Like this article? PLEASE +1 it! Evan Signature
Evan Carmichael Top Header
Share for a Cause









Conflict Management

Written by: Bob Ready

Article Overview: It doesn’t matter what business you’re in or how successfully you think you manage your employees. I guarantee you that at some point in your professional career, you’re going to experience conflict. It might not directly involve you, but if it involves anyone in your company, it’s going to impact you sooner or later. That is why every entrepreneur needs to learn conflict management – and sooner rather than later.

Free Download - Stress Management By Bob Ready
Name: Email:

Conflict Management

It doesn’t matter what business you’re in or how successfully you think you manage your employees. I guarantee you that at some point in your professional career, you’re going to experience conflict. It might not directly involve you, but if it involves anyone in your company, it’s going to impact you sooner or later. That is why every entrepreneur needs to learn conflict management – and sooner rather than later.

Conflict is an inherent part of being human, but in a corporate setting it needs to be controlled. If a conflict within an organization is not cut off at its roots – and quickly – the effects could be disastrous. Not only will it create a division amongst your staff, but it will also have numerous indirect effects. Conflicts help in reducing productivity and create a non-unified front in the face of customers. No matter how well you think a conflict might be hidden from your public image, think again.

What you want to do is resolve the situation before it even becomes a conflict. As soon as you notice trouble brewing in the air, try to get to the heart of the matter. Get all the details you can about what caused the situation in the first place. Talk to everyone involved to get their side of the story. At this point, you don’t want to be making any judgments or quick resolution suggestions. That will only serve to further fuel the fires of discontent. At this stage, confine your actions to being an active listener.

The second important step in conflict management is bringing together everyone who is involved in the situation. If it’s only between one or two people, then there is no need to involve the entire staff. However, if the conflict is between a large group of people, then you will want to get together the entire team. Discuss the situation with everyone, giving everyone a fair chance to express their opinions.

At this point, see if you can eek out some sort of compromise. What are some potential solutions and what are the benefits of those to each of the players involved? Are some people willing to give up something in order to get what they want? Can some kind of mutual agreement come to pass? See what everybody’s single most important priority is – the one thing they are not willing to budge on – and work around those.

Remember that your job, as the boss, is to be an impartial mediator. You may have your own view as to who is right and wrong in the situation – you may even want to place the blame squarely on a certain person’s shoulders. After all, they might have wasted everyone’s time, including your own. But doing so, calling out one person, will do no good. Your staff needs to know that you are not willing to take sides, that your number one goal is to make everyone happy and create a healthy working environment.

Conflict management is no easy task. But do it right and do it smart and your business will prosper as a result.

Related Articles
  Boot Camp Training for Conflict Resolution Skills
  The Conflict Transformation of a Leader
  Hidden Costs and Benefits of Conflict Management
  A Shining Example of Communication and Conflict
  Conflict Resolution

Home > Management > Bob Ready > Conflict Management
Article Tags: active listener, compromise, conflict management, conflicts, discontent, entire team, entrepreneur, fires, heart of the matter, indirect effects, judgments, large group, pla, potential solutions, productivity, professional career, public image, roots, trouble brewing



Related Forum Posts
No B.S. Time Management No B.S. Time Management - A great book I read on Time Management is No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs by Dan Kennedy.
Which kind of industries are you interested in? Which kind of industries are you interested in? - Ecological or E-business or Investment or Finance or Management or Non-Profit or Retailer or others.
HRPreneur HRPreneur - Hi everyone, I am new to the forum and I recently started my own Human Capital (HR) consulting firm called HRPreneur Inc. HRP focuses on making human capital a strategic differentiator for SME's. Below is a summary about HRP; Who We Are: HRP is a Human Capital consulting firm with 30 years of experience that becomes an extension of your company by providing a full array of services to help you create a highly engaged workforce focused on achieving strategic results in order to build a long lasting great company! Mission: HRP provides small and medium sized businesses a Strategic HR Business Partner to increase employee engagement, resulting in cost savings, increased productivity and results at an affordable rate! Vision: To inspire and warrant SME's reach their full competency! Cost Effectiveness: We provide over 30 years of experience at a fraction of the cost at a strategic executive HR business level You will save between 50% to 60% in costs per year on salary, bonus, benefits, training, office space alone We will provide you additional cost efficiencies through our services Services: • Strategic Human Resources Planning • Organizational Redesign • Change Management • Organizational Culture Development • Employee Engagement Programs • Leadership Assessment and Development • Compensation Design • Talent Acquisition • Assimilation and On-Boarding • Performance Management • Talent Management & Succession Planning • Human Resources Due Diligence • Human Resources Audit • Full Service HR Outsourcing
Re: what position to request? Re: what position to request? - What do you think of: Executive Manager? Director of Product Management? I am not interested in working as a freelancer. As I mentioned, the purpose of what I am doing is to get involved into a startup that may become successful in the future. This is a situation when a group of people get together to launch something promising and invest into this their time and energy and even may be money.
Management Today Management Today - In the UK, I always find that Management Today has a great breadth of information useful for entrepreneurs as well as managers - after all, are we not all, as entrepreneurs, managers of ourselves, if not employees we have? Best


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.



Featured Article


Bottom Footer
Share for a Cause












Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!
Name:
Email:
Popular Articles

10 Ways to Handle Objections Effectively

Live To Work Or Work To Live?

A Guide to Franchise Financing

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.