"Strong leaders, real difference makers, and people who leave their mark on the world of business have one thing in common: they are lifetime learners that inspire success."
Yvette Durazo is a specialist Workplace Conflict Management Consultant, and an External Chief Civility Officer (CCO). Yvette is the expert companies need to help maintain a harmonious workplace by solving issues with co-workers so that they focus on the goals of the organization and increase performance.
Although her father was an orphan with no formal education, he raised Yvette to be an intellectual. A great man of faith who became a successful businessman, Yvette’s father demonstrated that he cared more about his employees than profit. Growing up in the family business young Yvette aspired to have her own business one day and to be a great leader like her father. His leadership inspired Yvette to help organizations build good leaders and how to recognize them.
Yvette Durazo, MA, PCC is the author of the book Conflict Intelligence (Conflict-IQ™) The Missing Piece to Turbocharge Leaders’ and Organizations’ Emotional Intelligence, and is the principal consultant of Unitive Consulting, a workplace organizational effectiveness, strategic conflict management, and leadership development firm. Yvette brings innovative techniques to promote a positive workplace culture in organizations to encourage trust, productive human capital engagement, and inclusion.
Clients benefit from her wealth of knowledge and professional experience in the art of building a trusting workplace relationship. Some of her services included; training, mediating conflicts in the workplace, anti-bullying prevention, settlement negotiations, developing dispute system design, and bringing unique strategies to address the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) workplace.
Yvette is passionate about optimizing professionals and teams to engage in constructive problem-solving communication toward instilling respect, civility, and collaboration. She believes that human conflict is one of the most important things organizations must learn to work with and harness to overcome any derailing of employees’ performance and engagement. Her methodologies are like a vitamin shot to the immunity of organizations.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Yvette Durazo: My name is Yvette Durazo, and I am the founder of Unitive Consulting. My company provides services that help with organization effectiveness and leadership development.
Our services include training, mediating conflicts management in the workplace, anti-bullying tactics, settlement negotiations, developing dispute system design, and bringing unique strategies to address Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) to the workplace.
I am looking to reach people that are dealing with conflict or communications issues in their organization.
Quiet quitting, The Great Resignation, are an ongoing trend causing many businesses to struggle keeping talent engaged and motivated. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. In your experience, what keeps employees happy? And how are adapting to the current shift we see?
Yvette Durazo: I truly believe that people want and deserve better working conditions, and I am not only referring to wages. Employees want to feel safe, respected, and supported at work. With a current job market that offers a wide variety of great opportunities, employees want to make wise decisions, not only for the sole purpose of covering their basic needs but for a deeper satisfaction, one that goes along with their self-realization.
A harmonious environment, where the value of each employee is acknowledged, is more productive and encourages people to commit to their jobs and to stay in the organization, no matter if they work from home or in the premises. Turnover is low in these organizations, but it requires the leaders to have specific skills such as emotional intelligence, conflict resolution abilities, great communication, vision, and the strong will to empower their talents towards growth and better opportunities within the same organization, among others.
According to statistics, The Great Resignation is also about employees questioning working conditions, wages, high turnover rates, and other situations that may help them refuse a job offer. This is happening more now than ever, even when inflation rates have increased, thus increasing the cost of living.
Apparently, employees have discovered their right to reassess the terms of engagement with an organization. It seems that employees are no longer willing to settle for what a company is offering. They have realized that they have the power to demand what they deserve, even if this means waiting for a better and more satisfactory opportunity. And the US job market offers plenty of these nowadays!
Undoubtedly, technology is a great resource. It is here to stay and most processes have changed in ways that we could have never imagined a decade or two before. In fact, technology is what kept the world functioning while people were confined. Digitalization was once optional and now is mandatory. All that is wonderful and it will keep evolving further, but I strongly believe that organizations must regain and protect the human aspect of work.
Machines, systems, and devices do a great deal of the work, but they are ultimately controlled by human beings with needs, pains, feelings, emotions, relationships, differences, particularities, identities, dreams, and aspirations. Let’s turn back to them, to the people who are like the blood that runs in the veins of organizations. Let’s take care of what is actually alive in a company. Any organization wanting to increase productivity must focus on increasing the overall satisfaction of their employees.
