How to deal with conflicts at your workplace

When you come across the same group of people every day, conflict is inevitable. Conflicts can occur between employees, between supervisors, among entire teams or the team members. Though the issue might seem difficult at the moment, resolving team conflict is easier than you think. The question “How to deal with conflicts at the workplace” must be in every employee’s mind. Don’t worry, we’ve got your back. Here’s a list of some tips on how to manage conflicts.

1. Listen carefully

Give your complete attention to the person in front of you who’s talking. Don’t take it in the wrong sense. Analyse what the person is saying. Often conflicts happen due to misunderstandings. So, make sure you get the correct message of the person standing in front of you. If you do not understand, ask clarifying questions.

2. View Conflict as Opportunity

Every conflict has a tremendous teaching/learning opportunity. There is an inherent potential for growth and development if there is a disagreement. You’re missing out on a big opportunity if you’re the kind of boss who doesn’t leverage conflict since conflict develops leadership and team-building skills.

3. Forget about winning or being right

Keeping your ego above everything else and viewing the person on the other side as your opponent will doom both parties as it will doom both parties and will reduce the possibility of a mutually beneficial outcome. So, try to find a resolution that’s best for your team, the client and the project.

4. Look for a root cause, Not for a person to blame

Every team member can point out the mistake made by an employee but what exactly needs to be done is to find out where the mistake is made. Stressing on the issue instead of chewing someone out prevents future mistakes and makes your team confidence on the fact that you have their back.

5. Hit Conflict Head-on

Though you can not always prevent conflict, the secret behind conflict resolution is in fact conflict prevention where possible. By proactively intervening in a just and decisive fashion and seeking out areas of potential conflict you’ll prevent certain conflicts from even arising. Even if it flairs up you can minimize its intensity by dealing with it quickly. Focusing on understanding and identifying natural tensions will help to avoid unnecessary conflict.

Bottom Line:

If there is a sincere desire to resolve the issue a person can easily find a way to do it. Empathy, compassion, forgiveness, service above self are some other important approaches to resolve the ongoing conflict at your workplace.