source of…
Read the articleIt's hard enough to get a 20 mule team harnessed and pulling together down a familiar trail, but when the trail is new or, worse, there is no trail at all things can go south quickly. And if we're dealing not with harnessed mules but with sentient, self-regarding human beings the team can even more…
Read the articleThere is much truth in the adage, “we stand on the shoulders of giants” depending, of course, on which giants we choose to stand. Consider one little-known giant, the late Colonel John Richard Boyd, United States Air Force. He lived but an eye blink in history from 1927 to 1997, a mere drop in the…
Read the articleIt seems like every other day a new, “hot” book is published regarding leadership and organizational theory. I confess that I just can't keep up. In an effort to separate the wheat from the chaff I often research the authors rather than grab the latest and greatest from the…
Read the articleLet's have some fun and play a quick word association game. For this to work well you must be candid about what thoughts and feelings come bubbling up when you first read the word. Ready? Here's the word - “OBEDIENCE”. (Pet owners are exempt since we already know where your thoughts go!) So, what…
Read the articleA quick internet search of the phrase “team building training programs” instantly yields an astonishing maze of over twenty million results. And the spectrum runs from six figure celebrity presentations to one word bumper stickers. For the young readers bumper stickers were the memes of a vanishing…
Read the articleTo build a business, function as a leader, work on a winning team, or in any way interact with others toward mutual success requires that we undertake one of the most arduous and uncomfortable tasks known to mankind: a constant evaluation of our personal perspective or the way we “see the world”.…
Read the articleIt's no coincidence that the champions who personify grace and humility are the most exalted. Though the strutters and chest thumpers may have their moments in the sun, those who after winning remain modest and unassuming are remembered and revered throughout the ages. (I believe Muhammad Ali to…
Read the articleMy apology if in a prior column I came across like a '60's college freshman after having read Siddhartha for the first time, though I must confess that I'm still giddy about “Extreme Ownership” by Leif Babin and Jocko Willink and keep rereading it and taking more notes, and, hopefully, the truth of…
Read the articleThe study and promotion of leadership skills is a relatively new discipline, yet it would take a zigabyte hard drive just to list all the books, seminars, and papers already written on the subject. Any list of new books includes self-help, leadership titles promising sure-fire, amazing results, and…
Read the articleAh, those classic sixties song lyrics never fail to serve us well when we ponder the makeup of successful leaders and followers. Kenny Rogers' first big time band had a hit song with the memorable line, “I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in.” A most valuable and essential…
Read the articleIf you have read my previous columns you have by now heard of the late, Col. John Boyd, one of America's most brilliant and influential thinkers and strategists. Boyd's works and the works of those dedicated to expanding his ideas continue to permeate the fields of military training, business…
Read the articleWhether we remember the title of the hard rocking Led Zeppelin song or Strother Martin's classic line in the movie, “Cool Hand Luke”, there is just no forgetting the phrase, “communication breakdown”. Even with the advent of the internet and especially with the limitations posed by a simple…
Read the articleOne of the most remarkable mentors I've had in my life was the late, Dr. Thomas Gordon, a man who promoted the skills of listening to levels never before seen in American culture. He was, indeed, the Godfather of Listening. Of course, listening was for decades (and still is) viewed by many with a…
Read the articleEd Deming, the godfather of business efficiency, once said, “He that would run his business on visible figures alone will soon have neither business nor visible figures to work with”. That's a surprising point of view by someone who created one of the most effective models of integrating statistics…
Read the articleI'm sure many Texans can recall the iconic, 60's era symbol “Onward: Thru the Fog” since it rather summed up the benign thought that though uncertain the future should be faced with confidence. And maintaining some semblance of a sense of humor about the task sure goes a long way toward dealing…
Read the articleThanks to an inspiring public school teacher I've had a lifelong passion for reading, and before she passed away years ago I had the opportunity to hug her and express to her my heartfelt thanks. History in general has always intrigued me, and in particular for the last decade or so military…
Read the articleConflict, confrontation, tension, and stress are unfortunately just inevitable aspects of life. They happen, always have and always will. And they happen at home, in our personal lives, at work, and even rear their ugly heads sometimes at play. We don't have to cause them or even invite them, and…
Read the articleThis end of the year edition offers a great opportunity to pause, rewind, and reengage. And I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity to share insights and experiences regarding interpersonal relationships, management skills, and team building. What follows in no particular order are a few of…
Read the articleOf course, you can make just about any group of statistics dance a jig on the head of a pin, but for decades, research and analysis has confirmed that between fifty and seventy five percent of employees choose to leave an organization for one sad but simple reason: how they perceived they were…
Read the articleRegardless if you are stocking product in the warehouse or a company CEO, the skill of effective listening is fundamentally essential to your professional success and personal satisfaction. It's ironic that one could complete years of college, graduate work, and, perhaps, advanced training in one's…
Read the articleSoutheast Texas has spawned many talented and famous people from all walks of life and in a wide variety of disciplines. Author, poet, and philosopher, Mary Karr, is one of the latest and greatest. Having been reared in the shadows of hissing, Mid-County refineries, her childhood years were, shall…
