Webinar Description: 
Conflict. It’s a natural part of everyday life. We have conflicts with the people we know best and love the most and near-total strangers. For grant professionals, conflicts can easily arise between coworkers, with managers, or collaborators and range from a difference of opinion to harassment and hostility. How do you gently tell a collaborator that you think their “beautifully written prose” does not answer the funder’s question and will likely not get them the money they seek? How do you ask your boss for more responsibility or a coworker to stop an offending behavior?

Most people seek to avoid conflict at all costs, hoping it will just go away or your boss will notice your stellar performance and give you more responsibility and a big fat raise. Sometimes people assume a difference of opinion exists when in actually both parties agree! Regardless, conflict feels uncomfortable. But when you avoid conflict, the problem or perceived problem only festers while productively engaging in conflict can actually strengthen your relationship as you work together to resolve it.

How you approach a conflict can determine the success of its outcomes and how you feel about confronting the next one. This presentation will provide practical solutions for managing every stage of a conflict from problem definition through discussion and resolution.

 
Presenter:

Linda Wastyn, CRFE, GPC, has consulted for more than 9 years after a 23-year career in higher education with a focus on grant research, writing and reporting as well as fundraising, strategic planning, and leadership development. She has more than 20 years’ experience teaching communication, leadership, fundraising, and strategic planning to graduate and undergraduate students and in numerous seminars and webinars on similar topics. Linda holds a doctorate in higher education administration and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in communication and rhetoric.

 
Skill Level:
Early-Career
Mid-Career
Master Level

Learning Track: 
Consulting
Proposal Development/Communication Strategies
Personal Professional Development

GPC Competencies:
Organizational development as it pertains to grant seeking
Methods and Strategies that cultivate and maintain relationships between fund-seeking and recipient organizations and funders