Teams In Conflict, Employees Under Stress

Teams In Conflict, Employees Under Stress

Conflict costs money. It’s bad for business along many levels: the people side of the enterprise, the productivity, morale, and team cohesion, and the simple fact that employees who don’t like coming to work in a toxic environment will quit.

No professional construction worker or auto mechanic would try to build or fix anything without the proper tools. Yet, how many business people enter “repair” situations lacking the correct tools for the job?

Start by teaching and modeling good communication ground rules. If you’re the group leader, the employees will look to you in most situations involving conflict. The behaviors you display during any group or two-person mediation session will go a long way toward determining the success, now and in the future. Simply by using the phrase, “Hey folks, remember our ground rules,” during those moments when the heat in the room rises, can bring the participants back to a manageable level. Here are some good ground rules to help minimize office conflict situations:

Describe people in terms of their behaviors, not by using labels.

Labels are both shortsighted and not helpful. The label “Jennifer’s not a good team player” should be substituted with the statement that says: “Jennifer needs to focus on helping others more during our busy times.” By shifting the statement away from a negative descriptor and more toward behavior-based actions, you can help the person or the group to understand how and why they need to make changes.

Give quick, direct, non-personal feedback.

Use specific language. In a group conflict, it’s common for the manager to hear Mary say, “I hate it when Dave leaves my work area a mess,” when Dave is also in the room too! The manager’s response should be, “Mary, Dave’s right here. Turn to him and tell him what you just told me. We’re all adults. We should be able to give each other direct, immediate feedback without hurting each other’s feelings.”

From the supervisor’s perspective, the underlying theme of this approach should be: “Don’t run to me with every little problem that you should be solving amongst yourselves. If you have a performance issue with a co-worker, do what you can to solve it right when you see it and not wait days or weeks for me to intervene. If you can’t solve it together, using our communication tools, then bring it to me for help.”

Test for truth.

Too many people accept sweeping generalizations, distorted opinions given as facts, or other forms of “all-ness” language at face value. Ask more questions and test for the real truth: “When you say, they never (or they always) do this, what exactly do you mean? Give me some examples. Does it happen every day, once per week, or only rarely?”

Some conflict in life and at work is inevitable and unavoidable. But like all other work problems that affect people’s performance and productivity, it can and should be managed. Use these tools and see if you can start lowering the emotional temperature in your office today.

Dr. Steve Albrecht, PHR, CPP, is a San Diego-based trainer and consultant for high-risk HR subjects. He can be reached at drsteve@drstevealbrecht.com