Good leaders can navigate conflict – here’s 5 strategies for conflict resolution in the workplace
Any time you’re dealing with other people, there’s bound to be situations where someone feels a certain type of way, another person is upset, and others could be flat-out pissed off.
That’s because every individual has their own beliefs, values, personalities, experiences, backgrounds, opinions, problems, and relationships. Also, you can’t control how other people act and what they say. Wouldn’t that be nice if we could?! Disputes are so common, that Lubbock County even has a dispute resolution resource!
In the workplace, you’re spending hours and hours a week with people you didn’t necessarily choose to have in your life, like you would when you’re spending your off the clock leisure hours. Five reasons why conflict occurs in a work setting are:
- Lack of communication skills or misunderstandings
- Different perspectives and opposite personalities
- Stereotypes and biases
- Different ways people learn
- Perceptions of favoritism and feelings of unfairness
Most people have never been trained on how to handle situations with colleagues that get heated. As a York Jaycee, our community helps you build these skills so next time a negative situation arises, you’re equipped to handle it.
- Avoid the problem – if the relationship and the situation are low priority, honestly, it’s not worth your mental energy trying to fight it. Sometimes, it’s best to just ignore and move on. Your peace is more important than getting caught up in drama and negative energy.
- Competing – this is used when you don’t care about the relationship and your goal is really important to you. For example, you and another candidate are up for the same promotion. It’s best to be assertive and take a stand to show that you’re the right person for the job.
- Accommodating – if the relationship is more important than the end result, then in this situation it’s best to go along with the other person. If you don’t have a strong opinion on the matter and someone cares very deeply, it’s easier to take back any objections.
- Find a compromise – work with the other party to determine where you can meet in the middle. This can take time and effort to come up with something that works for both parties but doesn’t meet the ideal initial goal.
- Collaborate – if both parties are firm on their stances and it’s very important that you don’t compromise, then spend time to get creative and think outside the box. Most likely, there’s a new solution that you haven’t thought about before. Approaching this with the right communication style so the other party knows that you’re willing and wanting to find a solution that works for both you and often automatically disarms the other party
For an additional resource, check out this Texas-based conflict resolution class.