Why Conflict at Work is a Good Thing

 

When Gabriel visited headquarters from his Milwaukee office, everything seemed great. Members of the team welcomed him warmly, invited him to lunch, and had his workstation set up. Gabriel would be there for a week to transition the team to a new software platform to track their hours, request vacation days, check benefits, find employee discounts, and access health coach advice.

By the time Gabriel finished onboarding the whole team, the “great” office seemed anything but.

He noticed the unusual team dynamics right away, after choosing Jackie, the executive assistant, to go first.

She was nervous from the start, asking if he was sure she should be the first one. Her anxiety made it hard for her to concentrate and the meeting took much longer than expected. Soon he learned why, when he had the operations manager, Evan, on deck. Evan made two comments about the fact that the executive assistant was first, instead of him. Gabriel was confused—did he do something wrong?

When it was Shayda’s turn the next day, she barely spoke. Instead she sat silently with her arms crossed with an air of annoyance. What Gabriel didn’t know was that Shayda had wanted to be trained on the first day so she could leave early for volunteer orientation at the women’s shelter. No one informed him of this, so he went ahead with his training in a room so tense that the air could be cut with a knife.

On Friday, Gabriel joined the team weekly meeting, to be available in case there were any questions about the platform. The meeting took two hours, and only a few people talked, not acknowledging anyone else’s comments. In fact, Evan was constantly asserting his authority, saying things like, “I’m the one who makes the decisions here,” and “Don’t waste my time with ideas I already told you won’t work.”

There was no energy in the room, the topics covered were shallow and boring, and amazingly—after two hours—absolutely nothing was accomplished. No problems were solved and no decisions made. Gabriel walked out wondering what was the point of that meeting and what is wrong with this team?

What is Wrong With This Team?

Gabriel felt mired in conflict. Yet the conflict was completely unspoken. During his time there, he never heard a single confrontation out in the open. Yet it was obvious conflict was buried under the surface. If they aren’t willing to bring their perspectives or ideas to the table (unless they already know everyone agrees), how will this conflict ever be resolved? It was undermining all of their progress, and killing morale. He was excited to get back to his office, where sometimes the discussions were difficult, yet their relationships were a lot easier and certainly more productive.

Conflict is a tricky thing. When you boil it down, conflict is just when one person’s wishes and desires are different from another person’s.  It’s the emotions that conflict evokes that can make situations seem explosive and make people uncomfortable, since conflict is often associated with “being in trouble”. The idea of conflict can bring up feelings of defensiveness, anxiety, anger, guilt, fear and more. For that reason, it is often avoided at all costs.

The reality is, productive ideological conflict is a good thing, and avoiding it in attempt to preserve a false impression of harmony can backfire. Just look at Gabriel’s experience…

So let’s talk about the importance of conflict, what teams that welcome and avoid conflict look like, and how we can start embracing conflict in our own teams starting today.

Great Teams Welcome Conflict

CPP Global’s Human Capital Report on workplace conflict shows the positive outcomes reported by those who experienced workplace conflict.

·         41% of respondents report better understanding of others

·         33% experienced improved working relationships

·         29% found a better solution to a problem or challenge

·         21% saw higher performance in the team

·         18% felt increased motivation

 

Teams That Welcome Conflict, and Teams Who Do Not: What Do They Look Like?

 

That study is clear—conflict is good for teams. But what does it look like? Here is a snapshot of what teams who don’t welcome conflict look like, compared to teams that do.

Teams That Don’t Welcome Conflict

·         Create a culture where back-channel politics and personal attacks thrive

·         Have boring meetings

·         Ignore topics that are important for success, but are controversial

·         Waste time and energy with posturing

Teams That Welcome Conflict

·         Take and use the ideas of all team members

·         Have energetic, interesting meetings

·         Quickly solve real problems

·         Minimize politics

·         Do not fear putting critical topics on the table for discussion

What Happened When the NBA Avoided Conflict

Looking at sports teams is a great place to learn about teamwork. Yet in this scenario, the NBA isn’t showing us how to be an awesome team—it’s showing us just what avoiding conflict can do.

