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The Conflict Transformation of a Leader

Written by: Julwel Kenney

Article Overview: How well do you handle conflict? Do you avoid it? Do you act immediately? Do you let it resolve itself? Is conflict destructive? Let's read further to determine the answers to these questions.

The Conflict Transformation of a Leader

Conflict is unavoidable in life. We face conflict in boardrooms, offices, classrooms, homes, restaurants, court rooms, political arena, police stations, schools, marriages, teams, and even churches. How we handle it will determine the success of the outcome. As leaders, we understand that conflict arises from differences. When individuals come together in teams or as a group, their differences in terms of power, values, and attitudes create conflict. To avoid the negative consequences that can result from disagreements most methods of resolving conflict stress the importance of dealing with disputes quickly and openly. Therefore, conflict is not necessarily destructive; however, when managed properly conflict can result in benefits for a team or individuals.

A major advantage a team has over an individual is its diversity of resources, knowledge, and ideas. However, diversity also produces conflict. As more and more organizations and churches restructure to work teams, the need for training in conflict resolution will continue to grow. Conflict remains the number-one problem for most teams operating with a high-energy company or church, even after repeated training sessions on how to resolve conflict and how to minimize the negative impact on team members. One reason for this may be that managers and other leaders within organizations are not giving the issue of resolving conflict enough attention. Although most leaders and managers are aware of disagreements and have received training in conflict resolution, they seldom assign a high priority to solving conflict problems.

With this in mind, it is critical that leaders, managers, and team members possess skills to resolve conflict amongst themselves. The skills entails identifying sources of conflict, handling negative conflict, managing cooperative conflict, negotiating, handling conflict among project teams, and creating team resolutions.

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Article Tags: boardrooms, churches, conflict problems, conflict resolution, disagreements, diversity, energy company, handling conflict, high energy, high priority, how to resolve conflict, negative conflict, negative consequences, negative impact, police stations, political arena, power values, resolutions, resolving conflict, team members



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