Minimizing Conflicts

  Minimizing Conflicts

(Execution Excellence -"Ability to get things done" Series)
 

As we discuss the importance of developing project management skills to get things done in addition to functional expertise as we move up the career ladder, 80 % of the tasks are non-repetitive or project nature, and we may need to deal with many stakeholders who may not be directly reporting to us.

We discussed the relevance of defining outcomes, simplifying the complexity, holistic planning, big-picture orientation, insights on stakeholder outcomes, and reducing changes.
 
The next principle we can learn from project management is “minimizing conflicts.”
 
In a project environment, there is always uncertainty, which leads to conflict in ensuring timeline commitment, operating within budget, and delivering service/ product as per expectation. Being aware of this, seasoned project managers always focus on estimating the time and budget with all contingencies, giving them more power and a stress-free mindset when things go wrong.

In my earlier project experience, many times i made the mistake of underestimating the time and budgeting and got into conflict and stressful moments. Essential learning is the ability to predict some changes in advance and add some buffer in time and cost instead of looking at a straight line.

Also, project management insists on role clarity for all team members, performance expectations, and setting the right communication forum to discuss the issues, which i see as the proactive conflict management practices.

One of the studies says that conflict happens 91% of the time due to internal organization issues like lack of communication, underestimation of time, and role clarity rather than external issues like change in customer specification, macroeconomics, etc.

Project management focuses on minimizing conflict with contingency planning and communication processes.
 
How can the functional head apply this insight?
 

1. Whenever you initiate a new task, spend more time estimating time and budget estimates with all possible contingencies.
2. Define the roles and responsibilities of each member and set the performance expectations right at the beginning.

For example, as Human Resources head, while planning manpower budgeting for the financial year, if you spend quality time on the estimation of new recruit numbers, existing cost of retaining talent, market expectation on remuneration on new talent and its effect on internal with contingency will help you to get the proper budgeting approval from management and avoid the conflict later.

We often fail to anticipate changes, think situations are always straight lines, and underestimate contingency planning.
 
The key is most of the conflict comes on cost and timeline, which can be managed with proactive contingency planning.

Have a great week ahead.

Key learnings on developing conflict management competency

 Key learnings on developing conflict management competency 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

As we have discussed the various aspects of developing conflict management competency in a professional environment for the last 12 weeks, let us summarize the key learnings before moving to a new topic.
 

• When you are growing up on a career ladder, one of the key competencies you need to develop is conflict management competency. Competency is all about how you are getting things done from a diverse group of people and at the same time maintaining a cordial relationship.
• The diverse group would be your boss, your customer, your colleagues, or your direct reportees.
• The conflict or difference arises on thought process, values, looking at the problems and solutions methodologies. Sometimes due to misinterpretation of communication and the tone itself.
• The difference arises in the workplace since others come from different backgrounds, look at the problems from different perspectives, have different priorities, and inherent issues like fear of facing challenges, failures, and personal securities. Once you understand the causes of differences, you tend to accept them as part of your professional activities rather than personal differences.
•  We have discussed the three dynamics of conflicts—Power, Goal, and Relationship. The effective way we manage the power, goal, and relationship, we become better in managing the conflicts. Awareness of that combination and its effect determine the right approach to deal with the difference. 
• When you are growing up, your power also goes up. Power means the ability to get things done. Effective people look at power as an opportunity to guide, help, facilitate others when they encounter conflicts.
• When you have a conflict with juniors, you can use a compassionate approach in which you educate, guide, and convince them to get things done and earn respect from others. Alternatively, you can choose a constructive dominant approach when you feel others cannot learn or go against organizational objectives.
• When you have a conflict with equal power, say with your colleagues, you can think of a higher purpose that makes you more powerful than others.
• Generally, effective people listen to others to understand other’s perspectives, give the third dimension to the problem, and try to settle third angle solution, flexible to change the views if it serves the higher or organizational purpose. They take Parent-child, Teacher-student relationship patterns to solve the conflict with anyone.

