In everything, if you are prepared, you will stand, and if you don't wait, you will be wasted.
The Book of Rites: The Mean
Meaning: do anything, prepare in advance to succeed;If you don't prepare in advance, you will fail.
When you have a strategy in place to deal with all kinds of conflicts when they occur, you can trust that you have the right way to support your team when they do occur. In this article, we will discuss seven effective strategies to use in conflicts.
As a team leader, you want to foster an open and inclusive environment where everyone can do their best in their work. There are many strategies you can employ to foster this type of work culture, such as encouraging teamwork and scheduling team-building activities, but what about when there is conflict between two of your team members?
Resolving conflict at work can be overwhelming, especially if you don't have previous experience dealing with it, but resolving conflict directly is often the best way to make your team members feel supported and heard.
Sometimes, you may feel that the conflict is not relevant to you, and you may want to let your team members resolve it themselves. But ignoring conflict can lead to conflict worsening and can lead to a harmful work environment. Instead, conflict resolution strategies can help you reconcile different perspectives and turn a challenging interpersonal conflict into a win-win situation.
If you're not familiar with how to deal with conflict in the workplace, that's okay, in this article, we'll help you develop your conflict resolution skills by applying the Conscious Leadership model. That way, when conflict arises, you can feel confident that you have the right approach to support your team.
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What is Conflict Resolution?
Simply put, conflict resolution is the process of resolving conflicts in the workplace to foster an open, honest, and inclusive workplace. If there is conflict between one or more team members, workplace conflict resolution strategies can help you make each team member feel heard and supported. With these strategies, you'll learn to handle conflicts in a way that's acceptable to both parties.
Learning how to resolve conflict is a key part of good leadership. But that doesn't mean it's an easy skill to learn. Developing your conflict resolution skills takes practice. The first thing is to accept your role and be confident to prevent disagreements or misunderstandings from escalating into bigger problems. Then, learn to resolve conflicts as they arise and build an open and honest workplace culture.
The difference between conflict and disagreement.
When we speak of conflict, we don't mean disagreement. In fact, disagreement is an important part of good teamwork and healthy teamwork.
A key part of teamwork is encouraging your team to be open and honest with each other. When your team members disagree, it means they're happy to share their perspectives and challenge each other to co-create the best solution – so small disagreements can be a good thing.
When did it become a problem?
Disagreements turn into conflict when one or more team members feel anxious and unable to be their full selves at work. This could mean that the disagreement becomes a personal problem, or that the disagreement reveals a larger problem in the team.
In these cases, you can use conflict resolution strategies to better understand the cause of the conflict and co-create a resolution with your team.
The difference between conflict and disconnection.
Whether they realize it or not, your team members have been working together. As a result of their regular collaboration, team members form a natural bond – which is reflected in their ability to work together, communicate openly, and solve problems.
An interpersonal conflict between two team members can sever this connection. Instead of being able to communicate clearly, there is something that arises between two or more people. The cause of the rift is conflict, but the real problem is disconnect. Disconnecting means you can't work together and communicate clearly. In order to resolve the disconnection, you must resolve the conflict.
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Develop your conflict resolution skills
Developing your ability to resolve conflict is an ongoing process. After reading this article or attending a workshop, you probably won't become a master at conflict resolution – and that's okay. Like all interpersonal skills, conflict resolution skills take time to build and develop. Developing these skills is a proactive process. By learning how to resolve conflict, you set yourself up for future success, so when conflict does arise, you know how to deal with it.
In the process of conflict resolution, it is important to remember that everyone is doing their best. Always approach issues with an open mind and encourage your team to do the same. Asking good questions, listening and understanding, can help you develop empathy in the situation, identify the common ground of the parties involved, and find a solution to the problem.
This also means that you shouldn't be afraid to turn to your boss or HR for help if necessary. Conflicts can arise and you are not equipped to deal with them alone, and sometimes the best thing you can do is ask for help. Remember, the most important thing in resolving conflict is to help your team members succeed – no matter what kind of success you may have.
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Practice 7 Conflict Resolution Techniques
No matter what type of conflict you're dealing with, there are some conflict resolution techniques that you should learn and your team should be encouraged to learn as well. By intentionally introducing these practices into any conflict conversation, you're helping to build possible solutions more easily together.
