How can active listening resolve conflicts in a supervisory setting?

One thing I have learned about active listening is stopping everything else that you are doing to pay attention to the person and their concern. That means pushing away and turning away from your computer monitor, putting the phone down, and focusing on what the person is trying to say. If it is going to be a long conversation, I like to take notes as well. This way I can seek clarity on what the real issues are and recite it back to the person to make sure I have all the details I need.

If a person comes to you with an issue, you need to try an eliminate any and all distractions that will take your focus away from the person and their issues. One thing you need to do is get rid of all previous biases and focus on what the person is going through. Another thing that is important to consider is this the right place and the right time? Are they coming to you at the end of their work day and just want to vent or do they really need you to do something about their issues. It is okay if you are under deadlines to ask them if we can get together at another time. Don't add more stress to your plate trying to accommodate their needs right now.

I like to make the environment more conducive to listening by closing my door. This way, I can get up from my desk, close the door, and take a seat next to them. I always like to grab a pen and paper to take notes. My steps are: 1.) Remove distractions (phone, email, hallway traffic). 2.) Sit down next to them and tell them I'm going to take notes. 3.) After they are done, recite the key points that I wrote down to make sure I have all of the issues they are going through. 4.) Then I paraphrase what they have said. 5.) Then we set an open environment on what steps need to take place to remedy the situation.

If they are talking, then you better be listening and paying attention to what they are saying. Sometimes, it takes a person a long time to get the courage up to even bring up their issues. If you appear open, honest, and trustworthy, you increase the likelihood that they will come to you again. One of the key points I like to address at the end of them telling me what the situation is to ask them, "Have you brought this up to your supervisor?" If they say "yes", then you know you have someone to follow up with. If they say "no" then you will need to ask them why they have not shared it with the one person who has better control over their issues. Make sure they are not trying to play "Mom against Dad."

As a Safety Manager, I constantly have employees come to me with issues. So this gives me a great opportunity to practice my active listening skills. The more open you are to hearing their issues, the more likely they will come to you in the future. In many of the situations, I will tell them frankly that I do not have any control over the issue and that they really need to bring this up to their supervisor or Department Head.

A keynote I'd mention to keep in mind is that when displaying active listening, it is a lifeline skill to ensure it is always up-to-date, especially when you are a supervisor because you may very likely find yourself in the position as a communication-backbone between the executives' you report to and your staff members. When you listen to your staff, however, if you are observed to be "over-executing" your individualism in regards to your decision-making process, you may risk your staff receiving the impression that you may not only be passive listening, but you may also be only working up to satisfaction with just your executives. When that occurs, you may risk your staff members slowly resigning, then eventually, you don't have a team.

In my experience I don’t tend to lean towards taking the side of my employee just because he/she works for me. It’s important to remain unbiased and listen to both sides of the situation. They say that there’s three sides to every story; yours, mine, & the truth. I had a situation where I came into an argument between my truck driver and a vehicle driver. The driver claims that my driver kicked his car. My driver said he never touched the car. I listened to both sides, got witness testimonies, and even went to the store across the street to ask to view the camera footage. Sure enough, my driver did not in fact touch the vehicle. The video showed the driver disobeying my Flagman and being aggressive with his vehicle. Case closed.