When we look at our life journey as success or failure, that will have a strong relationship with how we deal with the conflict WITHIN ourselves or WITH OTHERS at some point in time.

That awareness and striving to learn the conflict management competency will help manage any conflict.

The key focus for any manager or leader is to get things done and maintain the emotional balance with self and others.

Let us discuss a new topic next week, and have a great week ahead till then!

How do effective people manage conflicts?

 How do effective people manage conflicts?

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

For the last few weeks, we have discussed conflict management at the workplace and some of the causes/methodologies to deal with direct reportees and colleagues. Now let us summarise some of the approaches effective people adopt to deal the conflicts.


I have observed some of the patterns effective people display when they deal with conflicts. At the end of the conflict, they remain calm and meet the objective of getting things done. 
 

• Taking responsibility
• Listen and perspective-taking
• Put the higher purpose as context
• Try to find the third angle and settle it

 
Taking responsibility:

Taking ownership is one of the mindsets they possess and reflect in their behavior when they encounter conflict. They assume the role of guardian, and they take the responsibility to solve the differences quickly. When they take responsibility for solving the problem, they mainly focus on the issue than on the person.
 
Listen and perspective taking :
 
The conflict arises because of the different viewpoints of others from self. Effective people listen to others and are keen to know where others are coming from. As discussed earlier, when you listen and take the perspective of others, that eventually puts the other person's emotion in a positive state.
 
 
Put the higher purpose as context:
 
When differences arise between two people or teams, the effective leader looks at the problem from the higher purpose. For example, when people argue from their functional perspective, the effective person goes one step above and looks at the situation from an organizational perspective or the customer perspective.

For example, i witnessed a situation when the functional team members were arguing for incurring the freight cost increase due to delivery delay by operations, the business head put the customer as a central point, and the debate ended as service became higher purpose than the cost.
 
Try to find the third angle:
 
When both parties are right from their standpoint, the effective people quickly try to find a solution point where both people accept it as a win-win proposition.
 
You might have observed some other patterns also.

We need awareness of ourselves and others when dealing with the differences, making us an effective leaders in the professional environment.

Have a great week ahead!

Understanding Conflict situations

 Understanding Conflict situations 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)
 

As we discuss conflict dynamics and an effective way of managing conflicts at the workplace, let us understand the different elements that lead to various conflict situations. The awareness of different conflict situations will help adopt different approaches to make win-win solutions from the differences.
 

 
 
Goal:
 
The requirements or priorities may be different between people. For example, as a manager, you want to fix a problem with a quick-fix solution, whereas your junior colleagues would like to solve it in a structured way, which may take time. Even though you are in the same function, the approach to the problem leads to differences between two people.
Sometimes, the goal itself would be different. For example, your finance head wants to reduce the inventory to reduce cost, and your production head intends to increase it for a better service level.
So, the priority for each people differs, which leads to differences. More accurately, you pinpoint the priority differences and align the focus will help you to manage the conflict well.

It would help if you had a different approach and skillset to manage the conflict.
 
Relationship:

As discussed earlier, any significant differences leave a scar on the relationship; that is why people do not like to get into conflict most of the time. Some relationships are essential for our well-being and would like to continue forever. Some of the relationships are not that important, and we may be ready to forego.

Being aware of the relationship aspects will help you to improve your tone, communication style in managing the conflict.

Power:

In conflict management, the perceived or actual power plays a significant role in managing the conflict well. The power is nothing but the ability to get things done. In any conflict situation, how you are placed among others is an essential criterion to choose your approach.

For example,

when you are dealing with your junior colleagues, you have more power. You can manage any differences relatively well with your experiences, share perspectives with the right intention, and so on.

Suppose you are the functional head and have differences with your counterpart or colleagues from different functions. In that case, you need another skill set to manage the conflict because the perceived power is equal among you and your colleague.

You may have differences with your boss or your customer; you need different approaches to manage the conflict as the perceived power is less.