It was not a secret among the inner circles of the basketball world that Donald Sterling, L.A. Clippers owner at the time, had potential to create PR catastrophes. One example would be his prior multi-million dollar lawsuit with the Department of Justice for driving minorities out of his apartment buildings. Yet even the NBA commissioner pushed Sterling’s problematic issues under the carpet. Why? In order to avoid conflict.

This blew up in their face in April of 2014, when a recording of Sterling making racist statements about players was made public causing NBA unrest, threatened boycott, and a PR disaster.

Sound familiar?

Does avoiding conflict sound familiar to you? Maybe you notice your team is not making progress, or you feel that politics trump all initiatives at work. Or maybe it’s you who is avoiding conflict, harboring resentment for your team, and not reaching your potential. Here are some tips for welcoming conflict at work.

Three Tips for Welcoming Conflict at Work

1. Remember Everyone’s Opinions Matter

·         Everyone on the team should be able to express their opinions without the fear of retribution

2. Move Away From Finger Pointing

·         Work toward perceiving, understanding and respecting where others are coming from

3. Appreciate that Workplace Conflict is Inevitable

·         Disagreements at work are a given; avoiding them won’t make them go away

·         Don’t hit the roof when you realize the team isn’t working well together; accept it

·         Remove yourself from the situation and analyze how this conflict might benefit the team

 

So let’s go back to Gabriel’s experience where back channel politics plagued the office. The executive assistant was a distracted, nervous wreck knowing that she was seen as “below” the operations manager, yet had been taken to the onboarding session first. And she was right; Evan was fuming because he wasn’t able to assert his superiority by being chosen first. This anxiety-inducing dynamic will continue to exist unless one of them is willing to address the conflict, or one of them leaves the organization.

Shayda also chose not to cause a conflict by asserting that she needed to leave for volunteer orientation at the women’s shelter. Instead, she was tense, miserable and resentful. If she didn’t fear conflict, she would have made her request known, and probably had the opportunity to go to orientation.

The meeting Gabriel joined was also an example of a team that avoids conflict. Nothing got accomplished because no one was comfortable speaking up to share their ideas. And Evan was so busy asserting his authority that he wouldn’t take advantage of the skills and creativity of his teammates. This constant assertion of dominance, coupled with the stagnating results of those avoiding any type of conflict, led to a pointless meeting that nearly put Gabriel to sleep.

Imagine how lively the meeting would be if people were willing to cause potential conflicts in order to solve problems, share ideas, and get things done? Their progress was and will continue to be stunted unless they stop avoiding a perfectly normal byproduct of teamwork—conflict.

How do you feel about conflict at work? Do you face it head on or avoid it? If you avoid it, what makes you the most uncomfortable about conflict?

 

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

 

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Why Leadership Training Fails

It happens all the time. Senior leaders seek leadership training to strengthen the leadership team. Yet they don’t know exactly what will make their individual leaders better in their roles.
Some will base their leadership training on the flavor of the month, such as emotional intelligence. They have heard in leadership circles how powerful emotional intelligence is for leaders, so think training in that capacity will improve their individual leader’s abilities. And while that might be true, it might also be true that a particular leader is actually not lacking in emotional intelligence, and there are other skills that would maximize the results of their training. This is how leadership training fails.
For effective leadership training, we must know what the leader needs. This need should also be aligned with the organizational vision and mission, which requires foundational work. And in order to do that work, competencies must first be established.

