Conflict management is important for every business. Keep reading for 5 key ways to manage workplace conflicts to keep the peace in your office.
Work can be stressful enough on its own. When you add conflict to the equation, it gets even worse.
If you are in management, you can expect to spend a lot of time managing workplace conflicts. Studies show that it takes on average 30% of a manager’s time.
While you can’t get around conflict, there are ways to handle it better. It’s essential to learn these things to prevent an unhappy staff and toxic work environment.
Keep reading to learn five ways you can manage workplace conflicts in the office.
1. Don’t Focus on Personality
It’s easy to blame someone’s personality for a problem, but that’s the last thing you want to happen.
Instead, focus on the behavior that’s occurring. By focusing on someone’s behavior, you’re focusing on something they can work to correct.
If you focus on someone’s personality, the only thing you’re going to do is make someone defensive. You aren’t offering anything to correct bad behavior.
2. Focus on Improvement
You can focus on the negative, but that’s counterproductive.
Make use of workplace conflict to promote improvement for all parties involved.
How can you use this situation to point out areas of improvement? When you turn a negative into a positive, everyone wins. It doesn’t matter what side of the argument you are on.
Keep things positive, and you are less likely to have someone coming out of the conflict in a bad mood.
3. Listen More Than You Talk
People don’t it when someone tells them what to feel. They want you to know their side of the story.
When resolving a conflict, make sure you let everyone involved tell their side of things.
One side may be right and one may be wrong, but each one deserves to have their thoughts and feelings heard. Letting an employee speak their mind can relieve tension, and show that you care about them.
4. Focus on the Root Problem
Don’t apply band-aids to a problem. You need to find what the actual cause is.
This method is more work in the long run. But when you focus on root issues that are in the workplace, you can reduce the chances of similar conflict occurring in the future.
For all you know there could be a problem in the office that could be causing the issue that doesn’t relate to the parties involved.
5. Don’t Procrastinate
Nobody likes dealing with conflict, but you have to do it when you are managing people. The longer you let a problem go on, the worse it’s going to get.
Be proactive and tackle these issues as soon as they come up.
Learn to Manage Workplace Conflicts for a Better Workplace
When you bring people together with different backgrounds, you always run the risk of conflict arising. Learning how to manage workplace conflicts is what will make the difference in your office.
Doing it right means a more productive staff that can resolve any issues that come up.
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