Catherine Mattice, president of Civility Partners LLC and speaker at the upcoming 2018 SHRM Annual Conference (#SHRM18), has been helping organizations build positive workplace cultures for over a decade. Her session, “Workplace Bullying IS Illegal: Bullying, Violence and Harassment (and How to Detect and Stop It)” will show how a positive workplace culture can make all the difference.
She was kind enough to talk with me recently about her work and her upcoming presentation at #SHRM18:
Growing Towards the Light
Mattice:
“I believe that it’s an employer’s moral and ethical responsibility to create an environment where people thrive.
What we do for work is such an important part of who we are, and our self-concept and our self-esteem. If you allow people to be ripped apart and torn down by a bully or whatever the negative behavior is at work, I think you are acting in a way that is unethical.
Employees grow towards the light.
They do not thrive in dark, scary places. They thrive in shiny, happy places where they feel valued and where they feel like they are challenged in the right ways.”
What to Expect from Her Session
Mattice:
“I’ll paint bullying, harassment, and violence in a new light for the audience, so they can understand just how similar they are.
I’ll also talk about resolving these behaviors. For example, bullying is a performance problem, and I have seen it throughout my career. HR seems to still be struggling with what bullying is and why it happens, and I’d like to offer up my expertise.
I’m going to spend time talking about the mind of a bully and why they do it, and it’s not because they are psychopaths, by the way. Bullying is not intentional, and I hope to get that across as I talk about my experiences coaching “bullies.”
I also want to help people make a business case for when they get back to their office for their C-suite on addressing these negative behaviors. A big part of my presentation will include ways to talk about bullying that will resonate with the C-suite so that people can get budget and resources for solving it.”
On Expanding Your World:
Mattice:
“Harassment, bullying, and violence are probably a lot more similar than people realize, so I’m looking forward to breaking that down and getting that message across. I think people could have a lot of harassment going on in their workplace without even knowing it.
I also get frustrated when I see advice out there over and over again on harassment prevention, and it’s always focused on policy and training. Let’s look past those two items for sexual-harassment prevention and let’s look at culture.
I think the theme, Expand Your World fits where we’re at right now in talking about harassment prevention. We’ve got to find new ways to prevent it because what we’re doing is not working. Let’s expand our worlds on this topic.”
It Starts With Core Values:
Mattice:
“So many organizations create core values, and they’re just sitting on a website. They might do a few other things, maybe they have some posters or something, but in my experience, most organizations don’t squeeze the core values the way that they could to dictate behavior.
No core value allows for harassment and bullying. So, if you have core values that you’re truly bringing to life, and people are truly living them, it prevents things like harassment because that behavior goes against the culture and core values.
If you are inspiring people to live those core values, then there’s no room for these negative behaviors. In a comfortable environment where people are happy and have a strong culture, they can feel comfortable talking about it, and that’s true harassment prevention and bullying prevention.”
Ready to detect and stop bullying, violence, and harassment in your workplace? Be sure to attend Catherine’s session at #SHRM18!
#SHRM18 Session Planner:
Workplace Bullying IS Illegal: Bullying, Violence and Harassment (and How to Detect and Stop It)
Catherine Mattice. Civility Partners LLC.
Monday, June 18. 2:00pm – 3:15pm.
Can’t wait to learn more? Connect with her here!
Twitter Facebook LinkedIn
Originally published on Carlos Escobar blog.
Carlos Escobar is a Human Resources (HR) and organizational development leader, change manager, project manager, analyst, writer, and entrepreneur. He works with people and organizations that want to improve productivity and outcomes by focusing on service, innovation, and execution.
- 2
- 433 views
Add new comment