Here is a two fold question: What is the book that influenced you the most and how? Please share some life lessons you learned. Now what book have you gifted the most and why?
Yvette Durazo: The book that influenced me the most is How to Win Friends and Influence People. This book help me to understand that it is possible to tranform leaders that care for thier employees and not only the bottom line. Strong leaders, real difference makers, and people who leave their mark on the world of business have one thing in common: they are lifetime learners that inspire success.
Great leaders find innovative ways to unite and engage people and drive success. This book also taught me that I should not say things just for saying them, but rather to be stratigical and diplomat.
Christopher Hitchens, an American journalist, is quoted as saying that “everyone has a book in them” Have you written a book? If so, please share with us details about it. If you haven’t, what book would you like to write and how would you like it to benefit the readers?
Yvette Durazo: Yes, I have author a book about Conflict Intelligence and the methedology I developed to help leaders to be come leaders that people want to follow. The title of my book is Conflict Intelligence Quotient – Conflict-IQ (TM): The Missing Piece to Turbocharge Conscious Leaders’ and Organizations’ Emotional Intelligence, you can find it in Amazon.
Here is a bit of what the book is about.
“CONFLICT INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT (Conflict-IQ™): The Missing Piece to Turbocharge Conscious Leaders’ and Organizations’ Emotional Intelligence by Yvette Durazo introduces different aspects of conflict management, illustrating emotional intelligence and conflict intelligence as indelible factors that enhance any organization’s reputation.
The book uncovers solutions to conflict and reveals the root causes of certain kinds of conflict. It takes the reader deep into the background of issues and how these childhood problems can be a problem in an organization. The core of conflict intelligence is awakening individuals’ sense of maintaining a conducive environment for all members to thrive and work in harmony.
Although, the book is primarily written for professionals and organizations that deal with people daily and the conflicts which may arise from their interactions, it can also provide useful tools to everyone in dealing with conflict, providing effective communication tools for achieving resolution so communities, whether at work or in personal situations, can enjoy the attainment of Conflict Intelligence (Conflict-IQ™).
The dynamism of this book epitomizes and advocates innovative ways to solve conflict without hurting the relationship that exists. It demonstrates that all conflicts are different because all people are different. Therefore, by learning about conflict intelligence, leaders and employees can creatively invent new ways of resolving issues.
In her book, Yvette Durazo aims to show people how crucial conflict intelligence is to an organization where people interaction is required for the company to succeed. By understanding this book and practicing the truths embedded therein, you will become a better leader. After all, the essence is to empower people to become better versions of themselves in a diverse environment.”
2020, 2021, 2022 threw a lot of curve balls into businesses on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past years, how can businesses thrive in 2023? What lessons have you learned and what advice would you share?
Yvette Durazo: Change is the only constant in life. We all went through a massive change Management experiment, in my humble opinion. There were those who were very resilient and quickly adapted to the circumstances and those who struggled.
I learned about myself that I am very resilient, that I am a powerful person that was able to live alone during the entire pandemic by focusing on what I could do to contribute to society. I was able to write my book to help organizations build better cultures.
It is true that 80 percent of our waking hours are spent in the workplace, and even though many are working online, the fact that there is interpersonal conflict among employees does not stop while working online. This reduces productivity and creates health issues for people. If I can contribute to society by teaching them to become conflict-intelligent, people will be much better leaders at any level of the organization; they will be better family members and better community leaders, and overall we can create a better society as a whole for the betterment of everyone in this earth.
What does “success” in the year to come mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Yvette Durazo: Sucess to me will look like in a year that I do well by doing good with the work that I can contribute to organizations. It looks like me having the opportunity to be able to work with organizations to support their effort in creating better community skills for their employees.
When talking about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, I would be able to help organizations create effective team leaders that can lead these efforts, which will allow employees to feel that they are being heard, respected, appreciated, and included in the decision-making process. My passion is the work that I do, and having opportunities to play with the work that I do, is my most ultimate goal and reward.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Yvette Durazo for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Yvette Durazo or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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