Tips for Conflict Resolution

As you progress through your tech careers, you will certainly see your share of conflicts.?I certainly have seen my share.?Each step of the way in my career, from early programmer/developer days to my consulting activities to being a delivery director, I have seen a variety of situations. ?In this week's article, we'll explore two factors in an issue developing into a conflict and how to resolve it.

There are two factors that come into play when an issue becomes a big deal and turns into a conflict.?Those factors are time and severity.?If an issue has a high-level of severity, it becomes a big problem fairly quick.?If the issue is low in severity but is not corrected or fixed in a timely manner then it will become more severe which then become a big problem.?The longer an issue exists, the more likely it will develop into a conflict.

When I was leading a managed services team, I recall having a minor issue hanging out in my team's queue for a few months.?In our eyes, it was a minor issue, and we had a workaround.?Since the issue sat in the queue and had an older date, it caught the eyes of the customer's management team.?Yep, that issue turned into a big deal overnight.?The issue escalated to the point where I was on a call with a CEO, a CFO, a couple of VPs and my organization's C-suite leadership.?The emotions on both sides were escalated.?Once emotions get involved, the issue and situation become complex.?The big lesson here: do not let minor issues sit too long.?The sooner you can knock out an issue the better.

If emotions are pulled into the situation, then you will need to work on the emotions first.?This is before you can work through the actual issue.??You will need to have some Emotional IQ to understand how to work through the different emotional responses people will have to the situation.??Some people will have hidden agendas which will cause a specific emotional response.?You do not want to try to fix an issue when someone is in an angry or irate state.?

Once the emotions have been processed and the conversation has turned back to a reasonable business atmosphere, then you will need to re-enforce your ability and willingness to get to the root cause and solve the issue.??No sense in working on the issue if you haven't re-established the trust from your customer.?If the trust is broken, the customer is most likely looking for someone else that is going to solve the problem for them.?Your job at this stage is to set expectations that you are also vested into solving the issue and solving it quickly.?

Once you have removed the emotions and have rebuilt confidence and trust that you can solve the issue, then get the issue solved as quickly as possible. If severe enough, you may only get a small window to recover.?Additionally, keep in mind the number of issues and conflicts you have with the same customer, the harder it gets to rebuild confidence with the client.

Severity and time are going to be your factors to keep in check.?If the issue develops into conflict, you will need to deal with the emotions, then build trust, and finally solve the root cause of the issue.?

Knowing how to properly deal with conflict is a skill that you will want to develop in order to become a leader in the consulting space.?There is a lot that goes into conflict resolution than what I have outlined above.?You will need to have emotional IQ skills, risk assessment, situation analysis, and effective communication to name a few of the key skills.??

If you are ready to take your consulting skills to a new level with confidence and certainty, then connect with me so we can chat about how I can help you to be a stronger project leader and an exceptional consultant.?This month I have a couple of openings for new clients, schedule your free 15-minute career clarity call to apply.?Click here to schedule a call.

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