What skills do you need to manage program conflicts as a leader?

First, assume good intent. Most people don't come to the point of conflict because they are trying to destroy the program or cut down others. They have a legitimate issue, at least from their point of view. If you assume good intent, you can get to the root of it. Second, listen to understand. Don't just wait for your turn to talk. Don't just write someone off because you think they are wrong (even if they 100% are). Listen to figure out what they are thinking and why. If you find the why, you find the root issue that can be addressed. If you can do those two things, you can lead any group of people through conflict.

The most important skill is to not take any comment personally and leave our ego's outside the door in every meeting. Along with this, having the confidence that all conflicts can be resolved will help manage them at any level!

Trust is a critical success factor in communication. When there is no trust, naturally, no one will voice out their opinions or ideas and there will be little or no authenticity

Effective communication is an art. In order to become a masterful communicator, it is first imperative to become adept at knowing and understanding your audience. For instance, an in-depth review of a dev ops problem might not be effective for a senior stakeholder, who might be lost as to how to assist. That's not to say the problem is not relevant to senior stakeholders, but the presentation needs to be tailored to the audience to get the best from everyone. The opposite problem, however, arises when messaging to leadership is so sanitized that it seems like a vague positive message, regardless of the actual situation. This is how problems fail to get flagged or addressed in a timely manner, and no one wins.

Be genuine. Use your natural personable style with caring. Those two behaviors will set you apart. Why? Because if you can easily relate to people then they open up and start talking. Listen with caring. Be specific, say “I heard you say this” and ask focused follow up questions. Why is this important? What is most important? What do you need from us to stay informed? What can we do to successfully support you and your business? Create guidelines. Draw up a plan. Ask for their input and revisions. A successful program manager means that you care enough, that their business success is important to you both together as partners. Always stress partnership and working together. Being genuine builds trust and respect.

In program management, effective negotiation is crucial for stakeholder buy-in. I find offering varied proposals, each with different costs, speeds, and quality, allows stakeholders to understand the trade-offs and aligns their interests. It's not just about reaching a compromise; it's about finding a solution that respects the program's objectives while addressing individual stakeholder needs. This strategy has consistently helped me in achieving balanced agreements in complex projects.

Use conflict management process As a leader identify the strength and weakness of all the team members (SWOT) analysis , It will help in identifying the conflicts at early stage and resolve the same then and there otherwise after sometime It will take a monster shape and would become hard to resolve. Be a good leader as most of the time managers only speaks but a true leader or a true manager listens. More you communicate and connect with your team members less chances of conflicts are there because discussions resolve the issues but silence creates cold war. Keep a faith and trust on team members and give them some cover to work independently. Yes , RCA is a very good exercise to identify the origin of the conflict.

In my experience, understanding the interests, motivations, and needs of each group and individual to find common ground is the first step (listening). Then aligning on common ground using the shared vision and goals of the program helps to build a sense of togetherness, i.e. the acceptance we have things we are trying to achieve together (communication). Then you have the space and buy-in to agree how to resolve conflicts between groups to remove the barriers to reaching those goals (negotiation). This is a framework I have used countless times - it works but requires patience, empathy, removing ones ego from the equation, and lots of fortitude to achieve it and then, importantly, maintain it.

The first thing to have in mind when negotiating is to establish trust with your counterpart. Just like in sales, if in a negotiation you start by trying to convince and persuade your counterpart about your idea or concept, without prior understanding the situation, and, most important, how it affects your counterpart, you may lose it right there. When negotiating, the more you can engage, explore the situation, and understand it’s impact, the more you increase your ability to define and agree on creative and effective ways to solve the conflict. Or even to accept proposals that were completely different from what you were originally expecting, but that are great solutions to your final objective.

Negotiation is an art that you continuously work to improve. To negotiate effectively toward a mutual solution for your program, you need to understand and align everyone on the overall outcome and goals. Aligning everyone requires building trust and creating a safe space to the teams to share pain points and celebrate successes. When challenges arise, you can negotiate on priorities and align on next steps.

A quote from General Colin Powell seems appropriate for this topic: Leadership is solving problems. "The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership." Good advice from a proven leader.

A key attribute is emotional intelligence to be able to explain the “big picture” and how each function directly and/or indirectly contributes to the project. I have found keeping all direct members and their functional heads informed through communicating and as part of this getting input and any concerns. Using the various problem solving tools contributes to the rigorous process of useful teamwork skills. It is critical to identify potential and real roadblocks and difficult human interactions and how to address these successfully and discuss as a team.

What’s more impactful than reacting to a program conflict? Proactively responding to the symptom. Meet pattern recognition, a subset of problem solving. Now, a valid case could be made for every category listed here, because situations don’t evolve in a vacuum. However, pattern recognition gives an individual the ability to look at the data and see things differently than their peers, or even leadership. Like the age-old adage, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.

Delivery Leaders need problem-solving skills because software projects can be tricky. These skills help them make quick decisions, handle risks, and keep the team working well. Solving problems fast makes clients happy and improves the team. It also helps leaders learn from challenges and adapt to changes in the tech world, ensuring success in the long run.

