Conflict Management: Essential Tips for Leaders.

Conflict can often arise as your team gets bigger, and as a leader you need to manage and diffuse the conflict. Here is all you need to know.

Misunderstandings Cause Conflict

Most conflicts are caused by misunderstandings. Either because information is not fully passed across or because something said is misconstrued. This shows the importance of clear communication, and that starts with you as a leader.

Ensuring that the way you communicate is effective and inclusive to your team is vital, as is allowing everyone a chance to comment or ask questions. This allows you to settle any miscommunication early before it turns into a conflict.

Tension is Important

Tension is important in a high performing team, but only the right tension.

There are two types of tension: positive tension and negative tension. Positive tension is tension related to a goal or achievement. It’s a tension that motivates and pushes you. Negative tension on the other hand is tension related to conflict and stress. This tension is toxic and hurts your company culture.

As a leader you must look out for tension, deal with and eliminate negative tension, and manage positive tension. As too much positive tension can turn into negative tension.

How do you differentiate between tension? Trust your gut and identify if it is goal focused or not.

How to Diffuse a Situation as a Leader?

We know about the main cause of conflicts and the different types of tensions, but how do you diffuse the situation as a leader? How do you take a conflict or negative tension and diffuse it?

Here are some steps to follow:

• What is my role in this situation? The first step is to know your role in the situation. Are you a cause of the conflict, are you involved, or are you objective to the situation? Identify and understand your role before you go any further.
• Ensure you have higher ground. Having the higher ground is crucial to diffusing a conflict.
• Collect data points. The next step is to collect data and the data points. Understand where the tension arose, what caused it, and what has fueled it since then. This will help you to delve deeper into the tension and find the root cause.
• Know how to mediate. Knowing how to mediate and how to lead a mediation session is an important skill as a leader. This will help you to solve conflicts and tension.
• Find the positive outcome. The most important part of diffusing is to find a positive outcome that everyone feels satisfied with. Its hard to please everyone, but a positive outcome is always achievable.

Conflict and tension are part of a team, understanding it and how to deal with it is part of your role as a leader.