Conflict and disagreement are extremely damaging to business results and team effectiveness.
During this transition period of loosening restrictions, some tempers are starting to fray, as the pressures of WFH & home-schooling reach their peak. Many leaders and managers are experiencing higher levels of conflict and disagreement within their teams.
To ease the pressure, we need to shift our focus from fixing the problem to seeking understanding. When we assume that others see the world the way we do, we set ourselves up for failure!
The key is to look for the other person’s point of view – how are they seeing the situation? Is the conflict based on differences of priorities, procedures or pressures?
There are six steps to Calming Conflict:
- Recognise the Conflict
- Identify the Cause (by backtracking)
- Look for Misunderstanding
- Clarify Issues
- Agree on Action Plan
- Implement & Review
Reducing conflict increases team cohesion & engagement and frees them up to concentrate on business outcomes, delivering immediate results now, during the pandemic and creating a “new normal” for tomorrow and beyond.
As leaders, it’s important that we work on understanding all the perspectives, so we can optimise our teams and maximise our results.
