Work environments are inherently prone to conflict. Unlike friend groups, coworkers don’t self-select the people they spend their time with based on common interests, values and opinions. While effective team building involves hiring employees who align with your core values, your company will undoubtedly be filled with individuals who have varied beliefs, personalities and, to some degree, values. As a result, it should come as no surprise that your managers will need to deal with employee conflicts periodically.
Today’s workforce is more sophisticated than ever, and many individuals are no longer willing to accept a subpar work environment when they can easily move on and find a more positive atmosphere to spend their time 40 hours a week. A recent survey found that 34% of employees would leave their job if they felt they were in a toxic work environment, while 48% of workers would move on if their job prevented them from enjoying their life. Dealing with conflicts on a regular basis places a strain on worker morale that can easily trigger the decision to leave.
This heightened level of employee empowerment and mobility makes it more important than ever for your managers to have strong conflict resolution skills. In fact, the success of your business depends on it.
What Is Conflict Resolution?
Conflict resolution refers to the ability to effectively manage conflicts or disagreements that develop between two or more individuals. Strong conflict resolution skills help managers defuse issues between employees in a respectful and constructive manner, allowing the coworkers involved to move forward with a more collaborative and positive relationship in the future.
Why Are Conflict Resolution Skills Important for Managers?
Conflict resolution skills are critical for a manager’s ability to cultivate a positive work atmosphere that maintains high levels of employee morale. When your managers have strong conflict resolution skills, your company will experience a variety of benefits, including:
- Higher levels of productivity
- A more positive work environment
- Improved team dynamics
- Lower employee turnover
- Greater innovation
Higher Levels of Productivity
Unresolved conflicts create tension and distractions that can negatively impact the progress of projects and tasks. This can threaten to derail your company’s productivity. Effective employee conflict resolution helps maintain higher levels of productivity in a variety of ways:
- Issues are addressed more quickly before they escalate to a level where work is disrupted
- Positive working relationships between team members are restored, fostering better collaboration and preventing ongoing resentments which can negatively impact work on important projects
- Team members will be able to focus on their daily tasks rather than spend their time dealing with interpersonal conflicts
A More Positive Work Environment
Managers with strong conflict resolution skills are able to cultivate a more positive work environment by:
- Creating a culture where conflicts are handled promptly and in a constructive manner
- Building trust and respect among team members
- Promoting open communication and collaboration among employees
- Creating a safe space where employees feel comfortable expressing their concerns and opinions
This results in greater levels of employee satisfaction and engagement.
Improved Team Dynamics
Strong conflict management helps promote healthier relationships between your team members. Addressing conflicts in an open and honest manner can help build trust and respect, while strengthening bonds between employees. This can result in better collaboration between team members that improves the results they achieve on projects.
Lower Employee Turnover
As we discussed earlier, poor conflict resolution is a key contributing factor in employee turnover, as a large percentage of employees will quit their job rather than be subjected to a toxic work environment. Between the costs associated with hiring and onboarding replacement employees and the lost productivity experienced when your team is shorthanded, high employee turnover can have a significant impact on your bottom line.
Conversely, employees who feel that their conflicts are not only acknowledged, but resolved effectively are much more likely to experience satisfaction in their job. When your managers are able to address conflicts, it shows your team that they are valued and that their concerns are being heard. This can play a critical role in improving your employee morale and retention.
Greater Innovation
When not handled properly, employee conflicts can stifle creativity and prevent your team from developing the innovative solutions your business needs to thrive. But constructive handling of these conflicts can have the reverse effect, providing a catalyst for the innovation you need to remain an industry leader. This is due to the fact that effective conflict resolution can help employees explore ideas, perspectives and solutions that are different from their own. This allows your managers to harness these different viewpoints to develop solutions that may not be possible when individual team members refuse to look beyond their own world view.
Key Conflict Resolution Skills Your Managers Should Possess
Whether you’re hiring someone from outside your organization for a management role or promoting from within, it’s important to make sure the candidate you choose possesses the skills necessary to effectively handle employee conflicts. In addition, conducting conflict resolution training with your management team on a regular basis will help them refine these skills so that they become more effective at this important aspect of their job.
The following skills will set your managers up for success in conflict resolution situations:
- Active listening – Active listening skills form the foundation for effective conflict resolution. To be a good active listener, you must give the speaker your full attention and allow them to express their concerns fully before responding. This will help you understand their perspective more clearly and help you gain important insights into the causes of the conflict. It will also show the team members involved that their concerns are acknowledged and valued, which will help alleviate some of the tension in the situation.