Use statements that begin with "I".
Statements that begin with "I" rather than "you" put the center of your statement on your own experience, rather than projecting your thoughts onto someone else.
For example, let's say your team is having a brainstorming session and you come up with an idea that wasn't included in the brainstorming document. Instead of saying "you didn't acknowledge my idea in the meeting", you can say "I hurt when my idea wasn't added to the brainstorming file." In the second sentence, you want to explain how the situation affects you, not projecting someone else's behavior.
Understand the zone between intent and impactDon't
Understanding the difference between intent and impact can help team members see their actions from the perspective of others. Intention refers to what a person does or says. Influence, on the other hand, is how the affected party feels. In the process of conflict resolution, it is important to understand the intent and impact.
For example, imagine a teammate reorganizing your project plan. The purpose of this may be to make the project plan more organized, but the result may be that the person does it without your permission and you are hurt as a result. Ultimately, impact is more important (because you're the one who was hurt), but understanding the initial intent allows you to understand your teammates' perspectives and improve communication in the future.
Focus on facts, not stories
Facts vs Stories" is a conscious leadership technique. "Facts" are what really happened – things that cameras can capture. A "story," on the other hand, is your personal interpretation of a fact.
For example, let's say you and your teammates agree on a delivery date for a task, but your teammates don't complete the task in time. The truth is, the agreed deadline is missed and you may make up a story that your teammates don't respect your time or don't think this deliverable is a priority. Even if the story is true to you, it may not be the reason for missing the deadline. Maybe your teammates have too much to do, work slips through the cracks, or their dog is sick and needs to see a vet right away. Nobody knows, knows!
Separating facts from stories can help prevent you from jumping to conclusions. Sharing facts and stories in specific situations can help you express your opinion in a specific conflict situation and thus get the truth.
Keep the conversation private
Conflict brings a lot of emotions. Out of respect for all involved, it's best to keep these conversations closed and with as few members as possible. This private setting often feels safer, encourages more effective communication, and allows all parties to vent their grievances. These conversations can be one-on-one between you and everyone involved in the conflict, or you may want to have everyone in the room at the same time. Whichever you choose, it's important to keep the group as small as possible and limit it to those who are directly affected.
Get to the bottom of it
If conflicts are not resolved quickly and directly, conflicts can spread at their source. When this happens, it's hard to determine exactly what's causing this interference. This makes it almost impossible to solve the problem.
Whatever the conflict is, the first step in resolving it is to know what caused it. For example, let's say a conflict arises because two team members can't find a way to communicate effectively. In team meetings, they tease each other, which is awkward for everyone, and this type of conflict can be more complicated than it seems.
In this example, it is possible that a colleague has been promoted and the other person is upset because they didn't get a fair chance. Or maybe it's missing out on communication, they've never been told they're going to take on extra responsibilities, blaming their colleagues for having to do their jobs.
The bottom line is – in order to resolve the conflict, you need to find out what is causing the conflict.
Find a mutually agreeable solution
Conflict is often because two people look at the same issue from different perspectives. In order to solve the problem without leaving any resentment behind, you need to find a solution that both parties agree to be fair.
Typically, participants have two options. One is their point of view (the "right" point of view) and the other is the point of view of their colleague who thinks the colleague is wrong. But most of the time, both sides want to reach a common goal. Maybe they all want their voices to be heard, or maybe they're confused about their roles and responsibilities. Clarification of expectations for both sides could lead to a peaceful settlement that benefits all parties.
Develop a plan for conflict prevention
Disagreements are bound to happen. They are normal and even healthy. But whenever possible, you want to prevent them from escalating into full-scale conflicts. When you do resolve the conflict, implement a new process or process designed to prevent the conflict from happening again.
For example, if the conflict is due to an employee always forgetting their tasks, installing a project management tool to organize their work can prevent this from leading to future conflicts.
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Resolving workplace conflicts is not easy
Resolving conflict in the workplace is not easy, and developing your conflict resolution skills takes time.
In addition to developing these skills, make sure you're practicing good workplace communication.
Encourage your team to openly offer and accept constructive criticism and always support teamwork.
Over time, these workplace practices will not only make it easier for you to resolve conflicts, but they will also make them less likely to happen in the first place.
This article was first published on WeChat***"Knowledge of workplace management"