 
The key point is that we need to be aware of which part we need to address in the conflict, whether goal differences, dealing with different powers, or maintaining the relationship or the combination of all. That forms a conflict situation, and each situation calls for a different approach.
 
That awareness will help you to choose suitable approaches to deal with the differences.

The ultimate objective of conflict management is to get things done and maintain the emotional balance among the stakeholders.
 
Let us look at some of the practical approaches to deal with the differences in the coming weeks.
 
 
 

How do you look at Power to deal with conflict?

 How do you look at Power to deal with conflict? 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

 

As we discuss the dynamics of conflict, the perception of power plays a significant role in dealing with the differences in the workplace. The meaning of Power or positional status is different for different people. In an organizational context, the straight definition of power is the ability to get things done.
 
One of the studies found that the relevance of power as perceived by self will significantly impact how one deals with conflict or differences in the workplace.

One may look at positional power as Fixed Pie or Abundance.

From a fixed pie perspective,

we believe that power is limited; once shared, we get less.

We think that by delegating the authority to someone, we lose control of others. This mindset will have a significant role in how we deal with conflict.

For example,
Someone at the colleague level suggests a good idea to improve the business performance. Even though we also think the idea is worthy of considering, we tend to defend and initiate the differences. We internally believe that we would be losing control or power by openly accepting the other's view immediately. In that way, we get into differences and end with either accepting or rejecting. However, we leave the scar of differences. ( debating is not a problem, but how we initiate and dealing the debate is important in a professional setup)

From an abundance perspective,

Alternatively, some people look at positional power as an abundance of resources. In this perspective, they believe that delegating authority to someone empowers. They believe that they can do more by collaborating with others. They widely accept the different views and are good at arriving at a consensus even when there are differences.

We might have observed some leaders move around friendly, mingle with anyone, and are good at getting things done. Even when the differences arise, they arrive at the consensus quickly as the mindset towards power drives them to settle things without the impression of personality differences.

The point is our perception of our power will have a significant role in initiating or managing the differences through our behaviors.
 
Changing the mindset on the perception of power may not happen immediately for all. Still, the awareness of our perception about the power and its significance on conflict management helps to deal with a collaborative approach to get a win-win situation than a competitive approach.

Understanding conflict dynamics

 Understanding conflict dynamics

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)
 

As we have discussed the importance of developing conflict management competency to get things done and maintain the relationship with others in a professional setup, let us understand the dynamics of conflict. This awareness will help us to choose the right mindset before, during, after conflict moments and also allow us to choose the right approach or strategy.

1) Not all conflicts are negative consequences

The moment we think about conflict, we associate it with negative emotions. Not necessarily; all the differences are negative. Some disputes will end up with improved performance and relationships.

2) Conflict happens where we have more interdependent relationships 
 
Generally, we do not bother much about the differences with whom we interact occasionally. For example, conflict with a potential customer on the solutions approach, and we walk away without much regret.

Whereas we do get disturbed about the differences that arise with a person with whom we frequently interact—for example, conflict with existing customers or with partners or colleagues on the service quality. There, we struggle to balance between performance and relationship.

When we are aware of the need for balancing with more dependant networks, that will enhance our responsibility in handling the differences with the proper mindset and methods.

3) Being aware of Feelings when dealing with the differences

Most likely, we have feelings around
 
a) How do I feel about the outcome
b) How do i feel about me 
c) how do i feel about the proceedings
d) how do i feel about the relationship with others

When you are mindful of those feelings at that moment, either you can influence the proceedings or feel good about yourself, or you can treat others respectfully during arguments and be empathetic about others or sure about your expectation.

4) Conflict and Power :
 
Differences arise mainly due to POWER in an organizational setup. Power means the ability to get things done. The perception of power with relating to others makes a difference in the way we manage conflicts.



 
Let us discuss some of the interesting aspects of Power next week.

Book on Conflict management at workplace

 Book on Conflict management at workplace

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

 

Recently i bought this book " Making Conflict Work" to learn more about conflict management beyond textbook definition and conflict management techniques.

