Karen Tinglev-Hansen: 00:23
Hello everyone! Today’s webinar, Constructive Feedback, Conflict Resolution and Well-Being for bakery and Specialty Food Professionals will begin in about one minute. While you’re waiting, be sure to register for upcoming webinars at IG. Coming up tomorrow, Thursday, July 11th at 11 a.m. central. We have driving brand Success Innovation methodologies with Nick.
Join Nick Crystal Dawson for an enlightening session on driving brand success through innovation. On Monday, July 16th, we will rebroadcast how global flavors are shaping prepared food. Exciting news! IDDBA is teaming up once again with the University of Wisconsin School of Business for the 2024 Leadership Program. This program is tailored for mid-level leaders.
Join us September 17th through 19th and register now at Idaho under the Professional Resources tab and select Leadership Certificate Program. Delta associates Cheesemongers and enthusiasts. Get your study caps on. Registration is open for the certified Salumi exam for my IDDBA, held at the American Cheese Society Conference in Buffalo, New York on July 10th. Reach out to education at.
Org for more information. Welcome, everyone. My name is Karen Tinglev-Hansen, education assistant at IDDBA. Thank you for joining us for today’s webinar, Constructive Feedback Conflict Resolution and Well-Being for Bakery and Specialty Food Professionals. A couple of reminders before we get started.
This is a pre-recorded session so there will be no live Q&A. Please contact the speaker directly with questions. The recording of this webinar will be available to members to view on it. Now I’d like to introduce today’s presenter, Odette D’Aniello. With over 25 years of experience in the specialty food industry, editor is the founder and CEO of Celebrity Gourmet Ventures, incorporated under the brand Celebrity Cake Studio and Dragonfly Cakes.
They are a company that makes delicious and beautifully designed desserts for various occasions and markets. She is also the host of the Celebrity Gourmet Podcast, a show that features inspiring stories and insights from successful entrepreneurs and leaders in the bakery and specialty food industry. Odette, thank you so much for joining us today.
Odette D’Aniello: 02:32
Thank you Karen. It’s been a pleasure to see you again. We’re kind of monthly buddies here. Hi, everybody. Thank you for being here.
This is a pre-recorded session. Thank you for being here. I know it’s in the summer. It’s July. I hope you’re staying cool.
Today we’re going to be talking about constructive feedback, conflict resolution and well-being for bakery and specialty food professionals. Again, my name is Odette Danilo. Danello. And here’s a little bit of my background. I’m the founder and CEO of Celebrity Gourmet Ventures.
We’ve been in business for 25 years with my family, my sister Mary, and up here is has been my partner for 25 years. So I thought these topics on basically the emotional part and the social emotional side of doing business was important. And I am offering this as a public service to the industry that has been, you know, contributing to the well-being of my family. That is my daughter Milana, who is up and coming as our director of marketing, and my son, Aspen. I have two little nephews who are also very interested in the bakery business.
So today I thought I would be talking about conflict resolution and basically Feedback. So he’s this is our agenda for today. We are going on about 30 to 35 minutes of your time. So hopefully it will give you I’ll give you value for the time that you’ve spent listening to this webinar. The agenda for today is constructive feedback and creativity.
Building a positive feedback culture, culture and and and building a positive feedback culture to enhance well-being. Fostering positive feedback. The impact of unresolved conflict. The steps to resolving conflict, implementing conflict resolution strategies, and continuous improvement and reflection. Regarding this topic.
Why this topic? Well, I thought it was super important because like I said, the hardest part about running a business is running a business. But the harder part is running it with your loved ones. And we’ve been doing that successfully for 25 years at Celebrity Gourmet, Celebrity Cake Studio and Dragonfly Cakes. And it’s important because by developing skills to master constructive feedback and conflict resolution, it does enhance relationships and our personal well-being.
Giving and receiving constructive feedback also allows us to be more reflective on our own impact on others, and vice versa. It creates deeper rapport and more constructive collaboration between our team members, our families and our friends, and constructive feedback and skillful conflict resolution makes for a healthy and dynamic work environment. It also applies to our family and friendships with others. And you know we are. We’ve currently discovered how to do this on zoom to overlay my face onto this PowerPoint.