Read the articleMany people aspire to be “the leader” only to find it's lonely at the top. For some it's their first experience with having to consider what others need instead of mainly focusing on one's own individual needs. And if that doesn't present a daunting challenge, just wait until a new leader realizes…
Read the articlePerhaps because educator, John Callahan. was my football coach at Beaumont High School in the 1960's, I became a firm believer in mastering the fundamentals of any practiced skill. Apart from being exceptionally wise and having a wicked sense of humor, Coach Callahan drilled his players to the…
Read the articleThe first challenge to resolving conflicts is to effectively prevent them. And I say “effectively” prevent them because ignoring and avoiding conflict most often only serves to amplify it and eventually does more damage than having just faced it early on. It's been my experience that most people…
Read the articleEveryone seeks power of one kind or another. And there is nothing wrong with that since it's human nature to wish for some measure of influence or control over other people and the circumstances of life. Power in and of itself is neither beneficent nor malicious, it just is. For those in positions…
Read the articleOK, I admit it, it's corny. But a good friend dedicated to developing exceptional management skills (people skills) created an acronym for Frederick Herzberg's model of motivating team members through job satisfaction. And, I'm proud to say, he's doing a great job of modeling the skills to…
Read the articlePerhaps aspiring managers-to-be are wondering, “How and where do I start the process of becoming an exceptional manager?”. Truth be known, that's the kind of question that should be asked regardless of one's business goals or aspirations because you may be called upon to manage without having ever…
Read the articleIf we aspire to or are in a position to lead and manage others there are several important questions to be asked. For instance, we need to ask ourselves, “What kind of relationships do I want?” and “What kind of organization do I want?”. If our model of leadership is coercive, meaning we manage by…
Read the articleSoutheast Texas has spawned many talented and famous people from all walks of life and in a wide variety of disciplines. Author, poet, and philosopher, Mary Karr, is one of the latest and greatest. Having been reared in the shadows of hissing, Mid-County refineries, her childhood years were, shall…
Read the articleListening with understanding and empathy and working toward the satisfaction of mutual needs are noble, worthwhile endeavors and definitely preferable to hot tempers and knee jerk reactions. Cool heads really do prevail. However, effectively dealing with conflict means one must, in fact, actually…
Read the articleUnity, cohesion, and oneness are often ranked in the workplace right up there with rainbows and unicorns. They make pretty posters but are seldom if ever seen. Yet of all the fundamental qualities of successful teams they are truly the bedrocks upon which winning is constructed. As outlined in my…
Read the articlePerhaps nothing else has the potential to insure and improve the effectiveness of a commercial venture than creating and maintaining a culture of mutual trust. With it the wheels of success can become greasy smooth, but without it, well, I bet you've already experienced just how toxic that…
Read the articleConflict and confrontation are just facts of life. To one degree or another we all face situations where two wills clash or the needs of one are in conflict with the needs of another. Some of us are more comfortable dealing with conflict than others, and while some of us avoid it at all costs,…
Read the articleThe focus on leadership in business circles is a fairly recent development, and for decades the accepted wisdom was “leaders are born, not made”. However, once social scientists got serious about it, leadership has been studied to the nth degree while looking at how people become leaders, how they…
Read the articleAll our lives we've probably heard the expression “cooler heads will prevail” and given it mental assent, meaning we acknowledge it but really haven't made much progress in allowing the truth of it to change our behavior. Preachers and managers know all about mental assent. They can inspire and…
Read the articleWhen it comes to interpersonal relationships, customer service, and conflict management the single most valuable skill we can develop is our ability to effectively listen. There is a difference been the ability to listen and the ability to effectively listen, and the difference is crucial. It's…
Read the articleI can't think of a better way to start a new business year than focusing on the bedrock of customer relations – how we treat our clients from the get-go, from the first “hello”. The term “Customer Service” has been abused to the point of becoming a cliche, and that's really a shame. Remember, the…
Read the articleThey say the end of the year and the beginning of the new year is a good time for reflecting and reassessing, so let's do just that. In a nutshell, human interaction dictates that conflict and confrontation are just a part of life. And mastering the skills to effectively avoid conflict and to…
Read the articleWhether it's an unsafe driver cutting us off on the way to work or an upset client threatening to march into the lobby and give us a piece of their mind, we just never know when conflict and confrontation are going to rear their ugly heads. Our ability to train and learn to effectively deal with…
Read the articleAs they old saying goes, “cooler heads will prevail”. It's easy to say, but the real challenge becomes maintaining a cool head when a situation starts heating up. As we discussed in an earlier edition, when someone is very angry or very afraid they are simply unable to use the very faculty that…
Read the articleIt's an old joke in southeast Texas, “If it's not the heat, it's the humanity”. Fact of the matter is truer words were never spoken. Unless robots completely replace humans in the arenas of commerce and education, we will forever be in the “people business” whether we like them (people) or not.…
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