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.
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