You are chilled and having a good time. Then like Randy Orton’s RKO out of nowhere boom! You have a conflict in your hands that you are holding juice.
I am persuaded to think that one of the hallmarks of transformational leadership lies in how one successfully addresses conflicts in our places of work. Our places of work are replete with people of diverse persuasions and potentially difficult situations are lurking in every corner of the compass.
We will always have divergences in our thought processes that can cause damaging rifts. Leaders ought to be equipped with means of dealing with these inevitable incompatibilities that can arise without notice. Can you negotiate a hostage crisis? First off strategists will always admonish that never let a crisis or conflict go to waste.
Let us have an operational definition. Paul Mckinney has given us a pretty good definition of conflict management. He says conflict management is the practice of identifying and handling conflicts efficiently and fairly.
Disagreements can emanate from a myriad of sources. The fountains of conflicts can be from communication glasses, resource allocation, power mischief, personality disparities, role ambiguities, change management, competitions, cultural perspectives and changes in policies and processes, among many factors.
How do well-trained professionals spot conflicts within the organisation or department? There are numerous indicators of a place that is teeming with incompatibilities. Gossip, nose-diving performance, blame games, fear, quarrelsomeness, lack of focus and abundantly more.
A simple question like Should we train employees can generate deep-seated responses. In a nutshell, conflicts can even spring from every fissure. What are established methodologies for tackling conflicts in organisations? Like management schools of thought we have conflict management styles. They include collaborative, competitive, avoidance, accommodative and compromising approaches.
Communication is the lifeblood of any transcendental relations, especially when it is open, transparent, objective and factual. There is the other humanistic aspect.
Mediation is where the involved parties engage the services of an impartial specialist. Some certified mediators can solve workplace incompatibilities. It is quite informal. The organisation can elect to have internal or external mediators.
Negotiations can be done through collaborative or competitive glasses. When a particular problem exists and different parties have diverse standpoints, negotiation can be used to bring them closer to a resolution.
Conflict coaching is where chosen stakeholders are empowered through competency development for them to have more polished ways of tackling problems. Arbitration is more formal and binding. It isn’t as exorbitant and time-consuming as the court processes.
Learning and development is an essential tool for leaders and employees in the handling of unsettled discords. It is important to know what causes detrimental discords, how those discords manifest and how to resolve them.
Constructive feedback is an integral part of conflict management as we say in motivational circles feedback is the food for champions.
The formation of a conflict resolution committee can do a lot of justice in managing differences.
What are the costs of unresolved conflicts? The most obvious cost is that of subpar performance. Questionable productivity will logically lead to nose-diving profitability. Time spent in simmering differences impairs the performance of the involved parties. In fact, the conflict has the potential of infecting others.
When a workplace is replete with outstanding disagreements it takes the sap out of communication.
Do I need to say sabotage of the works of others?
A place that has lingering disputes will cause talent flight. When there is talent flight that becomes a grave expense that chews into the balance sheet.
Employee resourcing can be an expensive and tedious undertaking. When an employee is mad they can elect presenteeism as a way of keeping their jobs.
They can be present but do the barest minimum. The leaders lose big time. The company loses when there are perpetual discords.
Did we say wellness? Yes, let us say it. Wellness which is critical to the bottom line becomes a causality of unsettled differences.
Unaddressed tensions can cause stress and burnout. Persisting frictions can cause immense damage to personal, product and organisational brands.
Richard J. Magoma is a HR, Trainer and Conference Speaker.
