16. Strengthen Your Team Culture: How to Become Conflict Capable with Anna Nielsen

Are you a fan of conflict?

I’m guessing you probably answered, “Absolutely not!!” to that question. You might have even thought, “I’d rather get a root canal.”

If you’re like most of the business owners we work with at SproutHR, you don’t enjoy conflict. I can’t blame you! Most of us weren’t taught how to handle conflict effectively and some of us learned through a lot of trial and error (raises hand!).

As you grow your team, however, you will be faced with conflict and it can either break your business or amplify it. That’s why I asked my friend and conflict expert, Anna Nielsen, to join me on this episode of The Impact Ripple podcast.

Anna begins by sharing her powerful story of how her personal life led to a fulfilling career helping others navigate conflict more skillfully.

She shares insights on how to move beyond conflict management to being conflict capable and what the difference is between the two.

One part of our conversation that I especially loved was the importance Anna stressed of having a plan in place for how you and your team handle conflict, including specific language, skills, and techniques.

Anna suggests that conflict should be seen as an investment, rather than something that we avoid. And we have a great conversation around how most conflict isn’t personal, but we often treat it that way.

With her extensive experience in civil mediation, conflict resolution consulting, and facilitated dialogues, Anna believes that conflict is the number one thing stifling amazing, mission-driven companies, and holding them back from reaching their highest potential.

By leading with your values, creating spaces for psychological safety and emotional intelligence, and becoming conflict capable, teams can unlock innovation, boost engagement, reduce stress, improve mental health, and retain team members.

I don’t know about you, but ALL of that sounds great to me!

If you tend to get super nervous when conflict arises or you try to avoid it at all costs, hoping and praying it’ll go away on its own, please join me for this comforting and empowering conversation with Anna Nielsen!


In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The difference between conflict management and being conflict capable
• Why conflict is often viewed as negative and how to welcome it into your business and team instead
• The importance of leading with your values and creating spaces for psychological safety and emotional intelligence when approaching conflict
• How being conflict capable can unlock innovation, boost engagement, and retain employees

Mentioned in This Episode: 

• Anna’s Website  www.conflictcapable.com 
• Anna’s LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-nielsen-conflictcapable