The days of the 9-to-5 job where everyone in a company sat in a cubicle within arm’s reach are long gone. Traditional team structures are evolving toward remote and hybrid models designed for agile performance.
Although team structures are changing, professional conflicts remain. Even if you manage a team with distributed talent, resolving conflicts between team members is still a key priority. This article provides effective conflict resolution tips designed for the agile, modern workforce.
Why team conflict occurs
Workplace conflict is a simple fact of everyday business life, regardless of whether teams work remotely or face to face. People don’t always agree or get along.
Conflict isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though. Disagreements between team members may arise when figuring out the best way to accomplish a task and ultimately lead to a more effective or efficient solution.
The origins of workplace conflict are diverse. Here are a few common issues that drive disagreements:
- Differing communication styles: Some people require more direct communication, while others prefer more nuanced directives. Recognizing and accommodating different communication styles helps avoid misunderstandings that can otherwise hurt feelings and harm morale. Effective communication is especially important for remote teams, where nonverbal communication signals like body language and facial expressions are often missing.
- Contrasting working habits: Different people achieve productivity in different ways. Some thrive in the early morning hours. Others see their greatest productivity at night. Misunderstandings surrounding working habits can result in misplaced expectations and bottlenecks. Clarifying these points sooner rather than later avoids frustration.
- Misaligned priorities: When competing priorities collide in the workplace, conflict can ensue. One worker might be focused on getting a project done as fast as possible, for example, while their colleagues prioritize quality over speed.
- Competing ambitions: Everybody has unique ambitions and ways of achieving them. Think of the person who’s focused on climbing the corporate ladder and feels a few damaged relationships is an acceptable price to pay on their way up. People’s ambitions often impact their work styles, as well as interactions with and expectations of others, creating conflict.
- Personal challenges carrying over to work: Everyone has personal struggles or concerns that bleed into their professional lives. For example, say a worker is recently divorced and now the sole caretaker for their child. This can cause increased stress or time management challenges. Identifying such issues and bringing them into the open is the first step to finding solutions.
- Ambiguous leadership authority: When workers get confused about who they’re supposed to report to or who’s ultimately responsible for a particular project, they may get annoyed. Ambiguous leadership can also result in unclear expectations, leaving workers unable to fulfill their obligations and managers perturbed if they feel their expectations aren’t being met.
- Personality differences: Sometimes, workplace conflicts come down to personality differences. This is a basic reason, but it can be a big source of disruption. Workers need to put personal differences aside to ensure positive, professional collaboration. It might be that managers have to step in to help them find ways to do this.
6 conflict resolution tips to use with your team
While conflict isn’t necessarily a bad thing and can result in improved business processes and healthier relationships, conflict does need to be managed. Otherwise, it can impede operations and create a dysfunctional working environment. Ongoing conflict will also negatively impact the work atmosphere and worker satisfaction.
1. Choose the right setting and timing
When you’re juggling your work obligations, managing other peoples’ conflicts is probably not at the top of your to-do list. It can thus be frustrating when issues arise. You might be tempted to take an authoritarian approach to shut down conflict quickly. However, ordering people to overcome their differences won’t resolve sources of conflict like those described above.
Keep your cool and choose a fitting time and place to address the issue as soon as possible. For example, if two team members get into a tiff in a group call, don’t tackle the issue in front of the entire group. Schedule a separate call with the duo in question, allowing you to get to the bottom of things without airing dirty laundry (which can fuel detrimental workplace gossip). That said, don’t wait to take action. Allowing conflicts to fester usually worsens them.
2. After communicating concerns, look for solutions together
Many people don’t like openly discussing conflict. As a manager, you don’t have a choice. It’s your job to engage workers professionally and productively to help them resolve their differences. Come to the meeting with what you’ve noticed as outside to ignite the discussion. Be sure to start sentences with neutral “I” statements instead of accusatory “you” statements.
Say a conflict arises from two team members working on the same project who have different work styles. More specifically, one team member consistently completes their tasks a few days before the slated deadline while the other team member tends to wait until the last minute. These differences lead to difficulties between the two members collaborating effectively. Both team members come to you with their respective complaints, and you suggest setting up a meeting and asking them to both bring solutions that would make the relationship more productive. This gives both team members buy-in to move forward successfully.
3. Documentation should include feedback from both parties
Your company may have policies regarding human resources issues like worker conflict resolution. Make sure to refer to these guidelines when handling disputes. to the extent possible, rely on internal documentation to ensure the conversation remains fact-based and reduce finger-pointing.
Continuing with the example above, to make sure both parties feel heard, document the conversation including any specific solutions. Make sure both parties agree to a specific solution and get some sort of written acknowledgment. You’ll also want to include a specific date when you’ll all meet again to discuss whether or not this solution worked.
4. Listen actively and demonstrate empathy
When negotiating a disagreement between workers, give each a chance to tell their side of the story (and make sure they let the other share their point of view as well). You might have to step in from time to time to ensure the conversation remains respectful and productive and tensions don’t rise.
When asking questions to probe the issue further, focus on the problem, not the person. For example, with the two team members that have different work styles, acknowledge to both parties that you understand how this can make collaborating difficult. You should add that although everyone works differently, the goal should be to find a way to make the two styles align so that you can complete future projects more efficiently.
5. Take a collaborative, creative approach
You can help ensure workers feel heard asking them for solutions to the issue at stake. Put the power in their hands and invite them to propose ideas. This can help foster a more productive meeting.
If the team members who are butting heads don’t have any ideas, you can propose options without coming across as authoritarian. Invite them to provide feedback on any ideas you provide. The point is to create a collaborative atmosphere focused on problem-solving, not laying blame.
6. Build a foundation for future cooperation
Don’t assume a conflict is resolved after a single discussion. Follow up with those involved to determine if the solution is working.
Preventing conflict before it arises will serve you best as a manager. Staying in close contact with your entire team can help you here. Scheduling monthly one-on-one meetings is a great way to give workers a chance to voice concerns or frustrations before they become conflicts.
Less conflict, more collaboration
Conflict in the workplace is inevitable—and it isn’t always a bad thing. Conflict is often the first step toward achieving improved business processes, better productivity, and increased worker satisfaction. However, conflict needs to be addressed promptly, or it can become a source of disruption and sour relationships within your team. The above tips can help you minimize conflict and improve collaboration.
The first step in mitigating conflict is to build a team of individuals who share your company’s essential values. When hiring remote workers, use Upwork to find independent professionals with a wide variety of skill sets who will mesh well with your existing team. You can browse for talent within our global database and get a sense of a potential hire’s work style by viewing their profile and reading reviews and feedback from other clients.
