Professional Development as Mediators (Research Paper Sample)

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AS MEDIATORS
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Professional Development as Mediators
Mediation represents an effective solution to solving conflicts. In essence, mediation refers to assisted negotiation, which is important for all aspiring professionals in the field (Krivis & Lucks 2011, p. 121). Mediators do not seek to make decisions; rather, they aim to achieve a win-win outcome for all parties in a particular conflict in order to avert future disagreements. Another definition of mediation is a process through which third parties help individuals in dispute to assess and solve their differences, and where possible, settle them (Crawley & Graham 2002, p. 12). Here, the individuals in conflict dictate the terms of the agreement, not the mediator. The study analyzes the professional development of an individual as a mediator by focusing on better communication skills as a major development area. Moreover, the study addresses listening skills as a component of effective communication skills in professional mediation.
Development of a Professional Mediator
Because of the nature of conflicts, it is critical that a professional possess various skills such as elevated esteem, critical thinking, ability to remain non-judgmental and neutral, ability to handle other people’s strong emotions, mental agility, patience and communication skills (Aertsen 2005, p. 51). Other skills for professional mediation are dedication to equal opportunities, problem negotiation, and solving skills, feeling of empathy towards others, ability to provide and receive constructive feedback, ability to identify, acknowledge and deal with individual prejudices and preconceptions, and a good comprehension of diverse cultures. An individual who has developed these skills inculcates the ability to manage different personalities, demands, and behavior while setting a favorable example. Such people are invaluable to their colleagues and the entire community on a professional and personal level. In some parts of the globe, multiple organizations have trained managers and “peer mediators” to provide professional mediation services to individuals at all levels of the working community.
Listening Skills
According to Whatling (2012, p. 16), professional mediation consists of three interlinked components: understanding, knowledge, and skills. A mediator should control the process of mediation, support the individuals, and aid in problem solving. Active listening skills constitute a key aspect of communication skills required to facilitate this process. By definition, listening skill is an individual’s comprehension and ability to receive concise messages conveyed during communication (Spencer & Brogan 2006, p. 162). Research has indicated that individuals spend approximately 45 percent of their time listening. However, a mediator has to improve on this passive listening in order to develop his professional skills. An active listener possesses six attributes: paying attention (focusing), holding judgment, reflection, clarification, summarization, and sharing (Liverpool JMU n.d., p. 1).
Moreover, such attributes are not mutually exclusive as each involves specific behavior or technique. While the skills of active listening have been in existence for many decades, it requires utmost empathy and patience on an individual’s part to comprehend and deliver a skilled listening to parties looking for professional assistance (Hope 2010, p. 61). To have the ability of accomplishing this skill with ease, it is imperative that an individual practice and takes time, which is essential to his professional development. Professional mediators ought to possess the highest-possible skill attainment of active listening since a single sentence a mediator makes while listening has to be composed of several of those elements simultaneously (Moss 2012, p. 23; Liebmann 2011, p. 75).
Personal reflection
An individual conflict as experienced was at the workplace where, while working as a stand-in supervisor, I berated a colleague for arriving late. I felt I was responsible in admonishing him since it was the third day in a row that he had arrived late, making our unit fall behind schedule. I did not give him a chance to explain because I felt he would only offer empty excuses and promises to avoid such recurrence. This created animosity between us as he avoided me from then on, thereby affecting the teamwork aspect of the work. In the event that I had practiced active listening in the situation, I would have averted the crisis. To solve the problem, I approached him and inquired about his lateness. I come to learn that his wife had just delivered and that he had requested to be permitted to arrive later in the day by a former supervisor. I learnt that listening is a more intricate process as compared to hearing. This became my foundation for enhanced communication skills and major development area. Listening to a man would have enabled me to comprehend his situation, make appropriate judgment, and solve the conflict.
Three strategies
The first strategy or element of active listening is paying attention (Hope 2010, p. 61). This involves focusing the perception of both verbal and visual stimuli. This will enable an individual to comprehend the matter at hand and make a conscious judgment during the process. Here, a mediator maintains a physical posture to enhance successful communication (Liverpool JMU n.d., p. 2). For instance, as opposed to crossing one’s arm, an individual can maintain an open posture, lean forward and make eye contact. In the same breadth, the mediator has to focus on the message relayed and practice empathy. This implies that he or she should consider what the speaker is saying and feeling. This will be enhanced by visual senses and hearing, which is the physiological action of opening up one’s ears to speech of another person (Krivis & Lucks 2011, p. 142). This strategy should have been integrated into the experience discussed in the previous section. It can also prove effective in future mediation processes since the parties involved will feel relaxed while the mediator will be sufficiently attentive.
The second strategy is comprehension (Hope 2010, p. 61). Here, the mediator assigns meaning to all the messages received. A key difference between passive and active listening is comprehension of the message behind the parties’ words and behaviors. It is only through an understanding that one can demonstrate elementary empathy to the parties in conflict. When one comprehends, he can then paraphrases and clarify the issues (Crawley & Graham 2002, p. 46). In paraphrasing, the mediator restates the message conveyed, but using fewer words. The main objective of clarifying is testing one’s understanding of the message conveyed. It also helps to indicate to the parties in conflict that one has acquired an understanding of their message and that the mediator is pursuing their verbal explorations, and in turn, the basic message. On its part, clarification aims at brining unclear material into sharper focus. It helps untangle fuzzy or wrong interpretation by the mediator. In the personal conflict described above, this would have helped identify, acknowledge, and empathize with the individual. In turn, this would have made the issue clearer in order to arrive at a solution with ease. This can help in future conflicts by making issues at the center of disagreements more discernible, thereby enabling conscious judgment.
The third strategy is a summarization and...