One of the biggest challenges as a leader is dealing with team conflict. Although research shows that the most effective teams are made up of individuals with different skill sets, experience, and personalities, these differences can often lead to conflict. As a leader, you have a great opportunity to turn that conflict into something magical, if you manage it well, or, as my colleagues Susan Clarke and CrisMarie Campbell of thrive! Coaching & Consulting (“The Team Doctors”) like to say, if you “use it, not defuse it.”
In my last blog I gave you some creative resources for leadership development. As a leader, it’s also important that you provide development opportunities for the individuals on your team and for your team as a unit. Susan and CrisMarie offer a 3-part coaching and team facilitation system that focuses on the smart and healthy side of the team and business. They work with you to improve the health of your team and thereby achieve smart business results.
How are you handling team conflict now? Are you providing opportunities for your team to talk it out and listen empathically to one another? To be “vulnerable and curious”? Or are you just dealing with it and hoping that your team will learn to get along?
Gallup research shows that the number of engaged employees in the US has hovered around 32% for quite awhile now. A couple of factors that affect employee engagement are trust in management and opportunities to develop. You can increase employee trust and engagement by helping your team learn to turn conflict into creativity, which will ultimately help your team and the larger organization thrive!
Learn more about Susan and CrisMarie and the difference they’re making for teams and organizations by watching their TED talk here.
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