simply better ways to negotiate and resolve conflict

Negotiation and conflict coaching

Dr. Tammy Lenski has helped hundreds of individuals fine-tune their persuasive voice, build stronger personal and professional relationships, and adopt more effective conflict and negotiating behaviors.

She’s helped negotiation doormats find their power and their voice, and taught conflict junkies how to manage their hair-triggers. She’s helped HR leaders change a conflict dynamic, taught executives to better manage conflict in their teams, and helped couples end states of conflict that threatened their marriage.

Coaching typically takes place via telephone or Skype, accompanied by email; special arrangements can be made for in-person coaching.

Here are three examples of typical client engagements and the results achieved with Tammy’s guidance:

Fine-tuning a VP’s persuasive voice
Changing a couple’s conflict dynamics
Calming a “bully boss”

Case Example 1: Fine-Tuning a VP’s Persuasive Voice

A vice president in a metropolitan public relations firm sought out Tammy for assistance in advocating more powerfully for herself in interactions with colleagues and her CEO. She had been frequently dismissed as “shrill” in tense circumstances, but with Tammy’s negotiation coaching over a period of several months she achieved these career-advancing results:

  • She identified the persuasion tactics that didn’t serve her well in that organization or role and developed new habits to replace them,
  • She dramatically increased the success rate with which she was able to influence decisions at the senior level, and
  • She shifted the way fellow vice presidents and senior executives viewed her contributions to leadership of the company.

Case Example 2: Changing a Couple’s Conflict Dynamics

A couple married for almost 15 years approached Tammy about an ongoing state of conflict that was damaging the relationship and leading them to consider divorce. Having worked through some issues with a couples counselor, they still found themselves facing recurring themes in their conflict. With Tammy’s conflict coaching assistance, the couple achieved these important results for their relationship:

  • They finally addressed two very long-term conflicts that had never had real resolution during the course of their marriage – one related to different financial habits and the other to home maintenance and housekeeping.
  • They learned and became practiced in using an approach Tammy has designed for helping air out new concerns and preventing them from becoming bitter and entrenched.
  • They shifted the relationship from one where bickering was frequent and recurring conflict fed their frustration to one where they could calmly and successfully raise and discuss the issues that mattered.

Case Example 3: Calming a “Bully Boss”

The manager of the R&D division of a technology corporation had earned a reputation as a “bully boss” and was referred to Tammy by HR and his CEO. Generally proud of his “get tough” approach with his direct reports and the high productivity yields in his division, the manager began his conflict coaching work with Tammy primarily to keep his superiors happy. After working one-on-one with Tammy, he emerged from the coaching experience with these results:

  • He differentiated between being a demanding, high-expectations manager and being a coercive manager who put his corporation at risk through his actions.
  • He learned to balance his good directness with approaches that made him ultimately far more influential, both above and below him in the organizational hierarchy.
  • He devised a way to approach his team and inform them of the changes he was making in his work with them — one that signaled a new era to them without his losing face.
  • In follow-up assessments at the 3-, 6-month marks following his work with Tammy, the company’s HR office, the CEO, and the manager’s direct reports all cited significant and positive changes in his interpersonal work.

For more information about Tammy’s negotiation and conflict coaching, try these resources: