Exercising good leadership is rewarding, it is a sign of the professional success you have achieved and the recognition that your status provides. But when you accept a position of responsibility you accept the whole lot, also the responsibility that comes from leading your team, a group of people with whom you must seek results, but also their well-being, their growth and a good work environment avoiding conflict.
Today we talk about what we can do from the leadership to help the conflict to be solved, essential for the working environment to be good, thus increasing the well-being of all.
Solve the conflict
We spend more time at work than anywhere else, so there is bound to be friction and misunderstanding. We must react in time so that the conflict does not go further and is resolved as soon as possible. And it is the responsibility of each and every member of a team, and not just your leadership, that this works.
Convey to your team the clear idea that nothing happens because of friction, but it is serious that the problem is not discussed until the solution is found or the misunderstanding is cleared up. Let them see that you trust their good judgment to avoid conflict. When you get your team to integrate these ideas, it will be much easier for their self-management to solve the problems without them going any further.
Exercise active leadership
Respect your team thinking that they are complete and capable adults, that will help you understand that your role is not that of a mother or father, do not intervene at the slightest problem, trust their self-management. But sometimes the problem can get bigger, reaching people who hardly speak to each other or make a vacuum for a specific partner. It is there where your intervention and good leadership can prevent this from becoming entrenched, with the consequent problem that conflict poses for the entire team.
When you detect a conflict that seems not to be resolved, your intervention will be crucial to mediate between the parties, thus making everyone do their part, or simply clarifying misunderstandings. Seek the consensus and commitment of all until reaching a solution. In extreme occasions, when the conflict is already entrenched when you enter your leadership position, look for the possibility of changing the person most affected to another team within the company.
Being attentive to what is happening in your team will take time, but in the long run it will be much more time that you earn as a team in your performance and well-being, if you exercise active leadership. It conveys the idea that it is not serious that a conflict arises, but it is the fact that they do not use their self-management to solve it, and intervene when you see that the problem is increasing and is not resolved within a reasonable time.
“Treat a man as he is, and he will remain what he is; treat it as it can and should be, and it will become what can and should be ” Johann Wolfgang Goethe.
