Conflict Management Training and Skills for Leaders
Wherever human beings gather, you're going to get differences of opinion. While conflict is inevitable, it doesn’t have to carry a negative connotation. We can look at conflict as a necessary part of communication and an opportunity to practice teamwork. As a leader, it's crucial to learn how to manage conflict. Developing conflict management skills benefits your entire team by enhancing collaboration that leads to positive outcomes. Plus, a commitment to clear and respectful communication and conflict resolution is an essential part of a healthy workplace culture where everyone feels valued and listened to. Here's the how-to on conflict resolution as a leader.
Get The Scoop from Team Leaders
Feedback from other leaders on your team can be extraordinarily helpful. It can give you the opportunity to dissect conflicts on a deeper level, help dissipate conflict before it grows, and can often assist in identifying the roots of conflict cycles. When you’re able to analyze and understand why conflict happens, it can help prevent future occurrences and improve your organization’s dynamic. Additionally, team leads can highlight which conflict management skills they feel would be most useful to your organization based on their firsthand witness of internal conflict. Remember, welcoming ideas is itself a part of conflict management.
Establish Communication Practices with Employees
You can find examples of conflict everywhere. However, when you prepare specially-catered communication strategies for your employees, it'll be that much easier for them to reference when similar situations come up. These examples should illustrate the positive communication structure and practices you want everyone to use within their interactions in the organization. At Loeb Leadership, we often refer back to the “Curiosity Ladder” based on the classic DiSC® assessment. The Curiosity Ladder is a tool we use when we encounter conflict as a result of differing views that encourages us to walk through five distinct stages of curiosity that lead to understanding and valuing our differences.
Educate on Non-Verbal Communication
The impact of non-verbal communication remains understated. The fact is, we notice those miss-timed blinks, warm smiles, dismissive shrugs, and encouraging nods even while words remain unspoken. Just because it's not vocalized, doesn't mean it's not important. Both pleasant and unpleasant non-verbal behaviors play their part in conflict management, so the more informed employees are about body language, the easier it will be to navigate conflict in the direction of inclusion and understanding. Here, active listening plays a key role in developing conflict management.
Encourage Self-Reflection and Role Reversal
Sometimes in conflict, emotions can run high. Encouraging employees to slow down and reflect on the situation and their emotions can help them (and you) identify what they need to feel a conflict has been resolved. You may find all that is necessary is a simple conversation or even a listening ear. Role reversal as part of conflict management can also play an important role in helping employees understand each other better, by allowing them to see in themselves what they may be quick to point out in others. When you use resources like anecdotes, written and verbal exercises, and videos to get people to put themselves in another person's shoes, you can more effectively teach compassion, empathy, and understanding that can lead to healthier conflict outcomes.
Employ Emotional Intelligence and Positive Engagement
Self-reflection can be a great tool in calming emotions in overdrive, but in some cases, allowing yourself and your team to feel and express difficult emotions is more appropriate and helpful. Instead of brushing off emotions we view as unprofessional or objectionable, it’s worth learning to deal with them constructively. You can do this with your team by improving your emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) collectively so that emotions such as anger aren't just brushed away, but given a space to be safely explored and processed. Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive, manage, and understand emotions – yours and others. You can learn more about your EQ through an emotional intelligence assessment. An emotional intelligence assessment is especially important for leaders who want to influence others to work towards organizational goals. Loeb Leadership uses a number of assessments to help you and your team audit and enhance your emotional intelligence.
Loeb Leadership's Conflict Management Training
Imagine if the people in your organization welcomed conflict rather than feared it. By investing in conflict management as an avenue for growth, you can show employees they are valued, their voices are heard and respected, and significantly reduce stress levels. Loeb Leadership's facilitated group training programs include curated conflict-resolution techniques to create and maintain a forward-thinking culture and enable long-term success. Contact us today to learn more.