Conflict in companies is not only inevitable, but it can also actually be constructive. You know the signs of disagreement that have boiled over into a toxic work environment. No one likes it and you’ll probably do anything to avoid it.
Yet, an unhealthy avoidance of conflict just for the sake of dodging awkward conversations leads to a lack of productivity and overall lack of health.
As many management gurus and authors would tell you, conflict needs to be embraced as a healthy way to move forward as a team. The question is not if you have conflict, but how you engage in conflict management.
Books like The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and Radical Candor argue that direct, open communication when there are conflicts is essential to a productive, healthy team. Managers who have the soft skills or interpersonal skills to achieve effective conflict resolution techniques don’t spring out of nowhere, they must learn how to handle conflict.
In this brief blog, you’ll find out five basic keys to constructive conflict resolution. There are many more conflict resolution strategies to be explored, but these will give you a place to start and begin to manage workplace conflict.
Key to workplace conflict resolution #1: Avoid the fundamental attribution error
The fundamental attribution error is a cognitive bias that leads people to overestimate the importance of personal factors and underestimate the importance of situational factors in explaining the behavior of others. This is commonly seen in organizational leadership, and often leads to greater difficulties in resolving the conflict.
For example, a woman might be walking down the street and see a man begging for money. She assumes that he is begging because he is lazy and doesn’t want to work for a living. She doesn’t stop to think about the fact that he may have lost his job due to an unavoidable economic downturn and is struggling to support his family.
In a professional setting, the line can be a little blurrier.
Take, for example, this fictional but incredibly common situation in a retail setting. This will help illustrate a negative approach to conflict that doesn’t help employees, resolve the issue, or in any way lead to successful conflict resolution.
A young woman is starting her first job out of college. She is working as a sales associate at a large clothing store. The store is very busy and the customers are often impatient. The young woman is trying her best to keep up, but she is still learning the ropes and sometimes makes mistakes.
One day, a customer comes in and is very rude to her. The customer demands to speak to a manager and complains about the young woman’s service. The young woman feels embarrassed and frustrated. She knows that she made a few mistakes, but she was trying her best.
In front of the customer, the manager loudly berates her for being a terrible employee and totally clueless. The young woman is surprised and hurt. She thought that she was doing her best, but apparently it wasn’t good enough. She fundamentally doubts if she is personally qualified to ever work in this kind of job. She thinks she’s just not cut out for it.
This story illustrates the fundamental attribution error because the young woman’s manager attributed her poor performance entirely to personal factors (her being a terrible employee and clueless), rather than considering situational factors (the store’s high volume of customers, lack of experience dealing with difficult customers, etc.).
How could that manager have done a better job of coaching her? He could have recognized the stress she was under, her lack of experience, and the reality of her mistake, but said something like, “I know there were a lot of factors that made this situation difficult, but in the future, you can ask for assistance from a more experienced coworker or even proactively call for my help. You can even apologize to the customer and say that you’re new here.”
Both of these examples seem pretty obvious, but we’re more often guilty of the fundamental attribution error than we think.
It’s often the case that an employee might attribute their good performance to their own hard work and dedication, while attributing a co-worker’s poor performance to them being lazy or not working hard enough.
To avoid this error, it is important to consider both the person’s individual characteristics and the situation they are in when trying to explain their behavior. Just like you, others in your workplace and on your teams are complex beings living in a complex world.
this isn’t just about communication style, it is about attributing another person’s workplace failures to their very being. Employees’ work is just that, it is the things they produce — which can and must be corrected at times — not who they are as a person.
There are many factors that can impact someone’s performance, so even when having to correct someone or reprimand them, don’t make it about who they are, make it about what they’ve done. People can’t change who they are, but they can change their performance.
Key to workplace conflict resolution #2: Practice radical candor
A company or team can establish regular rhythms of talking through obstacles throughout the year. This is done by setting up communication channels between employees and employees as well as employees and management while encouraging active listening. These regular rhythms of talking help to identify potential problems early on, before they become bigger issues.
A great deal of healthy conflict resolution centers around dealing with being direct. This kind of direct communication has to take place in the context of a great deal of relational equity.
In the business world, the term “radical candor” has come to mean the honest, direct feedback that a boss should give to an employee – even when it’s tough to hear. The book Radical Candor, written by Kim Scott, is all about how to give and receive this type of feedback in a way that builds trust and respect.
The core idea of radical candor is that you should care personally for your employees and challenge them directly. This means being willing to give tough feedback when it’s needed, but also making sure that your employees know that you care about them as people. It can be a fine line to walk, but Scott argues that it’s worth it – because when done right, radical candor leads to better results and a more engaged workforce.
If you’re thinking about implementing radical candor in your own workplace, there are a few things to keep in mind. Make sure that you really understand the concept and what it entails. Be prepared to have some tough conversations – but remember that these conversations can be incredibly beneficial for both parties involved.
Perhaps most importantly, don’t forget to show your employees that you care about them – this is how giving candid feedback is actually constructive and not toxic.
Practicing radical candor and encouraging your direct reports to do the same can help avoid unaddressed or unresolved conflict from blowing up in your face.