- Emotional intelligence – Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to understand and manage both your emotions and the emotions of others. These skills play a critical role in conflict resolution. It will help you remain calm and empathetic throughout the process, allowing you to respond in a thoughtful and constructive manner that considers the feelings of everyone involved.
- Problem solving – At its core, conflict resolution involves solving a problem between two or more people. Therefore, good problem-solving skills are essential. Your managers must be able to identify the underlying issues driving the conflict and work with everyone involved to explore creative solutions that are beneficial to all parties.
- Communication – As the person tasked with resolving the conflict, your managers must be skilled communicators. After listening carefully to understand the issue and the needs of all parties involved in the conflict, they must be able to clearly articulate their thoughts and solutions in a way that will make their employees feel valued and heard. Nonverbal communication skills play an important role in the process as well, since body language can impact whether employees feel safe expressing their true feelings.
- Empathy – Empathy refers to the ability to understand the feelings of others and is a critical skill for effective conflict resolution. When you show genuine concern for the feelings and perspectives of the employees involved in conflict, it will be easier to cultivate trust and foster a collaborative process that helps resolve the issue at hand.
- Patience – Handling disagreements between employees can be a frustrating process, especially when disagreements are emotionally charged. It’s important for your managers to remain patient and allow the process time to play out in a way that provides a solution that is acceptable for everyone.
- Cultural sensitivity – Workplaces are more diverse than ever. While diversity is a strength for a business, it can also create situations where conflicts develop due to cultural differences and misunderstandings. Managers must develop cultural sensitivity so that they are aware of and respect these different cultural norms and values when seeking to resolve conflicts. This can help bridge cultural gaps, making a solution possible.
- Impartiality – To effectively resolve conflicts, your managers must be objective and unbiased throughout the process. This will build trust and make all employees involved feel like their concerns are being heard and valued. Failing to remain impartial will often escalate the problem and make the environment more toxic.
How Your Managers Can Utilize Conflict Resolution Skills to Promote a Positive Work Environment
While the skills discussed above are critical to successfully resolving conflicts between employees, your managers must also have an effective process to facilitate the resolution of disputes. The following framework will help your management team handle this important task properly.
Address the Conflict Directly
Once a conflict has been brought to your management team’s attention, the first step should be to prevent escalation. Ignoring a conflict is a surefire way to make it worse and if that happens, it will be more difficult to resolve the issue. To avoid this, it’s critical for your managers to address the conflict directly in a composed manner that avoids personal attacks or assigning blame.
This is where strong active listening skills will be important. Your managers will need to listen to both parties to uncover their concerns and perspectives, show empathy and ask the proper questions to understand their desired resolution.
Pinpoint the Cause of the Conflict
After speaking with each party individually to understand their side of the issue, your managers should use their critical thinking skills to determine the cause of the problem. This step is essential for identifying solutions that will be considered fair to all sides.
Facilitate Open Communication
At this point, it’s time to bring everyone involved in the conflict together to talk through the issues. During this conversation, your managers should:
- Act as a neutral mediator
- Encourage open and honest dialogue
- Allow each side to express their views
- Promote active listening between parties
- Identify shared goals, values or interests that can serve as a foundation for resolving the conflict
Collaborate on Solutions
Imposing a solution generated by your managers should be the last resort, as this is less likely to get the people involved in the conflict to buy in. A more effective way to resolve the conflict is for your managers to facilitate a collaborative problem-solving process where all parties are actively involved in brainstorming potential solutions.
During this process, your managers should make sure the pros and cons of every solution are discussed so that everyone involved can evaluate each option objectively. You should strive for win-win outcomes that address the needs of all parties to the best extent possible. It’s important to keep brainstorming until this is achieved.
Once a solution is chosen, make sure everyone is in agreement. Consensus is important to the resolution of the conflict, and it will reduce the chances that a similar issue will cause the conflict to recur in the future. After consensus is reached, clearly define roles and responsibilities for implementing it. This creates accountability and ownership of the resolution process among all parties involved.
Follow Up and Monitor
After a solution has been agreed upon, it’s important for your managers to check in with each employee regularly to ensure the solution is working. If any new issues arise, these check-ins will allow your managers to deal with them in their early stages before the conflict escalates again.