The Foundational Work Needed for Leadership Training to Succeed

Sometimes referred to as ‘KSA’, competencies are the things people need to know (knowledge), do (skills) and have (abilities) to be successful in a specific role. Competencies can be grouped into technical, foundational and leadership areas. They are defined by specific behaviors that describe what that competency would look like if someone were using it effectively. These behaviors are often laid out across a proficiency scale so the employee can clearly assess her current behaviors and understand what behaviors are needed for the next level.
Some examples of competencies are problem-solving, conflict management, technical skills and speaking up. While some competencies will be applied to every employee, others are role dependent. The CEO of a large organization likely won’t need to have specific technical competencies, and a coder on the tech team likely wouldn’t need to be competent in sales communication.
Once competencies are defined, the next thing to do is identify five clearly defined proficiency levels. For example, for problem-solving skills, level one might be, ‘asks questions and looks for information to identify and differentiate the symptoms and causes of every day, defined problems’. Level five might be, ‘anticipates problem areas and associated risk levels with objectivity; uses formal methodologies to forecast trends and define innovative strategies in response to the implications of options; and gains approval from senior leadership to solutions of multi-faceted problems".

After competencies and proficiency levels are clearly defined, the next steps are:

1. Determine the expected proficiencies by job position.
2. Assess the employee’s competencies using a standardized process, on a regular basis. Competing an assessment will help the leader know which competencies to focus on for future leadership training.
3. Facilitate career conversations with employees to match organizational needs, career aspirations, and current employee proficiency to a leadership development program.
4. Track progress using accountability measures in the leadership development training.

Read in depth about each step here.

Using this process will prevent your leadership training from failing. You seek training because you are invested in your employee development. If you’re willing to make that investment, it’s worth doing all the foundational work necessary to get effective training that elevates your leaders.

Entrepreneur Small Business Idea - Develop a Top Management Consulting Firm Alexandria VA

This article will display you the way you may begin your own management consultancy in Alexandria Company as an entrepreneur. Top management consulting firm Alexandria VA is a growing area, wherein you are available to an enterprise with outdoor experience as a manager, survey the commercial enterprise and offer pointers as to how the enterprise needs to alternate its management shape. Study on to find out how you can start your own top management consultancy in Alexandria.

When you have previous management experience, or you're a very avid pupil of management, this will be the right business in order to begin. There are many corporations accessible with fairly "green" managers which have come up through the ranks, however, has no formal schooling.

A corporation is on the mercy of its control. If the managers are vulnerable, lack of motivating or empowering employees, or they don't apprehend the vision of the agency, that business enterprise may be in serious trouble.

As a strategic management consulting firms, you'll carry out opinions, observations of employees, observe ordinary systems of management, and finally give suggestions in multiple regions that require the alternate.

Top Human Capital Management Consulting Firms - Choosing the Right One

There are several small strategic management consulting firms out there these days. As a business owner, you wish to confirm that you just are selecting the proper one for your needs. There are many things you will do as a business owner to form sure you're selecting the right one.

Many top human capital consulting firms offer similar services. So as to settle on what quite facilitate your company desires begins with assessment. You, as a business owner, got to take a step back and appearance at your company. The primary issue tries to realize the strengths and weaknesses of your company. You wish to work out the way to stay your strengths wherever they're and create your weaknesses sturdy. This may offer you a rough plan of wherever you wish to begin once sorting out an adviser.

Due to the actual fact that there are such a large amount of small strategic management consulting firms, you will need to interview several of them. You wish to make sure that the consultant you select has the most effective interest of your company at heart. You need an adviser that's going to are available in and facilitate your company win the goals you have got set. 

Mistake in Choosing Strategic Management Consulting Firms

Before than making any choice, it's imperative to have proper plans and techniques. This will permit people to ensure that their goals are executed well and easily. Those plans and strategies also are critical while running a business. However, there are instances when your commercial business team cannot cater to your wishes, which may be a massive trouble and can cause critical costs or bankruptcy.

Fortunately, business owner can now option for the services of reliable strategic management consulting firms. These corporations have experts who can provide services which could assist your team better and more reliable. Regrettably, there are instances whilst business owners hire the wrong company that could affect their business. Below are some of the most common errors.