Key to workplace conflict resolution #3: Create an environment that elevates diverse perspectives
Show respect for each team member and create a culture in which diverse perspectives are valued. Encourage open communication and avoid creating an environment in which one person or one idea holds more weight than others.
The most successful teams are those that have a diversity of perspectives. A team that has a variety of perspectives is able to see problems from multiple angles and come up with more innovative solutions. The obvious first step in this direction is to have a mix of people from different backgrounds on the team. If you’re building a new team or have the option to hire people, place an emphasis on bringing some diversity onto the team.
This could be in terms of race, gender, ethnicity, cultural background and upbringing, professional history and education, or any other characteristic that makes people unique. Conflict at work often comes from failing to include a variety of voices major decisions, which also leads to greater employee turnover, something that HR professionals and managers alike dread.
However, just having diversity isn’t enough. Everyone on the team must feel like their voice is heard and respected. This means creating an open and inclusive environment where people feel comfortable sharing their ideas. Psychological safety in the workplace is thus incredibly important to a flourishing team with high morale.
The team should be aware of their own biases and make an effort to account for them when making decisions. If you can create an environment that embraces diversity, you’ll have ar team that is more innovative and successful.
Key to resolving workplace conflict #4: Recognize when you need outside help from a professional coach or mediator
Recognize when you need help. Don’t let conflicts remain unaddressed or let grievances fester until they erupt into something far beyond basic conflict.
If you find yourself unable to resolve conflict on your own, it may be time to seek out a professional leadership coach or mediator. They can help you brainstorm solutions to major and minor conflicts alike, getting at the root causes behind your specific behaviors.
Our professional leadership coaches at Leadership Coaching Network can help you, as a manager or leader, better face the realities of conflict in the workplace.
Our coaches are not certified mediators, however, so you may need to bring in someone who is a professional certified mediator to work through your workplace conflict. Still, any good coach can help you see how your approach to work or a lack of effective communication may be leading to more frequent issues.
You can do a search in your city or state for the relevant certifying agencies and local organizations for certified mediators to begin to brainstorm some options. It is worth noting, though, that professional mediators tend to not teach resolution strategies for the workplace that help you embrace conflict or address issues at every stage of conflict. Rather, they tend to come in and help de-escalate crippling, high-level conflict.
Key to workplace conflict resolution #5: Learn to be a good mediator
If you think this is, in fact, a conflict that can be resolved without bringing in a professional, you should try to mediate the conflict on your own. Regardless of this particular incident, in general all managers should work on becoming good mediators.
If you want to be a good mediator at work, you need to be able to understand both sides of every issue and find common ground. Great leaders have the important skill of getting both parties to talk through the issue at hand outside of a formal meeting.
For example, let’s say two employees are arguing about how to handle a customer complaint. One employee wants to give the customer a refund, while the other employee thinks the customer should only receive a store credit.
As a mediator, you would need to listen to both employees’ perspectives and then find a compromise that would satisfy both parties. You’d begin by letting them know that their management supports their efforts to resolve customer complaints and that you want to propose an alternative solution. In this case, you might suggest that the customer receive a partial refund and a store credit.
To be an effective mediator, you also need to be impartial and objective. This means that you can’t take sides in any dispute and you can’t allow your personal feelings to influence your decisions. Deal with the problem at hand, not what you think about the particular person.
It can be difficult to remain impartial and objective, especially when the parties involved are close to you or if the issue is one that you feel strongly about. However, it is important to remember that as a mediator, your role is to facilitate negotiation and reach a resolution, not to advocate for either side.
There are a few things you can do to help ensure that you remain impartial and objective:
- Make sure that you understand the interests of the two or more parties involved. It can be helpful to write these down so that you can refer back to them during the mediation process or if conflict occurs again.
- Keep an open mind and be willing to consider all options. Attempt to be agreeable and never escalate the conflict.
- Avoid making assumptions or jumping to conclusions. Listen carefully to what each party has to say and give them equal time to speak. Model open dialogue.
Finally, it’s important to remember that mediation is not about winning or losing. Rather, it’s about finding a solution that everyone can live with. So even if neither side is completely happy with the outcome, as long as the resolution is fair and reasonable, it will be considered a success.
Remind yourself that these conflicts, when unaddressed, reduce productivity and teamwork. They can also erode trust, which is crucial for problem solving within teams.
If you can’t be impartial enough for people to trust your decision, it can be beneficial to bring in an outside party. This could be someone totally outside of your organization or someone who is at a similar level as you but in a different department. Again, this is where a leadership coach can be helpful to come in to assist with your dispute resolution.
Conclusion
In conclusion, conflict in the workplace is inevitable and can be constructive if managed properly. By avoiding the fundamental attribution error, practicing radical candor, elevating diverse perspectives, recognizing when you need outside help, and learning good mediation skills yourself, managers and employees can effectively resolve conflicts and create a more productive and healthy work environment.
Remember, it’s not about avoiding conflict, but about how you engage in conflict management within their workplace. After all, healthy conflict may be critical to your team achieving the highest level of effectiveness.
With these tips, you can learn how to handle conflict and improve your conflict resolution skills in your company.