How (and When) to Manage Conflict Between Your Team Members!
'How Can I Manage Conflict Between Two of My Team Members?’
<<First Name>>, this is one of the top 5 questions I get from team leaders that I work with.
Which also tells me how often they find themselves in this situation!
And the problem is, it affects not just their and those team members' productivity, but also everyone else's on the team!
So, as the team manager or leader, what do you do?
How do you approach the situation?
Add 'virtual work' to it and you've got yourself a 'spicy recipe' to say the least!
Check the video under Q&A 5 in the link below, and discover some ways in which you, as a manager, can intervene - and also when you need to, or DON'T need to, intervene!
Hope you have some productive conflict management conversations.
Let me know how it all worked by replying to this email, or book a call and 'talk to the face':)!
<<First Name>>, I might have mentioned (kidding, I know I did:)) that I'm currently designing a new course for team leaders and managers, called 'Leading with Kindness'.
Here is a Kind Leadership update, which deals with the answer to another important question - why is well-being central to high-performance?
What I hear from team leaders and managers is that they are facing a number of struggles, as they are also looking to develop their leadership skills and make a positive impact in their teams and organizations.
Generally, they:
- Think they’re supposed to have all the answers
- Take everything on themselves
- Are isolated and caught in the middle
- Don’t know where to turn for help
- Feel anxious and frustrated with having to manage everything and everyone on their own
- Self-blame and self-doubt
Enters Well-Being! Here's why (and, by the way, being able to have productive conflict management conversations is part of the mental well-being at work!)
Kind leadership focuses on well-being because it is a must-have, not a nice to have!
It has everything to do with high-performance, as whenever we talk about high-performance the measure is long term. So high-performance is a marathon, NOT a sprint!
It reminds me of my days of running half-marathons (yes, picture above, before my hair turned blue:)).
To me, as an amateur runner, that was high-performance, because it required a lot from me, long term.
And I realized that the entire process of high-performance is actually a cycle:
1. Preparation
2. Performance
3. Recovery
There is no way I could have run a half-marathon (21 kilometres), had I not prepared by running 5 to 7 kilometres every week, 2 to 3 days a week, for months before the event.
There is no way I could have completed it, had I not known what to do when things get tough during the race, when I would need to slow down the pace SO THAT I can get to the finish line sane and in one piece.
There is no way I would have run the next few half-marathons, had I not known how to recover after each, SO THAT I can enjoy the results and want more of that experience.
All of that, on 3 levels: emotional, physical and mental. Holistic Well-Being if you ask me!
High Performance is a (Half) Marathon. You're the runner.
Master that cycle SO THAT you can enjoy the process and the results.
That's kindness towards yourself.
And then, it's easy to extend that kindness to the other 'runners' in your team.
