Register now or log in to join your professional community.
Thank you for your invite. I have had several opportunities to arbitrate when employee conflicts start effecting their performance and as I had been accountable for their output their disputes effected me as much. However let me tell you that sorting out interpersonal issues is never easy.Even when you are very fair in your mediation it can still appear that you took side of the employee who wins.
My advise is that talk to the conflicting staff separately and go by the facts and provide comfort to them by LISTENING patiently, my experience when they are made to spill out the venom against each other half of the conflict is over. Give them assurance that you will talk about your concern to other staff, another20% of the conflict will be over. Do this2-3 times and to large extent the conflicts get resolved. by this tactic.
The trick I use is that I give some personal work to conflicting staff and they think that I will favor them and within short course of period conflicts got resolved even without I trying to discuss the complaint of one with the other.
Please note my observation is the conflicts arise out of competition and when staff feels that team leader is not giving attention to them and it is because of other staff member. So please give them due attention at all times to avoid interpersonal conflicts between your team.
My experience is also that staff needs emotional protection from the team leader at all times to remain motivated and remain focused on their job and have no time to get into conflicts.
Kindly note never tell any of the conflicting staff to mind their business and better do their jobs for which they are hired. You will aggravate not only the conflict between two staff members but you will unknowingly make all your team members sympathize with the conflicting staff and they all can unite against you and call you an arrogant boss and you instead of resolving their conflict get into major unrest by your team against you.
Hope my suggestions from my experience are useful to you. Good Luck.
What type of workplace conflict requires intervention? Anything that disrupts the office, impacts on productivity or poses a threat to other employees needs addressing. The degree to which you tolerate a situation before intervention may vary. A manager may not feel it necessary to intervene when a minor exchange of words occurs between employees--unless such an incident becomes a daily occurrence and expands beyond the employees initially involved. However, a situation where one employee threatens another requires immediate action. When handling conflict, some basic guidelines apply.
Understand the situation. Few situations are exactly as they seem or as presented to you by others. Before you try to settle the conflict insure you have investigated both sides of the issue.
Acknowledge the problem. I remember an exchange between two board members. One member was frustrated with the direction the organization was taking. He told the other, “Just don’t worry about it. It isn’t that important.” Keep in mind what appears to be a small issue to you can be a major issue with another. Acknowledging the frustration and concerns is an important step in resolving the conflict.
Be patient and take your time. The old adage, “Haste makes waste,” has more truth in it than we sometimes realize. Take time to evaluate all information. A too-quick decision does more harm than good when it turns out to be the wrong decision and further alienating the individual involved.
Avoid using coercion and intimidation. Emotional outbursts or coercing people may stop the problem temporarily, but do not fool yourself into thinking it is a long-term solution. Odds are the problem will resurface. At that point not only will you have the initial problem to deal with, but also the angry feelings that have festered below the surface during the interim.
Focus on the problem, not the individual. Most people have known at least one “problematic individual” during their work experience. Avoid your own pre-conceived attitudes about individuals. Person X may not be the most congenial individual or they may just have a personality conflict with someone on your staff. This does not mean they do not have a legitimate problem or issue. Focus on identifying and resolving the conflict. If, after careful and thorough analysis, you determine the individual is the problem, then focus on the individual at that point.
Establish guidelines. Before conducting a formal meeting between individuals, get both parties to agree to a few meeting guidelines. Ask them to express themselves calmly—as unemotionally as possible. Have them agree to attempt to understand each other’s perspective. Tell them if they violate the guidelines the meeting will come to an end.
Keep the communication open. The ultimate goal in conflict resolution is for both parties to resolve the issue between themselves. Allow both parties to express their viewpoint, but also share your perspective. Attempt to facilitate the meeting and help them pinpoint the real issue causing conflict.
Act decisively. Once you have taken time to gather information, talked to all the parties involved, and reviewed all the circumstances, make your decision and act. Don’t leave the issue in limbo. Taking too long to make a decision could damage your credibility and their perception of you. They may view you as either too weak, too uncaring, or both, to handle the problem. Not everyone will agree with your decision, but at least they will know where you stand.
Remove misunderstanding between them with regard to the conflict arising and make them understand the problem and best solution in the interest of organization. At the end we are working for a organization and its interest has be upheld together. There is nothing we can conflict and its always better together have common better solution for the interest of organization.
bring people together, find the source of the conflict, resolve misunderstandings and work according to the procedures and specifications of the tasks
Create a Culture of Teamwork
Executive leaders communicate the clear expectation that teamwork and collaboration are expected.
Executives model teamwork in their interaction with each other and the rest of the organization
he organization members talk about and identify the value of a teamwork culture.
Teamwork is rewarded and recognized.
Important stories and folklore that people discuss within the company emphasize teamwork.
The performance management system places emphasis and value on teamwork.
Thank You.
find out root cause coaching them on people practices and councelling
1. I will engage HR and with him/her, gather facts about the conflict from each of the conflicting staff separately
2. I will gather facts from other staff incase they know about the conflict
3. I will do assessment of the situation based on the facts and point down possible improvement criteria
4. I will call each of the conflicting staff separately and based on the facts I have gathered, provide guidance and cancelling to them. I will focus on the issue not the persons and discuss with them about opportunities of not having conflicts for them and the organization and the risks of having conflicts for them and the organization
5. I will call both of them in a meeting to discuss the issue and pertinent improvement plan. While focussing on the issues and not the person, I will, with them set the improvement goal and objectives, plan including deadlines.
6. I will remind them about consequences that may result from having disciplinary actions taken against them if the conflict becomes persisitent.
I had a situation at hand, not professional, but personal.
I(as a third party) had to have a discussion with both the parties separately to understand their point of view.
Then, i had to bring them face to face and open the talk with points identified as differences. This helped me to talk about Positives and areas of imporvement in both .
They took it forward from there and the air was cleared.
First i listen to them and understand them. and try to make them mativate about the job . And try to make them happy untill finish the work. Main thing is we have ti invole them training , seminar and company meeting so we can increse our business ans we can conflict them
Conflict means there is a clash in personalities, which depending on the people involved can, or can not be resolved. Find out whether the conflict is work related or personal. If it is personal, the staff must be reminded that they work for my organisation and that they can have their personal issues in their own time, when not working, but if it work related, I will give them a project to run from start to finish with goals and a timeframe, where absolute success of that project is demanded.
I will monitor the progress daily and get feedback from both parties regularly, together and individually, to see whether the cconflict can be resolved amicably.