Hiring inexperienced or new human capital management consulting firms

When it comes to consulting services, it's miles critical to hire seasoned corporations to achieve exact techniques from their beyond experience and customers. Hence, hiring inexperienced or new specialists is a big mistake due to the fact these specialists lack in experience to offer dependable business strategies.

Strategic Human Capital Consulting Services - A Great Way for Businesses to Increase Their Investment Returns

Running a commercial enterprise organization is not an easy mission. A variety of things need to be kept in view from the very establishment of the business enterprise. The owners and other individuals of the organization want to have super knowledge about various aspects of commercial enterprise. 

This is very essential for making sure an easy operation of the business. But there may be certain things which might not be part of the knowledge of the enterprise owner and on the same time the issue is extremely crucial for the survival of the business. In such situations, the owners need to be seeking help from a specialist which has knowledge in a particular subject.

The Strategic Human Capital Consulting Services offerings available to a business enterprise agency are plenty. One very essential sort of consulting is strategic management consulting firms. The strategic management consulting firms services offered by experts and certified management experts who have the critical knowledge in precise segments of the industry.

Numerous corporations which have experience in the field of marketing, information technology, human resources, sales, finance and banking and etc. provide human Capital Management Training.

Top Strategic Management Consulting Firms - Your Partner in Growth

The structures and forms of management vary from one corporation to some other. While it's approximately ensuring an organization’s success, its leadership has to manage the business each strategically and tactically. Most of the times, a management method has a few roadblocks that turn out to be deadlocks if they are not removed. And lots of a time, agencies lack the expertise to dispose of those roadblocks.

At this factor, strategic management consulting firms come into play. These companies have the exceptional procedures and the appropriate people so that every one of those managerial roadblocks changes into stepping stones to achievement.

Those demanding situations that the business enterprise is facing to manage its business efficiently can come to be possibilities once the leadership has honed its managerial talents. Now, these abilities can be remodeled as soon as the business's process is analyzed properly. Top business strategy consultants, which a business brings on board, have the expertise and experience to observe the existing techniques and provide their hints.

What Is Management And Strategic Human Capital Consulting?

Strategic human capital consulting firms are hired to help their clients realize the way to best manage and operate their enterprise. Human capital management consulting firms provide their expert advice on operational techniques, approach, resource allocation, human capital, and advertising within the framework of the client enterprise.

Top human capital consulting firms has been around since the past due 19th century. The primary strategic management consulting firms turned into founded by using MIT professor Arthur Little in 1886. Other top executive coaching consultancy firm has their roots in academia as nicely. Booz Allen Hamilton was founded through Edwin Booz who had graduated from Northwestern College.

Management consulting skilled exponential growth inside the 1940s and 50s as order for enterprise management and financial suggestion spurred demand. Companies grew to become greater country wide of their operations, starting offices around the country to higher serve their clients. Growth persevered through the 1970s and 80s as industry quality practices had been developed through powerhouse strategic human capital consulting including McKinsey, Boston Consulting institution, and professors at Harvard commercial enterprise school. In 1983, six Harvard enterprise faculty professors founded The Monitor Group that is now broadly appeared because the greatest top human capital consulting firms within the world.

Human Capital Management Consulting Firms Are In Great Demand

Hiring human capital management consulting firms is a rising trend among corporations and companies who are trimming the fats from their corporations and attempting to move toward a more productive and cost efficient version of operation. What the top management consultancy in Alexandria offer is a huge knowledge of the enterprise and the practices. Strategies that work in a single company can sometimes be transferred to every other to improve them. Overall performance management is simplest one of the services these organizations can provide to enhance overall performance and profitability.

The trend in the direction to choose executive coaching consultancy firm has grown hastily over the past 3 many years. It must be mentioned though that the demand for the services of such professional peaks in the course of harder economic times and lessens because it improves. The want to be profitable at some stage in difficult economic times has driven their increase during the last a long time.