A leader builds a team intending to work together towards a common objective. But do you know these teams are always prone to conflicts? There are disagreements and differences of opinion. The differences between the co-workers may also contrast with your own ideas. This situation creates a big tension within the group. Eventually, all the team members get diverted and perform poorly at the task at hand.
As a leader, you have many responses available to the conflict within the team. You can ignore the issue, respond with all the passive-aggressive actions or even blame each other for the problem. But do you know, these instances may make the situation worse for one and all? You need to come up with a sounder approach and manage the team conflict more positively.
When the situation gets out of hand, it becomes necessary to step into the conflict as the direct facilitator and approach to resolve the issue. Here are some common steps using which you can manage the conflicts arising within your team.
Speak to your team members:
You can start by speaking to all the parties to the conflict personally. An informal one-to-one conversation with each team member involved in the conflict will help you learn the problem. When you speak to each member individually, you start understanding the matter from their point of view.
While exercising this step, do not make unwanted assumptions. Let your team members take their own sweet time in opening up to the issue. Reassure each employee that the discussion so carried out is confidential. You can ask each member the same questions and remain impartial throughout the process.
Bond team members together:
Once you have inquired about the problem with the team members, it’s time to bring them together. It is your role to act as a moderator and a problem solver. You can set some rules before getting the conversation afoot. Encourage all your team members to speak to each other and respect their outlook towards the problem.
Keep your tone moderate during the entire discussion. It is essential to motivate active listening. To lighten up the mood you can also introduce some in-house interactive activities. If you are resolving these disputes over a virtual meeting, make way for some virtual team-building activities. This step will help you to bridge the gap between your team members.
Ask for ideas:
If the point of conflict is not very sensitive, you can ask for everyone’s perspective on the conflict. Asking for ideas for the resolution of the conflict among the team members is a good way to resolve the dispute on the whole.
Even the team members who are not a party to the conflict can help you in forming a fair judgment about the situation. A team leader has to create a psychologically safe environment for all their teammates so that the latter feel more comfortable about sharing their concerns, ideas, and warding off future disagreements.
Make a plan:
Include everything that leads to disagreements or disputes between the team members and keep their solutions handy. Hold all the relevant parties accountable if something uncalled for crops up.
Make sure that all the issues and problems have been solved rightly. It is essential to follow up with the situation now and then. You can also work on an anonymous team survey to get feedback and reveal any ongoing frustrations.
Takeaway:
A leader puts all his hard work in team building for a concerned project, and when unwanted conflicts happen, it affects the performance and growth of each team member. Team conflicts are common, but the approach to resolving them should always be friendly.
