When it comes to managing your team, conflict is inevitable. With so many diverse personalities and different pressures throughout the day, it’s easy for tension to arise.
When this happens, it’s important to mediate as soon as possible, so it doesn’t take root and spread on your team, impacting its overall productivity and health. If you don’t deal with it, small interpersonal arguments can fester into something bigger, that becomes harder to handle.
So when you have conflict on your team, what can you do? Step in immediately and follow these tips from Future Force, one of the area’s leading office staffing agencies:
Talk to your entire team, including those directly involved.
It’s important to hear every side of the story, so you know the big picture of what’s going on and can get a clearer sense of how to handle it all. When you do, don’t agree or take sides with any one individual. At this point, you’re in an information-gathering stage and should be objective about everything you hear.
Ask what outcomes the affected employees would like to achieve.
Once you understand the situation and what’s been going on, meet privately with the parties directly involved. Talk to them about their point of view and let them share their feelings and opinions without comment. When they’re done, be sure to ask them what they would like the final outcome to be. If they attack the other employee in any way in their response, intervene promptly.
Discuss next steps and where to go from here.
During your meeting, it’s important to settle on an agreed-upon solution and to make sure that all involved are on the same page. While there might be some compromise to get there, it’s important that everyone understands what you expect from them and how you will be monitoring the situation.
Check in regularly to assess progress.
Make sure you continue to talk to your team about the workplace conflict and check in with them about the solution. Ask how things are going and don’t take sides of there are still issues. Explain that you expect your team to continue to work on the problem proactively, as adults, and that you want to see an improvement. If there isn’t one, then discuss consequences with them, as well.
Ready to add fresh faces to your staff who know how to collaborate?
Contact Future Force. As one of the leading local office staffing agencies, we know where to find people who are team players and will add value to your company.