What Great Leaders Know About Conflict Resolution

There are a lot of skills a good leader must possess in order to be a great leader. Conflict resolution is one of those skills. While conflict resolution is important, not a lot of us are ever taught how to attain this skill.

Handling conflict well isn’t only a good thing for doing business, it also shows a lot of strength and a high level of maturity. Conflicts are always bound to happen, and a good leader understands this isn’t the end of your business. Most people don’t like conflict. Understandable, but it often is the way forward and having a leader around who can handle conflict well, will do wonders for your business.

What people often forget is that conflicts can do a lot of good in your business. It gives people the chance to unload some frustrations or shed some light on things they don’t like in the workplace. People will start to understand their colleagues more and begin to empathize with each other. Conflict is actually a great teambuilding exercise! It develops mutual respect and teams will become more cohesive.

There’s more than one way to solve a conflict

Generally speaking, there are five styles of handling conflict: collaboration, compromise, competition, avoidance, and accommodation. People always assume collaboration is the best way in all cases, but the other ones can have some use as well. For example; when a situation requires to preserve harmony in an organization, accommodation may be the best way to resolve a conflict. Competition can be good in situations where quick action is needed, as it makes sure employees are sharp and decisive. Avoiding conflict never solves it, but it can be used to delay dealing with it. Lastly, compromising can be useful when the conflict isn’t worth the hassle of the other (more intensive) methods.

A good leader handles conflict by separating emotions from the conflict itself. It’s not about building walls, but it’s about building bridges between the conflicting parties. It’s impossible to completely get rid of emotions in a conflict, but a good leader gets the parties to separate their emotions from their reasoning. Telling your employees this is a decent start, but there’s a lot more you can do!

These include: taking others points of view into account, knowing everything there is to know about the situation and brainstorming together to find all the available options that solve the conflict. When everyone keeps in mind to separate their emotions from the conflict, the team will begin to cooperate more smoothly and the team spirit will start to improve.

Improving your conflict resolution skills as a leader

There are a few ways a leader can improve their conflict resolution skills. Emotions play a big part in conflicts, so understanding them is key. Work on your emotional intelligence and self-awareness first. Leaders should understand the needs and wants of everyone involved in the conflict, without losing sight of the bigger picture. Reminding people of the overarching goals will help the team to move forward.

Luckily, leaders can improve their conflict resolution skills, but they should never underestimate the amount of effort and time it takes to master these skills. Conflict is always going to be around, so why not try to make the most out of it and use it as a means to move your organization forward! The more effectively a leader can deal with conflict, the more successful the team will be!