Humans aren’t new to the concept of conflict. If you have ever disagreed with someone about something and tried to solve the problem, you have seen conflict at its epicenter. Individuals struggle with conflicts in almost all facets of their lives, and work is no exception.
Every workspace is made up of different personalities who have different perspectives, opinions, and ways of working with a problem. Undoubtedly these differences make a work ecosystem effective and productive. However, clashing personalities often lead to conflict as well. According to a survey conducted by CPP, around 85% of individual contributors and leaders have faced some sort of inevitable conflict in their workspace. While good conflict can drive positive change, destructive conflict can crush team morale and create a toxic environment.
Employees get all worked up and their work gets intertwined with the underlying problems. However, if you are in a leadership position or a resource manager, it’s your responsibility to bolster employee morale and deploy avant-garde tools like resource scheduling software to distribute workloads evenly and solve internal conflicts. If you are a manager who recognized problems brewing at their very initial stage, here are some steps to help you resolve these issues:
#1 Identify the source of conflict
Before you try to solve the conflict, you need to identify its source. Try to clarify and define the cause of how the conflict came to grow in the first place. There are often non-verbal cues. Get a hold of those cues and analyze if someone on your team is mad, frustrated, upset, or just happy. Try to talk to both parties and find out what the disagreement is all about. Discuss why the needs of both sides are not met and try to establish mutual understanding.
#2 Be patient and impartial
Conflicts don’t start in a single day, and neither do they end in one day. Managing competition in a workspace requires patience. So, while talking to your team, listen to their problems patiently and take all the necessary time to manage the conflict moving forward. Also, when you are in a leadership position, try to manage the competition by staying impartial. Even when the conflict is between your favorite colleague and a new employee, try to take a neutral stand, and when you feel you can’t ask someone to step in and manage the conflict.
#3 Isolate the “what” from the “why”
So, every dispute is intertangled between two key questions: WHAT and WHY? The WHAT refers to the consequence, whereas the WHY is mainly the cause. When trying to solve conflicts, ask the right questions and frame discussions objectively. Often when two employees go through some disputes, the only thing a manager can do is be empathetic, actively listen to their problems, acknowledge their efforts, and appreciate their feelings. Believe it or not, sometimes not bossing around people can lead them to their answers relatively faster, and just being heard can help employees feel better.
#4 Make tough decisions if you have to
There will be problems that you can resolve through a compromise that makes everyone somewhat satisfied, but there will also be circumstances where you are unable to appease everyone. In these situations, you must leverage your knowledge of your team, your objectives, and your superiors to find the best answer, even if it has a hefty price tag.
If you ever find yourself in such a tight spot, keep your decisions in line with the company values, listen to concerns, and use historical precedent wherever appropriate. Also, before you implement your decision, ensure to communicate your decision to the affected parties yourself.
#5 Understand when you forgive, forget and apologize
The conflict doesn’t need to be between two employees; it can also be between an employee and a manager, or a manager can also be the reason for conflict between two employees. If you find anything like that, ensure to weigh in with your thoughts, and even if it’s necessary, apologize for your mistakes. Always put aside your annoyances, and don’t let pride deter you from making necessary amends within your team.
Takeaway
Workspaces have dynamic atmospheres. Sometimes the announcement of a team-wide change can get things dicey, or sometimes even the tiniest of communication gaps can lead to major conflicts. Do you want to solve disputes budding within your organization and create a more productive work environment? Well, then follow the above-listed tool and ensure to opt for a resource management tool. A resource management tool is a tech-enabled addition that can aid you in distributing work evenly and track-progress in real time. It can help to simplify scheduling and pave the way for a more adaptive workspace with a centralized database.
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