Root cause analysis is a critical skill because it leads to better outcomes compared with alleviating symptoms. A program manager should understand the importance of long term gains from root cause analysis across their portfolio. It is possible to patch a hole but overtime the fix will tear and you will be left with the same problem again. It is a much tougher sell to management (often requiring more time or resources) but with defined benefits and measurable results, you can tell the story of what happens without making this tough decision to address the root cause.

A big part with emotional intelligence is empathy. Being able to identify when empathy is necessary is crucial. As a Program Manager it is advised to understand how every staff member is doing on both a professional and personal point. This will make it easier to identify any pain points one may have that is affecting work performance.

Heard great advice recently from environmentalist Angelei Ikal who asks us to always think of "what is the thing behind the thing, that is the thing" we should be addressing :)

Emotional intelligence skills are invaluable for program managers in managing conflicts. ??? High emotional intelligence enables program managers to understand and manage their own emotions, empathize with the perspectives of others, and navigate interpersonal dynamics effectively. By being self-aware and recognizing the emotions of team members, program managers can foster a supportive and collaborative environment, mediate conflicts with sensitivity, and build trust within the team. ?? Furthermore, emotional intelligence allows for thoughtful and empathetic communication, enabling program managers to address conflicts with diplomacy and understanding.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand, and manage your own and others' emotions. As a program manager, you need to deal with the emotional aspects of conflict, such as stress, frustration, anger, and fear. Emotional intelligence skills help you to regulate your emotions, empathize with others, and express yourself appropriately. You can use various emotional intelligence practices and principles, such as self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management, to foster a positive and respectful climate in your program.

Emotional intelligence skills are very important skills that will help you as a program manager to manage the potential program conflicts more efficiently and effectively. By developing such skills you can understand the problems and the issues that your colleagues and stakeholders may face and therefore, understand their point of view much better. Hence, by continuous communication and interaction with them you can have valuable discussions in order how the issues can be solved and avoided in the future, in order each and everyone to be satisfied from the whole process. Thus, you can establish yourself as a program leader that understands the problems and take all the required actions to be sorted out, to the satisfaction of everyone.

I have seen that always you need to lead by example not just by orders or instructions, your team needs to be mentaly ready for sudden situation and the right leading from you will sure make them pass it.

In the healthcare setting, leadership transcends clinical expertise. It involves guiding teams through ethical dilemmas and healthcare reforms with integrity and vision. Effective leaders in this field mediate conflicts by aligning everyone with the core mission of patient-centered care.

The ability to elicit clarity in times of conflict or when “waters are muddied” is such a key capability that we don’t recognise often enough

Have the courage of your convictions. Don’t be afraid to change as you listen and learn but ultimately you need to make a call and to do it with the best information available is leadership.

Leadership is about taking care of the people in your charge. Good leaders understand that they deliver results through teams. Making sure team members are motivated and working cohesively to achieve their goals is important.

Once again, AI glurg with nothing specific to program management. Use status reports to help you manage conflict? More likely, they will generate conflict, especially if your stakeholders don't like what they're seeing. Manage the emotions of others? Absolutely not. Not possible. And if you try, you'll just create conflict. What should this article address? How to deal with component project managers who can't share their resources like adults. When to use the different leadership styles. How to identify options when negotiating. If I had more space, I could add 20 or 30 more.

I would add to this compassion skills. Compassionate leadership plays a pivotal role in preventing conflict and/ or assist in resolution by fostering understanding, empathy, and collaboration.This approach helps to identify the root causes of conflicts and promotes solutions that consider the needs and perspectives of all parties involved. Compassionate leaders also model constructive behavior, inspiring their teams to approach challenges with empathy rather than hostility . By prioritising compassion, leaders contribute to a positive organizational culture that values cooperation over competition, ultimately leading to more sustainable and harmonious resolutions to conflicts in any situation.

Based on my experience the first step is to listen to the parties involved to clarify what is causing the conflict (active listening ?? and analytical skills ??). Once the cause of the conflict is identified, depending on the nature of the issue, different skills may be required. For instance, if the problem stems from a communication among stakeholders, emotional intelligence and mediation skills will be necessary. If the problem is related to conflicts over resources, good organizational capacity and effective communication will be essential. ?? But above all, it's crucial to understand that ALL conflicts can be resolved by understanding the motivations of all parties involved. Therefore, communication and analytical skills will be key.

- Emotional intelligence: Understand and manage emotions to approach conflicts empathetically. - Active listening: Listen without judgment to understand different perspectives. - Communication skills: Clearly articulate viewpoints while remaining open to others. - Problem-solving and critical thinking: Analyze conflicts objectively and develop fair solutions. - Conflict resolution: Employ negotiation, or coaching to resolve conflicts. - Diplomacy: Maintain neutrality to navigate sensitive situations and build trust. - Decision-making: Make tough decisions confidently and take responsibility for them. - Stress management - Continuous learning: Stay updated on conflict management best practices for ongoing improvement.

One thing I have found helpful is the ability to develop resilience and patience in managing conflicts. Being in control of the situation and ensuring that no step is hurried brings; lasting results. Some conflicts take a long time to resolve while others may take a shorter time. Balancing the time while being in control of the situation is key.