Conflict in the workplace can be painful and sap your energy. My clients who lack self-awareness often ask me what to do about a employee who they can’t get along with or people who are in constant conflict. It can be tricky to deal with workplace conflict because most organizations don’t have strategies beyond reprimands and other punishments.
Our workplaces are often places where we give people a free pass to hurt each other because we lack the self-awareness to do anything else. We like to think we know how to deal with conflict but we end up enduring feuds that last years.
So how can you reduce conflict in your workplace and increase self-awareness? Here’s a couple of ideas to think about:
1. Develop a strategy to deal with conflict. Set up clear goals, expectations and parameters and ask for input from leadership and staff.
2. Inform everyone that this is the new way of doing things and train them to make sure everyone is on the same page.
3. Inform your workplace that you have resources in place to help people work things out.
4. Work with your leaders and employees to give them the skills to resolve their own conflicts.
5. Set the example and consistently behave in a way that reduces conflict.
6. Develop an ongoing conflict resolution training program and participate actively in it.
7. Expect resistance to your new ideas about conflict. Things will settle in once you train people and they get a chance to practice the new skills.
Healthy workplaces help their leaders and employees resolve their own conflicts in peaceful and lasting ways. As a leader, you set the example for how conflict is viewed and dealt with in your organization. You can start designing a conflict resolution program today that will help you create a workplace where people get along and aren’t at each other’s throats all the time.
What will you do to develop self-awareness, build stronger teams, and reduce conflict in your workplace?
Cheers,
Guy