This book served the purpose as the authors had narrated the conflict management process through evidence-based insights, interviews and case studies from practicing managers and leaders in the real world.

If you would like to get more perspective on dealing with disagreement and reaching your goal of getting things done through people, this book can help.

https://amzn.to/3wy6nha

Happy Learning and let us discuss some of the insights on conflict management next week!

Developing Conflict Management Competency

 Developing Conflict Management Competency 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

As we discuss the People Management Skill @ workplace, one of the potential areas for competency development for managers and leaders is managing the conflict.

 
What is meant by Conflict?
 
One of the definitions says, “Any situation in which people have incompatible interests, views, goals, principles or feelings.”

By any definition, conflict means DIFFERENCES.

Differences could be on the values, principles, focus areas, means of achieving something, and interest.

Whatever the differences, the underlying factor in any difference is EMOTIONAL baggage like fear of losing the relationship, fear of rejection, losing control, perceived loss of respect, feeling small or low. You can name the destructive emotions that will exist when dealing with the conflict situation depending on the context and the person dealt with.

That is why most of us do not like to be in a conflict situation, as we inherently avoid the pain of handling the emotions during the conflict situation.

However, as a leader or manager, we cannot escape the conflict moments in day-to-day activity. We have conflicts that range from slight to immense magnitude of decision-making in our professional environment.

For example,
 
Can we have a review meeting on Monday morning or Saturday evening?
Should we give priority to payables or receivables?
Should we give importance to cost or customer service? 
Should we focus on GROWTH or PROFITABILITY?
Should I do the task or delegate it to someone?
 
The list may go on…
 
Why do we need to develop the competency?
 
We manage some conflicts efficiently and are stuck in complex conflicts that strain the relationship and work performance. We may end up with regret or guilt.
 
Somewhere i read that when we look at our life journey as success or failure, that will have a strong relationship with how we dealt with the conflict WITHIN ourselves or WITH OTHERS at some point in time. That may be true, and that is the consequence of conflict management.
 
Hence, the competency of conflict management is essential for managers and leaders, and let us discuss some of the insights next week  on 
 
Dynamics of conflict
How do we respond to conflict?
How to apply some of the conflict management techniques?
 
 Please recollect and share the recent conflict you encounter and the emotions you have undergone.

Managing conflict with assertive communication

Improving communication in the workplace

Managing conflict with assertive communication
 

When conflict occurs in the workplace, you have a choice to manage thorough either passive or aggressive, and both have pros and cons. The third choice to manage conflict is assertive communication, which has only advantages.

This communication quality helps to improve the harmony and growth of the individual. However, it calls for managing your emotions during the conflict and a high level of patience and maturity. If one puts effort into learning this skill in life, I can say that it is the most precious asset one can have.
 
Assertive communication:

Assertive communication is all about how you are expressing your views by maintaining respect, showing empathy, or understanding other’s opinions from their perspective and also be firm in your views. In the end, both have to feel good and sense of achieving the purpose.

One instance I had witnessed some time back in one of the product development organization. The team put a lot of effort into developing a product and ready for launch in a few months down the line. The product manager was showing the proto to the managing director of the organization and explaining the features. The managing director suggested some modifications to improve the aesthetic.The team knew that the suggestion was good, but making any modification at the moment would delay the product launch. Since the advice came from the head of the organization, they could not resist.

The product manager had two choices in front of him; either he could passively accept the suggestion as direction, change the product, and delay the timeline. Another option he had was to refuse and argue aggressively. But he responded well by using assertive communication as follows

“I agree with your suggestion as this may improve product value further, and  I suggest to take it as a future product line extension and the implications to be worked out. Any change at this moment will delay the product launch timeline, cost. I think we should move forward now.”
 
The above assertive expression consists of respecting other’s opinions and acknowledging, not rubbing the ego with an argument, indicating the consequences and at the same time being firm on the stand considering the big picture of the organizational growth. That results in closure of the conflict and never resurfaced after that.
 