So some of this text you might not be able to see, but I’ll read it to you anyway. So the first part about this and I wanted to talk about constructive feedback because in the specialty food industry our passions, our creativity feel a lot of innovation and it becomes a really personal part of our being. So when we’re running a business based on creativity, it’s so such a fine line, right of of just how to say in a nice way that maybe that particular part of your contribution to the business or to the team is not necessarily the in line with our vision. So this is I wanted to go straight into constructive feedback and why it’s important and how to do it. So we as a cake studio have a lot of team of creatives, like we have 80% of our of our team members are creative in their own right.
They are they’re painters or writers or clay artists or they do, you know, they build things with their hands and a lot of it, You know, that’s they’re they’re attracted to our industry because it’s basically a creative industry. The specialty food industry is creative. You don’t have to be a baker. You can be a cheesemonger. You could be, you know, you can be create meats.
But it’s it’s a food itself is a creative means to express. So when we are giving feedback in our industry, it’s important to do these particular things. And you know, I’ve curated some of these ideas, but you can also think of your own, of what are some good ways to give constructive feedback to your team members. Focus on product and not the person. First of all, separate the creator from the creation.
Frame your feedback around the product itself, its potential, and how it can be improved. And this is really a product based feedback and you could just translate it to maybe behavioral. I’m not necessarily this particular example is just product based. I’ll start with the appreciation. Acknowledge the effort in crafts craftsmanship that went into the product before diving into critiques, highlight what you like and why.
We’re not talking, like I said, about behaviors. So the same thing. You can translate it to a behavior like acknowledge the effort and craftsmanship that went into a particular behavior. Before diving into a critique, highlight what you like and why. The next is specificity is a key.
Don’t just say this particular product needs more flavor. Be specific about flavors or what’s missing or what’s overpowering. Is the texture too dry? Is it sweetness and balance? This is super, super important because, you know, we do a lot of product development, and our bakers and our creators are so tied in to what they’ve created and that, you know, creating feedback around that has been important, and I thought I’d frame it around that particular thing, because in other industries it could be, like I said, a behavioral issue.
And, you know, that’s something that is a whole other webinar. But this particular part of this webinar is going to be about product. The next one is offering suggestions, not dictates. Present your feedback or suggestions for improvement, not absolute truths. Use phrases like have you considered what if to encourage a conversation?
So this is also important when you are trying to give feedback around a particular behavior. For example, have you considered, you know, saying it this way or have you considered, you know, maybe pulling this person aside and saying, you know, this that way or, or like acknowledging another person’s contribution to the team first, right? So you just want to make sure that everybody is seen. And it’s really important to start with the basics of a product, because then you can exercise the key behaviors and the key processes, and then you move it to something more personal. Consider the context.
Tailor your feedback to the recipient’s experience level on the stage of the development of the product. For a beginner, focus on core principles for seasoned producers. Delve into the deeper nuances. So when we’re talking about like for example, for us cake decorating is so sensitive. It’s such a sensitive topic.
So when we’re tailoring our our feedback we’re like, okay, so this particular way of icing a cake, for example, you know, have you considered it this way or have you seen it? You know, if you see it from this perspective, is it straight to you? Because if it isn’t straight, we’re in a business of being straight. And we’re in the business of, you know, making sure things are, you know, pleasant in our in the eyes. So we want to be very particular about the experience level of a person, because some people have not developed that kind of nuance in their own vision or in their own, you know, discernment of especially the aesthetics of a product or a final piece of art, like a cake art.
So make sure you consider the context of the person’s experience level, because you can go from like 1 to 10, an experience level. You’re giving them a feedback like, you know, this should have been a, you know, completely. Perfect. In this way, this five tier thing should have been perfect. But this person is just learning to like, ice a cake.
They’re not going to be able to receive it. It’s going to be completely overwhelming. So when you tailor your feedback to the the person’s experience level, then you would be able to titrate the response, right? They’d be able to say, oh, I’m understanding it now. The next is maintain.
Maintain a positive and respectful tone, even if you’re critical. Keep your tone professional and encouraging. The goal is to help the product reach its full potential, not put someone down. Now I am super duper finicky with with food, mainly because I maybe because I’m in the food business or just because I’m a finicky person. But you know, I remember walking into the bakery.
And someone had put salt on some peanut butter cookies, or it was like. It was like they were truffles. They were they were peanut butter kind of truffles. And they put salt instead of sugar. And I was like, this tastes like ass.
And that really upset the person who made it. That’s not what you want to do. Don’t do that. Just say, hey, I think somebody made a mistake. Can you please try this and see what you think?
Does it taste good to you? And that’s a gentler way of doing it. Because then, you know, when you are just explosive in their response, it is not going to be received positively. Next is focus on the market. When offering suggestions, consider the target market for a product.
Is it designed for health conscious consumers or those seeking indulgence? Now really that is a that’s a thing, right? The target market for the product. Make sure that it’s not personal. It’s like okay this if you were the person receiving this, how would you feel?
And if you were the person who this cake was made for or this product was made for, would this be to your satisfaction if you had paid this much money for that, would this be to your satisfaction? This is something that’s really important because it’s a it’s a good framing. You know, rather than saying, this is not nice at all, you’re you don’t you’re not good at this because then that becomes personal use sensory language a specialty food industry is all about taste, texture and aroma. Use vivid sensory language to describe your experience with the product. Be open to feedback on your feedback.
So it’s like if somebody tells you look, that was a bit too harsh. You did not. You were not kind when you said that. And a lot of times team members don’t necessarily say it to your face. They are now harboring a lot of resentment because their feelings have been hurt.
So it’s really important in the next part of this presentation and how to, you know, open up that line of communication. Because a lot of times feedback That is not that is not graciously delivered creates conflict. So the next slides, you know, we’ll be talking about on the second part of this. So right now we’re going to talk about what positive feedback why it’s important it you know in enhances the culture of positive. The culture of positive feedback contributes to the employee well-being by fostering a sense of appreciation and belonging.
It creates psychological safety, right? It promotes a culture of psychological safety where employees feel comfortable and addressing conflicts without fear of retaliation. You know, we don’t necessarily call our our employees employees. We’re called team members. And now I should change the slide because we’re we are we’re all a team.
And it does create our our goal is to create psychological safety. And that is basically and I should have prefaced this entire webinar about it. It’s how to create psychological safety. So there’s open communication and transparency to prevent conflicts from escalating and improve well-being in your organization. And one of the ways that we could do this is to implement peer recognition.
Recognition programs to encourage employees to celebrate each other’s accomplishments and contributions, and foster a culture of gratitude and appreciation by regularly acknowledging the efforts and achievements of team members, and provide training on giving and receiving feedback in a way that promotes positivity and growth, and also encourage employees and team members to practice self-compassion and celebrate their own successes and achievements. These are super important in creating a culture of psychological safety to promote open communication through feedback. Now, if that is not done right, so your feed, you’ve given feedback and maybe that wasn’t delivered skillfully. The impact of this can create some conflicts, unresolved conflicts, which can you know, these are the impacts on an organization of unresolved conflict. It decreases productivity when people are stressed and distracted by conflict, it’s hard to focus on getting work done.
They might be ruminating on a disagreement or something that was said right, and they could be creating positive. I’m wasting energy on passive aggressive behavior, and passive aggressive behavior is saying yes when you mean no, or saying I did it when you didn’t, or being nice to somebody and stabbing them in the back. And that just creates an underlying level of tension of where people are just like, well, there’s something wrong, but don’t necessarily know what it is. Low morale. Constant conflict creates a tense and unpleasant work environment.
Employees may feel disengaged, unsupported, and unhappy, leading towards a lower morale and motivation. What people don’t necessarily want to come to work because they feel bad badly. It also increases stress and anxiety. Being in conflict with colleagues can be a major source of stress and anxiety. This can take a toll on team members and employees mental and physical health.
Right. That is something that we definitely in our organization don’t promote at all. We do not promote conflict. We do not promote passive aggressive behavior. We don’t backstab, we don’t triangulate.
And triangulating means telling somebody. Person three so that person one will act in a certain way. And your person two that’s triangulating. So you’d rather want to address the issue with person one and leave person three out of it. So and because it becomes toxic.
Right. So you don’t want that. Another one another impact of unresolved conflict is high turnover employees who are stressed out and unhappy are more likely to look for a new job, but they won’t say a word. They’re like, listen, like this one girl. Oh, where’s my finger?
This way. This one girl right over there, she’s like, I don’t like this boss of mine. I quit in my mind, but I’m going to quit in three months. But I’m going to make everyone’s life hell. So there’s turnover that’s happening.
And turnover that’s about to happen. Either way, it’s not a positive impact on anybody. There’s also poor communication and collaboration. Conflict can make it difficult for people to communicate effectively and collaborate on projects. They may be less likely to share information or ask for help or work together towards a common goal.
There’s an extreme, extreme cases. It could lead to legal problems such as harassment, lawsuits. You know, actually, I was just really important. My insurance people the the my insurance guy, my go to was just talking about, you know, employee malpractice just because, you know, there’s legal ramifications to conflicts that are unresolved. So you want to make sure that there’s open communication so you know exactly what people are thinking about or talking about.
So you can hedge, you know, just it from escalating any further. So here’s some steps to resolving conflict. First you identify the root cause. Don’t focus on the immediate disagreement or hurt feelings. Ask questions right and dig deeper to understand the underlying reasons for whatever it is that’s causing hurt feelings.
What needs, what desires, or what concerns are clashing? You want to ask, hey, what is it about that you know, you had you said this at our last meeting in a in this kind of a tone. Where did that come from? Is there anything going on that we need to to know about. You know, just just ask first and be an active listener.
This is so important. And give a person every person involved a chance to share their perspective without interruption. Pay close attention to both nonverbal cues and verbal cues, and try to see things from their point of view. Also, focus on interests, not positions. People often get stuck defending positions, but that can make it hard to find common ground.
So instead, when you focus on underlying interests or needs that each person has, then it’s easier to go from there. Rather than saying this is a fact or that is a fact. Well, some things are just a fact in your eyes, but it’s just perspective in another person’s eyes, right? It’s like not necessarily shared by everybody. So you have to understand that and brainstorm solutions when we work towards coming up with a solution.
Then it’s better for everyone’s interests. And you know what? And have, you know, an agreement and follow up once the solution is reached. Agree on how to move forward. Check with each other and see how things are going to make adjustments.
These are just so important because what happens when you don’t resolve a conflict and you let it fester, you start to see it decay. It’s like having mold in a sandwich. And that is so important that we we make sure that that doesn’t happen, that the mold is taken out first or the sandwich is gotten rid of right before somebody eats it. And more people get sick. Right?
So it’s really, really important. Well, I wanted to give a really quick example. All right. So one of the things, one of the examples that I wanted to give is I had. two cake decorators who were roommates and they did not like each other.
They had conflicts in their roommate life that they brought to the cake decorating room. And then it became a huge issue because one person would say, oh, I did this cake, but then didn’t, or the other person would say, that person did that, you know, cake. But. It really wasn’t true and it just caused a lot of issues. So what I didn’t the skillful, unskillful thing I did was take sides.
So that’s something that, you know, I would not do. Again, instead of listening, actively listening to two people, I didn’t I just basically made the assumption that one person did something wrong and then chided that other person, you know, that one person when it was really two, two to tango. So as a boss, that’s not a good thing to do. So resolving conflict means active listening, right? And just listening to both sides and then focus on interest.
And you know, what is it that you know, what are what is it that would make both of you happy rather than taking sides and then, you know, solve for answers rather than correcting, you know, a behavior that you think is happening but may not be happening. And also, you know, resolve and and follow up and not just leave it around. So I’ve, you know, I’ve made a lot of mistakes and like this these webinars are from somebody who’s been in the business and his is around the same issues that that this hopefully that you’re experiencing. So I’m not just a, you know, some random Joe or Josette. I actually have experienced all of this.
