013: How to Navigate Conflict with Your Team

Too often, business leaders and managers aren’t comfortable handling conflict. Although dealing with conflict can be scary, knowing how to is CRUCIAL for managing a team. In today’s episode of Playing In The Sandbox, I’ll be going over how you can effectively manage conflict.

 The KEY thing to know about navigating conflict is: Have a plan beforehand. If you have a plan before conflict arises, you’ll be FAR more successful at actually managing it. So, how exactly do we navigate conflict in our team?

1. The first thing to know about navigating conflict is: Everyone has to recognize there’s conflict. Conflict doesn’t necessarily mean arguments or fights, but could be just mistrust or a lack of cohesion. The first step to solving any problem is admitting there’s a problem.

2.            The second step to navigating conflict is: Get everyone’s input. Ask your team members what they believe the ROOT cause of the conflict is a way where everyone feels comfortable sharing. Simply allow your team to digest the information at first.

3.            The final step is: Identify what behaviors you want to replace the negative ones. Whatever is causing the conflict in your team has to be changed to something more productive. Ident