The point is most of the conflict happens either due to ignorance of information, a perspective difference of individual and the one who manages the conversation with an assertive way emerges as a leader. This calls for conscious development on self on assertive communication!

Aggressively expressing to manage conflict.

Improving communication in the workplace


 

Aggressively expressing to manage conflict.

 
Last week, I mentioned about 3 types of expressing or communicating when conflict arises in workplaces and discussed the pros and cons of “passive expression.” Let us understand the second type of expression, “Aggressively communicating.”
 
Aggressively expressing or communicating:

When the difference of opinion or conflict arises between two people or team, one person takes the upper hand and forces others to accept his/ her views and move on. That is aggressive communication.

Whether aggressive communication is right or wrong?

Only the context defines it.

Generally, it is being told aggressiveness is not the right way of communication. But in the workplace perspective, some point of time, the decision has to be taken at the right time, and timing is critical. The person who is in an authority position in the conversation or in context has to settle down others through his forcing communication only. When the person takes an aggressive approach for a higher purpose, then it is right than beating the bush without making any decision.

In some organizations I have witnessed, people are kind to each other in all matters, and no decision or conclusion being taken by anyone as they perceive aggressiveness is against harmony.
 
When is aggressiveness perceived as rude or bad?

Naturally, when you want to force others to accept your views, your body language posture changes from compassion to commanding position, and your tone rises to a high pitch, and you lose your emotional balance. When you lose your emotions, you use to divert into other dimensions like getting into personal, taking past references, talking irrelevant things. During that moment, you are seen as an “angry, low temperament person", and the intention of your expression is lost.
 
There is a thin line between aggressive and assertively expressing your views and can be learned through awareness and let us discuss expression assertively in next week!

Managing conflict with the communication process

Improving communication in the workplace

Managing conflict with the communication process
 

As discussed, the conflict can never be avoided in the workplace due to different viewpoints, only it can be managed to get the things done and to maintain a cordial relationship.

Whatever may be the conflict, how we approach with right communication process makes a difference, and this is more of a state of mind and also be a skill that needs to be learned.
 
Before getting into the different communication processes, we need to have clarity about which conflict we would like to face. Some of the conflicts are not worth to deal with, and it is better to let it go.

The practical approaches in dealing with conflict as follows and each one has their merit depends on the conflict nature/person involved and the situation

1. Passively expressing
2. Aggressively expressing
3. Assertively expressing

Let us understand the insights in each of the communication process

Passively  expressing:
 
When conflict happens between two people, one person takes a passive approach by allowing another person to satisfy their concerns while neglecting themselves. In this process, internally, the person is suffering.
Sometimes this approach is beneficial when the other person is being “power centered” and not in a position to listen to your views.
And also, this approach is useful when you do not want to pay attention to the conflict or if the conflict is not worth to take forward.

For example, if the conflict is to have scheduled review meetings in the morning or afternoon between you and your boss. There is no point in having a debate or justifying your views to keep either morning or evening. In either case, you are going to be the “essential person” in the review meeting. Also, by arguing for this case, you are wasting your energy, and it is better to be passive.
 
Depending on the importance of the issue, you need to weigh relationships vs tasks and then decide to ignore or live with the flow. But you need to be conscious about your inner peace when the conflict happens and the way you deal with it through passive expression.
 
Let us discuss other communication processes next week!

Managing conflict with elevated thinking

Improving communication in the workplace

Managing conflicts with elevated thinking

When conflict happens between two people in the workplace, most of us use  the following methods to resolve the conflict 

1. Forcing others to accept your views with your positional power
2. Passively accepting other views without expressing your standpoint
3. Ignoring and moving on
4. Compromising -settling down in between which way both are not happy
5. Collaborating to find the intention behind others view and finding the solution which is mutually agreeing on happily.

Each method has its implication on the relationship and the quality of work.

One of the ways effective leaders adopt to deal with conflict is “working on elevation.”

