“Business is built by men who care—care enough to disagree, fight it out to a finish, get facts. When two men always agree, one of them is unnecessary.”
William Wrigley Jr.
Conflict, in the form of disagreement, debate, and serious discussion is essential. When everyone always agrees, disaster is just around the corner.
Conflict is human. No matter how much leaders try, Conflict will never be eliminated in the workplace. Good conflict results in better ideas and more effective solutions to problems. Disagreement and healthy debate makes a workplace better and more effective.
Good conflict starts at the top – effective leaders encourage people to disagree. This isn’t easy! Encouraging conflict seems counter-intuitive to a new leader and it doesn’t help that people tend to be hesitant to disagree with the boss. Leaders must establish a culture that encourages healthy debate.
Of course personal or unprofessional conflict is bad and must not be allowed, but in an effort to avoid bad conflict, leaders must be careful not to eliminate conflict altogether. That’s counterproductive. Leaders must understand the difference between healthy and unhealthy conflict, encouraging one and discouraging the other.
Conflict management is a critical element of leadership development. Here are four steps to encourage healthy conflict in your workplace.
1. Establish a culture that seeks out honest opinion. This means everyone has a voice and each suggestion or comment is considered. The best way to do this is to start at the top. You, as the team’s leader, need to be the first to seek out and honestly appraise suggestions and comments. Start by encouraging feedback to your own ideas and suggestions.
2. Keep it professional. Never allow conflict to develop into personal attacks. Conflict about ideas is good but conflict about individuals is not. Personal conflict will undoubtedly develop from time to time; we’re all human and don’t always get along with each other. It’s likely that not all your team members will develop friendships. That’s okay. What you should strive for is mutual respect and appreciation for other team member’s contributions. Don’t ignore the personality conflicts. They can fester for some time and then explode into a crisis.
3. Closely monitor what’s going on in your organization. Do workers feel comfortable making suggestions? When workers present ideas, how do others react? Do they present considered arguments and suggestions or immediately begin to attack the suggester? Do ideas and suggestions encourage vigorous debate? Does that debate remain strictly professional?
4. Look for the perpetual negative contributor. Most every office has that person who never met an idea, solution, or suggestion they couldn’t find fault with. They seldom contribute anything of their own preferring to attack others instead. Debate is good, but constant negativity is not. If you have one of these people in your organization, you need to take quick and firm action. When he or she attacks in public make them defend their opinion and encourage them to contribute a suggestion to improve the idea which they find fault with.
Effective leaders are not afraid of conflict. They welcome discussion, disagreement, and productive conflict. They encourage people to critically examine every idea and carefully weigh the options. They want their team members to think. Personalities are never part of the discussion, only opinions about the subject at hand.
Do you encourage the healthy conflict that will make your organization better?