How The Best Leaders Handle Team Conflict Successfully
Conflict is inevitable in any team. It’s how leaders handle it that can make the difference between a successful resolution or a damaging escalation. The best leaders know how to navigate team conflict successfully and emerge stronger as a result.
Here are seven key strategies they use to handle conflict:
Staying neutral: As a leader, it’s important to maintain objectivity and not take sides in a conflict. As a result, this can help to prevent further escalation and encourage the parties involved to come to a resolution on their own.
Identifying the root cause: It’s important for leaders to get to the bottom of what’s causing the conflict. Is it a misunderstanding? A miscommunication? A personality clash? Once the root cause has been identified, it’s easier to come up with a solution.
Encouraging open communication: One of the key ways to resolve conflict is to encourage open and honest communication between team members. Leaders can create an environment where team members feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and feelings. This can help facilitate healthy discussions to resolve conflicts.
Focusing on the issue, not the person: It’s easy to get caught up in personal attacks and feelings during a conflict. The best leaders stay focused on the issue at hand. By keeping the conversation centered on the problem, leaders can help team members come to a resolution without letting emotions get in the way.
Allowing participants to come up with their own solutions: Great leaders know that the most effective resolutions are often those that are arrived at by the parties involved. They facilitate the conversation, but they encourage the participants to come up with their own solutions. As a result, the team members feel a sense of ownership and pride.
Appreciating the effort: The best leaders appreciate the process of handling conflict and recognize the efforts of their team in doing so. They acknowledge this by showing appreciation for the team’s efforts in handling conflict.
Following up. Once the conflict has been resolved, it’s important for leaders to follow up to ensure that the issue doesn’t resurface. This may involve ongoing communication and check-ins to ensure that everyone is on the same page and working towards a common goal.
By utilizing these strategies, leaders can successfully handle any team conflict and help their team emerge stronger as a result.
Lead From Within: Great leaders understand that conflicts are a natural part of any team and are willing to put in the effort to resolve them in a way that promotes harmony and productivity.
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After decades of coaching powerful executives around the world, Lolly Daskal has observed that leaders rise to their positions relying on a specific set of values and traits. But in time, every executive reaches a point when their performance suffers and failure persists. Very few understand why or how to prevent it.
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