In the workplace, like anywhere else in life, conflict between people is inevitable. As a manager, you should deal with it immediately and not just live in hope that it will somehow resolve itself. Conflict between employees can have a detrimental effect on the rest of your team. Over time, conflict can lower morale, even among your star performers, and result in lower productivity.

Examples of conflict are not always full-scale arguments or obvious cases of bullying, but can also be a creeping negativity and backbiting between people. These latter forms of conflict can be harder to spot, but are just as worthy of concern and swift resolution. Most people managers find conflict resolution hard to handle and would welcome some solid advice on the subject. Here are some strategies to help you deal with workplace conflict. You may find these strategies helpful in other contexts where conflict arises.

Get both sides of the story

It’s important for both sides to feel that they have an equal chance to be heard. Most people feel better after they have been allowed to air their views and explain what’s been happening. This storytelling session must occur in an environment where people feel safe to speak, without fear of judgement or future sanctions.

Get to the bottom of the problem

Active listening is essential. While the parties are telling their stories, you need to listen carefully to draw out the underlying issue or core problem of the dispute. Is it a personality clash or a disagreement over a particular project? If it is the latter, you might consider redistributing the work among members of the team. Getting to the bottom of the problem will help you and the parties to develop a win-win solution for both sides and the organization.

Encourage employees to appreciate their differences

Help the disputing parties understand that although they may not get along personally, they each bring important contributions to the organization. To do this successfully, ensure that both sides feel valued for their own unique talents. You might try to get them to realize the effect that their behaviour might have on the team as a whole.

Try to find some common ground

No matter how complex the conflict might seem, the parties are usually able to find some agreement on one or two key interests. For example, employees may disagree on the approach to take in tackling a particular project but agree on that project’s ultimate completion or success. Try to highlight any common goals or interests that the parties may have in settling the dispute and suggest that they try to achieve the goal or interest together.

Get both parties to buy into the solution

To ensure that the dispute doesn’t arise again, everyone needs to feel that they are happy with the suggested solution. Be patient because this may take some time. As the negotiation progresses, it may be useful to bring both parties together to do some joint problem solving. It will be easier for the parties to accept and take ownership of any resolution arising from the joint brainstorming session. Encouraging your employees to take part in finding the solution, improves your chance of implementing it, both initially and in the long-term.

Conflict resolution is a difficult process to manage, especially if you are dealing with clashing personalities, but you need to tackle the conflict head-on before the situation deteriorates.

Remember, if you feel the situation is too tough to handle on your own or you don’t have the expertise within your HR department, you can always seek help from a professional mediation organization. Bringing in an impartial and independent person can often encourage your employees to feel they are truly getting objective consideration and a fair resolution.

To learn conflict resolution skills that you can use at work and in your personal life, please visit our Alternative Dispute Resolution Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.

To improve your negotiation skills and get the results you want while negotiating, please visit our Become a Powerful Negotiator Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.

To gain skills to handle difficult conversations and difficult people with confidence, please visit our Dealing With Difficult People Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.

To make better decisions, we need to understand how our mind takes shortcuts and how those shortcuts trick us into making bad decisions. If you understand how your mind works and when it fails you, you will make better decisions. To improve your decision-making skills, please visit our Effective Decision Making Workshop page to learn more about upcoming in-person and instructor-led online sessions.