So this is just my share. Some of these, some of the ways that we can that we can implement conflict resolution strategies is to have to train managers and team leaders in compassionate and open communication. And I’m going to be offering that as a webinar in August. Some open communication and, you know, compassion and open communication. That’s going to be my next webinar.
So we only have 30 minutes. So I’m just zooming past this one. Create an employee voice. Create opportunities for employees to voice their concerns and feelings during conflict resolution process. A lot of times when it’s not, we don’t necessarily allow it to escalate to a point where you can’t take two people in a room, but a lot of times if there is, there are issues between two people or a few people, we have it all in one conversation and so people will know it’s like, okay, this is what was said.
It hurt my feelings, you know, or this is my supervisor said this and it hurt my feelings. We have end of day notes that we, you know, we have we review all the time. And also, one of the most important things that we implemented as an organization is that we have somebody who’s not in the who’s not necessarily one of the team members in the production or any of the other departments, but she oversees a lot of it. She’s our our lean guru, and she also does a lot of our HR resolutions so she can see it from like a bird’s eye perspective of what’s going on and the impact that, you know, certain behaviors or certain processes have on the team as individuals and as an organization or as a department. Incorporate wellness breaks and self-care activities into the culture of our company.
We do a lot of team building, and team building creates, you know, trust outside of the job so that it opens communication. And we also do, you know, a lot of these team buildings outside of work because then it creates, you know, a culture of psychological safety when we’re talking about things and we become, you know, friends outside of work. Then we can talk about things, you know, maybe work related stuff becomes part of the conversation that it’s not so heavily, heavily loaded. So that is something that we do. We have a lot of team building activities.
The last one, which I wasn’t part of because I was out of town, was that they had a movie night. And so everybody dressed in pajamas and they watched they watched a movie in in our makerspace, we have a place called a makerspace where we offer cake decorating parties. So that’s what we’ve done. We also offer work flexible work arrangements or time off to employees experiencing high levels of stress or emotional strain due to conflicts or just personal life. I mean, gosh, the world right now is so stressful.
So that’s something that we’re so aware of that. You know, it’s good to be flexible, but not to the detriment of the team or the organization, of course, but being very fully aware of the high levels of stress that some of our team members are going through is so important, because when you when you see people and mirror their experience, it’s easier for them to to feel like they’re safe enough to say something when they’re unhappy. So like I said, you know, when you offer flexibility, flexibility, flexibility actually is a a reflection of a very healthy mind. So when we’re and and also a healthy workplace. So when you’re flexible as a workplace, when you’re flexible as a management team, when you’re flexible as a supervisor, it creates a psychological safety for your team and your employees to be more flexible within their their own minds and within themselves.
Right. And it opens up communication. Also provide ongoing support and follow up to ensure conflicts are resolved satisfactorily and that employees feel supported in their well-being. Now we want to do continuous improvement. We actually implement lean, which is which is a way to just be more efficient and be less wasteful in our organization in terms of product and time and also our whole emotional output.
So we want to emphasize the importance of ongoing reflection and refinement of feedback, conflict resolution and well-being practices to promote long term sustainability. You know, we have our management meetings weekly and then quarterly. We talk about, okay, what’s going on in our organization in terms of the health of our employees and the health of our team, and how we can promote long term sustainable well-being practices. Right. What we can do to help others and our team.
We also discussed the role of mindfulness and self-awareness in fostering resilience and adaptability in the face of challenges. You know, just to be mindful of the way we speak, mindful of the way we are and the impact that we have on other people. It’s really important for us to have our own mindfulness practice so that as leaders in our organization, we’re not bombarding people with our own challenges and our own mental, you know, issues. So we’re, you know, basically in, in the in the presence of our team, we are fully grounded and fully present and cheerful and joyful so that we’re not contributing anymore to whatever stress that our team members are experiencing. And we want to introduce strategies for integrating wellbeing into everyday work practices to create a culture of holistic wellness.
So wellbeing practices could be, you know, just a moment of reflection. Make sure that everybody has their breaks. You know, there’s like ruling, there’s breaks that are required by the state so that not, you know, so people are not running ragged. So then, you know, just make sure that people also have time to just chit chat. And they’re not at 100% all the time because people when people are on 100% of all the time, it is really, really taxing on the mind and the body.
