What do you do if your new team dynamic is causing conflict and tension?

Healthy conflict is a good thing. Unhealthy or unresolved conflict is not. It’s important to build relationships with your team through consistent honest communication so that when healthy conflict does occur, it’s more natural to work through resolution. Unhealthily conflict needs addressing as without resolution this leads to toxicity in the culture.

If your new team dynamic is causing conflict and tension, it's important to address the issue promptly and effectively. Start by facilitating open and honest communication among team members to understand the root causes of the conflict. Encourage active listening and empathy to foster mutual understanding and respect. Consider holding team-building activities or workshops to improve relationships and build trust. Additionally, establish clear goals, roles, and responsibilities to promote collaboration and accountability within the team. If necessary, seek assistance from a mediator or team coach to facilitate resolution and promote a positive working environment.

As a leader, you must always be attentive to team interactions, monitoring the execution and effectiveness of processes, and of course, the business outcomes. To achieve this, regularly seeking both individual and group feedback is essential to identify potential areas for improvement and pinpoint any team (system), process/tool, or outcome failures. Addressing a problem or conflict begins with recognizing its existence, which is why I always recommend being proactive by observing every aspect of the business process: People, Processes, Business Results. This approach does not entail micromanagement; rather, it involves investigating, observing, and above all, listening.

Building an environment with clear, transparent, and timely communication, along with language protocols, forms the fundamental basis for any high-performance team. Being available for difficult conversations without fear of repercussions is essential for creating an environment where individuals feel empowered to express themselves. Encouraging horizontal, direct, and respectful communication among team members is undoubtedly paramount for a high-performance team. In challenging conversations, it's crucial to have a clear purpose - what do I aim to achieve with this conversation? - and to maintain that purpose, even declaring it explicitly.

When Raj joined a new team as a project manager, he witnessed regular disagreements and stress caused by unclear objectives and roles. To address this, he scheduled a team meeting to establish clear expectations. He explained everyone's duties, responsibilities, and goals. Raj promoted open communication and actively listened to concerns. By adopting these standards and cultivating a culture of transparency, the team was able to gradually settle their issues and increase collaboration, resulting in more efficient project execution. #teamdynamics #conflictresolution #clearexpectations #opencommunication #leadership #teamcollaboration #transparency

While it's important to define roles, responsibilities, and expectations, it's even more relevant to cultivate a work environment where each person knows what, how, and with whom they should execute their tasks. I believe in empowering teams and that the leader is there to serve them. If any person or the team needs clarification, that's perfectly fine; it's the leader's role to act and provide clarity. Naturally, when there's a new member or the team itself is new, it's right to establish a series of definitions and expectations. Even in those circumstances, it's beneficial to involve the team in certain decisions. I'm not saying that there should be no top-down decisions; there will always be times when we simply have to act as managers.

Respecting others is an essential part of fostering a diverse environment, where each person, regardless of gender, age, or personal history, contributes to the team from their own unique perspective, experiences, roles, knowledge, and more. Respect is also integral to creating spaces of trust built on transparent and clear communication, how we construct our history of work and personal relationships within the team, our consistency between words and actions, and our ability to fulfill our commitments. or me, the main two pillars of respect are: diversity and trust.

I'm a big fan of using Whole Brain Thinking to develop team performance. This approach leverages the diverse thinking styles identified through the HBDI assessment: Analytical, Sequential, Interpersonal, and Imaginative. One you know individual team members' preferences, you can use that information to assign roles and tasks with greater intention. You can also predict potential sources of interpersonal conflict based on those differences, and just knowing that information about each other and ourselves can help us see those differences as strengths rather than weaknesses. Zooming out a bit, the Herrmann model can also help you identify where your team might have blind spots (the danger if everyone has similar thinking preferences.)

In my experience, the most effective solutions come from a place of servant leadership. By actively listening to the team's concerns and involving them in the decision-making process, leaders can foster a culture of respect and innovation. It's crucial to approach conflict with curiosity and humility, using it as a growth opportunity rather than a setback.