How Leaders Handle and Avoid Conflict This Week (and Beyond)

Well hello there and Happy Monday! I’m Monica Wofford and this is your Monday Moment.

When there’s a big project, a year end deadline, or even a holiday that sparks a lot of emotions, tensions and stress can rise higher than normal and if this is happening in your office, you may hear an increase in conflict.

The question is as a leader, when do you get involved and try to solve the issue.

This is one of those areas in which leadership can have similarities to raising children. If two children are arguing over who took the toy, many parents would ignore the issue and let them work it out on their own. But, if one kid is bleeding and there’s lots of screaming… now we’re in intervention territory…

The big difference being that if you’re a parent, you get to make the call. You have all the power and authority over your own children. If you’re a leader, you may have the title, but just because you step in and say “do this” or “do that”, some adults may not listen. You don’t always have power or authority over grown people.

You do, however, always have influence. Let that guide your decision to step in the midst of employee or boss and employee conflict. Not every disagreement needs an immediate resolution and if you train them to never work things out among themselves, they never have the option to learn workplace resilience or how to repair relationships.

When one is new to leading, but an old hat at parenting, the analogy makes sense but can be confusing. Remind yourself that while you may know exactly what you want for your children and how to handle each one during an argument, you may not have that same data on people you’re leading. Learn who they are and your own influence will have more impact. And, if someone is truly injured or figuratively bleeding, maybe get immediate care, wait a bit, and then help them talk it out when things calm down a bit.

I’m Monica Wofford and let’s keep talking… leadership.