And for as a leader, it’s important that we have mindfulness practice to calm the reactive brain. And I promote this in all my webinars because I think it’s super important to incorporate simple mindful breathing exercises into daily your daily routines. Also, you know, for me, I When I pull up to the bakery, I take three breaths, you know, to know, it’s like, okay, what kind of person am I going to be today and how I’m going to communicate today? So then I know how my tone will be with the team. It’s important that we do that.
Also engage in deep, intentional breaks to center ourselves and promote clarity of thought before making decisions, and consider meditation and mindfulness practices. There’s so many, and one of these days I’m going to host a retreat. So stay tuned and thank you for attending this webinar. And my name again is Odette DÁniello. Contact me at Celebrity Gourmet.
You can listen to my podcast at Celebrity gourmet.com, or connect with me on LinkedIn. If you need to chit chat with me, you know you could always count me in. I will chit chat with you for 30 minutes for a coaching session. No holds barred if you have any reflections that you want me to give you feedback on, I’m willing to be there. Thanks so much.
And thank you, Karen, for having me again for this webinar.
Karen Tinglev-Hansen: 32:47
Thanks, Odette. Let’s go ahead and keep your contact information up during the questions here. How should feedback be adjusted when dealing with long term employees versus new hires?
Odette D’Aniello: 32:59
I think a lot for us, we have a lot of long term employees. A lot of times long term, long term employees have history. So our feedback is really okay. Remember, you know we we’ve been through this. So it’s you know to to ground the conversation that look we’re on the same team and we’re going the same direction.
That’s really important for us. And that, you know, they’re very valued. It’s so, so important that our long term employees know how value they are, that they’re part of the decision making, that they’re part of the team versus new, new hires. You’re still putting them in the boat, right? And you’re still like, this is the direction we’re going.
We are still on the. We are on the same team. They’re like stage one of that.
Karen Tinglev-Hansen: 33:48
Okay. And what are some ways to measure the effectiveness of feedback and conflict resolution initiatives over time?
Odette D’Aniello: 33:55
Well, it’s the health of your organization. Are people happy, you know, or do they shut down when you walk in the room? Are people chit chatting with each other? Are they laughing? Is how lighthearted is your organization and how effectively, you know, are they doing their jobs?
That’s that’s how you’ll know, right? Because some some workplaces you walk in, you can cut the tension with a knife. And you don’t want that because, you know, if that’s happening, that it’s not a place that people want to stay in. You know, when when there’s negativity and when there’s, you know, just a lot of tension. It just adds to the daily stress that they may be experiencing at home already.
Why do that at work too?
Karen Tinglev-Hansen: 34:37
Do you have any suggestions for handling feedback and conflict resolution in a multicultural team?
Odette D’Aniello: 34:45
Oh, boy. Well, we have you know, we’re we’re coming. We’re first generation immigrants. And sometimes, you know, the way that we at least I address issues might be a bit too rough or or not as soft as others or like the age gap is really important. So I have different levels of ages in my team to address certain situations.
So it’s not just me addressing everything. There’s my sister who’s ten years younger. There’s my daughter who’s way younger still. And then there’s, you know, Megan, who’s also part of our team, who’s who’s in HR, who’s about my age. And, you know, we’re all the same, you know, but we have different approaches.
So it’s it we just we basically just work as a team together as a management team to address, you know, all the needs of our of our team members.
Karen Tinglev-Hansen: 35:46
All right. Well, I want to thank you so much. I don’t have any other questions now. So we’ll wrap up on behalf of the IDDBA, I’d like to thank Odette DÁniello for today’s insightful and informative session. If you are interested in presenting or sponsoring an IDDBA webinar, please contact us at webinars at or visit our webinars page at org under the trendsetter tab.
Thanks everyone for attending and for your continued support of IDDBA. Have a great rest of your day!
Odette D’Aniello: 36:14
Thank you so much.
Outro: 36:20
Thanks for listening to the Celebrity Gourmet Podcast. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.