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As a leader or manager, you need to be able to deal with conflict when it occurs. These suggestions will help you take decisive action to resolve disputes, ensuring that relationships in your team remain healthy and productive.
Create a Positive Working Environment
Conflict is less likely to occur in working cultures based on mutual trust and respect. You can create this kind of environment by treating everyone in your team fairly and equally, providing them with praise and recognition, and being open and honest at all times.
Learn to Spot the Signs of Conflict
Although they are often quite subtle, you can start to detect the signs of conflict simply by being aware of the interactions within your team. Conflict might be reflected in team members’ body language, facial expressions or tone of voice.
Deal With Conflict as Soon as it Occurs
Conflict is usually borne out of small annoyances or disagreements that can easily be resolved if they are addressed at the first sign of trouble. However, when ignored, these seemingly small issues can quickly escalate and prevent the individuals from working effectively together. If you notice conflict between your team members, it is extremely important to take action and help them resolve the situation before it spirals out of control.
Set Some Ground Rules for Discussing Conflict
If you become aware of conflict between team members, it is a good idea to bring them together to talk about the problem. Before getting the conversation underway, set some ground rules. Team members should listen to one another, respect one another’s points of view, and refrain from interrupting each other. The tone of the conversation should be calm, rational and non-threatening. It is, therefore, important for team members not to engage in this kind of discussion if they are feeling angry or emotional.
Be Fair and Even-Handed
Even if you feel as though you empathize or agree with one individual in particular, it is important that you remain objective while discussing conflict between team members. Your role is to help the team members address the issues causing the conflict and to reach a resolution that works well for both of them.
Equally, make sure you treat each individual fairly. Give them time and opportunity to present their own perspective on events and allow them to respond to any criticisms. It is vital to ensure both parties feel they have not only had the opportunity to state their case but that they have also been listened to.
Don’t allow one person to dominate the conversation and ‘bully’ a more reserved colleague into submission. If you find that one person is constantly interrupting or talking over the other, ask questions of the person who is being dominated. This allows them to talk to you, and you can prevent the dominant person from interrupting. If they do attempt to interrupt, politely ask them to wait until the other person has finished what they are saying, then ask them what they wanted to say.
Exercise Tact
The language you use as a mediator can have a great bearing on your success. Be careful of stating absolute facts, especially if they are open to interpretation or could be wrong. For example, use phrases like “as far as I’m aware” or “as I understand it”. These leave room for discussion and should be less challenging. Equally, they allow for the possibility that your understanding or knowledge is wrong, or at least incomplete.
Also, be aware of and sensitive to each person’s individual situation. There will be particular things which are likely to upset or anger them, so avoiding or treading carefully around these subjects is advised. For example, it would be tactless to tell an employee recently returned from an extended period of sick leave that their work was not yet up to the standard they used to achieve. Neither would it be wise to directly challenge someone on the facts of a subject or skill in which they consider themselves an expert, unless you are absolutely confident in your assertion.
Make Concrete Plans
The ultimate goal of mediation is to resolve the conflict in a mutually satisfactory way, wherever possible. Try to find solid commitments and actions that address the cause(s) of friction and are agreeable to both parties. Make sure each person takes responsibility for seeing through those actions that are relevant to them. It’s also vital to follow up afterwards to make sure the agreed actions are being taken and that they are having the desired effect of resolving the initial conflict.
Seek Advice and Guidance
If you are faced with a complex or challenging conflict situation in your team, and you are unsure how to handle it, seek some support before taking action. You may wish to consult your line manager or a trusted colleague who is particularly adept at handling conflict. Your HR department (if you have one) may also be able to provide you with help and support in this regard.
Develop Your Team’s Conflict Management Skills
It is important for team members to understand conflict and feel confident about resolving situations independently. To this end, you may wish to liaise with your Learning and Development department to discuss the possibility of offering conflict-management skills training to the team or wider organization. You might also wish to explore the possibility of introducing conflict management as a core competency in your organization with the help of the appropriate individuals (e.g. your HR department or line manager).
Evaluate Your Conflict-Management Skills
After handling a conflict situation in your team, spend some time reflecting on how effectively you did this. Consider what you did well, as well as what you might wish to do differently in the future. Make a note of these observations, so you can refer to them next time you are required to handle conflict within your team. You might also find it helpful to solicit some feedback from the team members involved to find out how effective they felt you were at helping them resolve the situation.