For example, when the conflict happens, between the function, say from finance and marketing on delivering the goods against payment only. The conflict resolution could be going along with the opinion of finance or marketing. The effective leader solves the conflict by bringing the customer or organizational wellness into the perspective to resolve the conflict among the functions.

Similarly, in most of the workplace, the conflict between two people would be “who supposed to do what“and the conflict gets into personal friction among the individual. Even though this can be claimed as an organizational development issue, the conflict can be avoided if either one of them thinks from the third angle of the customer or organization’s perspective.

When you think or look at higher needs, the low-level conflict can be resolved. This is one of the leadership qualities in dealing with conflicts.

Let us discuss the communication process in dealing with conflicts by next week!  

Managing Conflict

Improving communication in the workplace

Managing Conflict

As we have discussed improving communication in the workplace in a normal circumstance, another testing point for improving communication effectiveness is during the conflict. Managing conflict by balancing relationships, and the result is art, and some people are good at it.

What is meant by conflict in the workplace?

Conflict is a difference in thought process, interest, opinions about something among the individuals or team

For example,
In one of the client organizations, the senior member wants to increase top-line growth, whereas the new generation executive intends to focus on maximizing profitability than sales growth. That is a conflict of interest among individuals.

Maintenance functional team members asking for releasing machines for maintenance purposes, and the production team refuses to release to meet the delivery targets. That is a conflict of interest among the group.

If you really observe the day to day interactions of every individual and team, there could be a series of differences in interest, values, thoughts, and opinions.

Why does conflict happen in the workplace?

When different people come together for a common goal, the visible difference in thought process arises due to the difference in background, exposure, functional priorities or agendas, or lack of awareness about the task or outcome.

Whatever the intentions of your thought process, there are some people out there to come out with alternative thought processes and opinions. Conflict cannot be avoided, and we need to learn different strategies to manage the conflict.

Sometimes disagreement arises due to positional status or desire to fulfill the ego of an individual.

What will happen when conflict is not managed well?

When we are not managing the conflict, there could be a possibility of

1. Damaging the relationship
2. Developing stress internally
3. Prolonging the decision and affecting the task or goal
4. Creating an environment not conducive of harmony

Let us discuss the methods of managing conflicts, communication methods in next week!

When do you lose your value?

Recently I received this photo from one of my friends. I am not sure whether this is a  sales discount as a consequence of Steve Smith's involvement in “ball tampering scandal” news or year-end sales push as coincidence. However, this picture reminds profound life truth.

Your value would come down the moment you lose your core life values like integrity, honesty, fairness for the sake of a quick win.This truth is not only applicable in sports, nowadays, but we also hear/watch the news on scandals in all spheres of business, especially in banking, that too, from a respected corporate man/women whom most of the youngsters are looking up as a role model. When they trade their values for short-term materialistic advantages, we lose the respect of those people, irrespective of their education, positional status, past achievements in their profession.

In Life, you can regain materialistic assets even if you lose, but you cannot regain once lose your internal consciousness if that is traded for low values.Hold on your high values for your peace and people under you as they are watching you, They can be your peers or subordinates or even your children .!

What are you thinking and feeling during conflict?

      When conflict happens between two either at home or in the profession, only a few have the maturity to see the conflict as the difference of opinion and able to take it lightly considering the big picture of family or organizational. Most of the people struggle to differentiate the conflict over issues and personalities. Also, conflict end with compromising, accepting other’s perspectives, forgive, being humble or not getting into blaming or even taking personally.

Your thinking and feeling during the conflict determine your peace of minds. One of the powerful strategy philosopher and psychologists suggest that think of the consequences and think of the event in a time distant, say from a week now, a month now or even a year now. That makes a difference.
For example, recollect a conflict, which ended up intense arguments one year back with your spouse or colleague.Answer yourself whether that event is significant to you or your life now. Mostly, it will not.

Likewise, if you think of the argument’s significance one week or a month down the line or its consequence to your quality of life, most of the conflict ends up smoothly.

It just requires awareness during the conflict. Just try when you get into heated arguments with somebody closer to you and learn!