Resolving Interpersonal Conflict: Building better relationships (:

We all live in a dynamic and complex network of family members, friends, classmates or project mates. I believe in most situations, we try to find ways to get along with each other and often to avoid conflicts. Personally, I do not like conflict and feel that conflict would often hurt the relationship between the two parties. However, whenever there is more than one person around, there bound to have different view and perception. Conflicts are inevitable and arise when there is a difference in a perception of the situation, even between two ‘bestest’ friends or even with our closest ones such as our family members.

I would like to share a conflict which my friend shared with me recently. Not long ago, he went on a YEP trip to Inner Mongolia. They have 25 people in the team and most of them do not know each other beforehand. Due to the differences in personalities, many conflicts arise during the course of the trip. In the team, there were three girls who were very close friends and known each other before they joined the trip. These three girls were too straightforward and they were rather insensitive in their words. They often voiced out negative opinions in a sarcastic way. Unfortunately there was this girl within the group whom they were not fond of and they often find faults and picked on her. To make the matter worse, they were not criticizing her discreetly but out loud in front of the whole team. The people who were more supportive of the girl started to speak up for the girl and all these lead on to much unhappiness within the team. Being one of the only five guys in the YEP team, my friend was placed in an awkward position and not knowing how to resolve the conflict. Eventually, their YEP was split into different cliques and the tension could be felt throughout the whole journey. As a result, this YEP trip became a not too enjoyable experience for him :(

If you were in his shoes, how would you try to resolve this situation?

I believe emotion intelligence(EQ) and communication skills are two essential skills to learn in dealing with interpersonal conflicts. Many a time, if one was able stand in the shoes of the others and see things in another perspective instead of insisting on own’s stand, a lot of misunderstandings and interpersonal conflicts could be avoided. A positive attitude, the tone in a conversation, effective listening skills, and focusing on interests and solutions, would help to get through the rough exchanges more smoothly. However, it is often easier said than done, it is always not easy to keep a cool and calm head to logic things out at “THE MOMENT”.

Lastly I would like to share a quote with everyone (:

“Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.” ~ Albert Einstein

Personally I really like this quote and I find it very true. Conflicts are inevitable and I believe resolving them often takes efforts from both parties (:

Application Letter (2nd Draft)

Organisation: Health Sciences Authority

Position: Laboratory Officer, Food Safety Laboratory

Responsibilities
• To perform analysis of food sample in accordance to establish protocol independently
• To participate in local/international proficiency testing programme to ensure competency
• To participate in Quality Assurance Activities such as equipment calibration, method validation, quality control etc, to ensure that quality system is in compliance to ISO/IEC 17025

Requirements
• Diploma in Chemical Process Technology
• 3 to 5 years of experience in an analytical laboratory
• Experiences working in accredited laboratory (ISO/IEC 17025) as well as technical skills with HPLC, GC, ICP/MS and AAS would be preferred

------------------------------------------------------------------------- Application Letter Lee Hui Ting Blk xxx, Yishun Avenue x #12-345 Singapore xxxxxx 8th February 2011 Director, Human Capital Management Health Sciences Authority 11 Outram Road Singapore 169078 Dear Sir, Application for Food Safety Laboratory Officer Position I read with great interest the Food Safety Laboratory Officer position posted on www.jobstreet.com.sg. After reading through your company’s website, I am very impressed by Health and Authority(HSA)’s aim to play a vital role in supporting healthcare services and regulation, serving the administration of justice and enhancing safety in our community. Currently, I am pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Science (Chemistry) in National University of Singapore and would very much like to contribute and have a fulfilling career with HSA when I graduate in May 2011. Apart from following an intensive coursework degree in Chemistry, I was exposed to a great deal of experiments and trained to perform many laboratory techniques including Gas Chromatography (GC), High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and different types of spectroscopy such as Infra-red (IR), Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Ultraviolet (UV). Precision and accuracy are the key principles that I adhere to when performing a laboratory experiment. During my university mid-term break, I worked as an intern in A*STAR Institute of Chemical and Sciences(ICES) to assist a senior researcher, such as synthesizing catalysts independently in the laboratory and followed by analyzing the components in compounds in details. This internship experience has trained me to work efficiently with an analytical mind under the tight deadlines given by my mentor. I am very passionate about food samples analysis and concern for our society health. News about traces of harmful components in food products always bring me to high concerns. I would very much like to contribute to this role to bring justice and enhance safety in our community. This job requires knowledge of laboratory instrumentations for analysis and I believe my various exposure to laboratory work has equipped me with the necessary skills to analyze the food samples effectively and participate in Quality Assurance Activities in the regulation of food safety. In addition, I possess soft skills such as leadership, decision making, resolving conflicts and a proactive attitude. Being an house orientation leader, leading a team of thirty-two members for hundreds fresh undergraduates, I have learnt to shoulder greater responsibilities and honed my interpersonal skills. I am also a well-organized, highly motivated individual who seeks to bring awareness of Community Involvement Program(CIP) to the public. Organising volunteering activities together with my flag committee have displayed my care for our community. I am confident that my experience, together with the passion and enthusiasm I will bring to the job, makes me the right person for the position you are looking to fill. Thank you for your time and consideration for my application. I look forward to hearing favourably from you soon. Yours Sincerely, Lee Hui Ting Enclosed: Resume

The Importance of Effective Communication

The need for effective communication is imperative and it requires good skills to convey a message across successfully. For instance, for the exact same sentence of words, a different volume, intonation and body language give the receiver on the other end a total different feeling and interpretation. Hence, I strongly believe that both verbal and non-verbal are equally important when one is sending the message across.

Effective communication is especially important to me, as I foresee myself working in a service-oriented sector or a primary school teacher in the future as I enjoy the company of people. I like to interact with people and especially children as they give me different viewpoints of the way the situation can be viewed from. With a job that constantly revolves around people and human interactions, the crux of effective communication is essential.

Growing up in a Chinese-speaking family, I was not adequately exposed to English, both verbally and written. Back in junior college, we have a compulsory subject called project work where we are supposed to come up a proposal and eventually an oral presentation to 'sell' our ideas to our audience. I always admire my friends who were vocal and could speak really well on the spot without any script or reference material in hand during the oral presentation. In my mind, I always wonder how did they even do that? How could they speak so fluently in such a calm manner? Don’t they feel nervous in front of such a big crowd with all the stares focusing at them? Indeed, I believe these are the effective communication skills they possess and I have much to learn in this area.

I do fine in micro-manage on a one to one conversation but is never good in marco-manage whereby one needs to speak in front of a large crowd. Speaking up in front of a large crowd is never my forte. I feel the jittery, the adrenaline rush in the body and the butterflies in the stomach whenever I stand in front of a large class. As a result, I would fidget around and there would be redundant pauses, ermmm, ya, ahhaa, that come along as a combo set with my original presentation speech. At times, I do feel a little inferior during presentation or class participation due to my poor command of the English language :( Therefore, sometimes, this acted as a barrier to communication.

This time, I took a large step out of my comfort zone and would like to walk out of this barrier. As the saying goes, "It's never too late to learn"! I hope that through this 13weeks of intensive journey with everyone, I would able to pick up the necessary skills to overcome my fear of public speaking, get rid of all the bad presentation habits and be confident speaker!(:

Really looking forward to working with Ms Lim and everyone in class together as a team!:D The first week has passed and I must say I truly enjoyed myself in class and glad that I took up this challenge that I set for myself (: