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Productive Conflict in Leadership Teams

Guest post by: Ian Windle

Article Overview: Productive conflict in leadership teams is essential if they want to be high performing. This has to come from a basis of trust, understanding and honesty. The Leader needs to role model the right behaviours for this to happen.

Productive Conflict in Leadership Teams

Productive Conflict in Leadership teams

How often do you find leaders talking in the corridor about how a member of their top team should have done this, or why did they say that? This can be so destructive and such an unproductive waste of time. Leadership teams need to indulge in productive conflict to thrive and survive. They need to have a level of trust and understanding that will allow people to challenge each other, not in a personal way, but in an objective way that will be accepted and respected by all.

Teams that do not have a level of productive conflict can live in a state of artificial harmony, where the real tough issues are skirted over and not addressed openly. In Patrick Lencioni’s excellent book, ‘Five Dysfunctions of a team’, he says that the best teams aim for a point just to the left of the mid way point on the Productive to Destructive Conflict Continuum. That way they don’t stray over to the destructive side where it can seem like personal attacks, but at the same time the conversations are challenging enough to keep everyone on their toes.

This constant challenge in team meetings keeps people focused, holds people to account and means that real commitments are made to do things and act behind agreed goals. As with all good teams, the role model needs to be the leader of the team, who will set the standard. She must show the way by challenging her team constantly to deliver on their promises, set clear goals and involve and engage their people in delivering on the business plan. This way the role model is clear for others to follow.

We all want a strong leader, someone we can respect and want to follow. Someone who can be completely honest and objective, who will challenge subordinates and peers equally to perform and who sets the right tone and preaches what they practice. That way we can all be part of challenging and rewarding, high performing teams.

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Article Tags: challenge, Leadership, productive Conflict, trust



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