Workplace Conflict: 3 Reasons Bosses That Deal with Conflict Can Thrive

As a boss, one of your most important functions in an organization is to hold the team accountable for meeting its goals and deadlines. When a conflict comes up that threatens the goals or deadlines, you must manage it if you want the project to succeed.

And you do want your organization to succeed, right?

Here are three reasons addressing conflict will help you reach your goals.

1) Admitting Problems Leads to Solutions

Is your team in a bad situation? Are they dysfunctional, unable or unwilling to meet deadlines, or fighting amongst themselves? Are you afraid of pointing this out because it might lead to an argument or conflict?

Hiding it will not help. Ignoring it will not make it go away. Delegating it to someone else won’t help. The only remedy is begin to solve the problem is radical honesty: my team is failing, this is a bad situation, and I need to be honest about that to start looking for solutions. Yes it might lead to conflict. But ignoring it will lead to more conflict when the organization’s goals start to fail.

2) You’ll Be Able to Keep Your Key Employees

Does that conflict you’re afraid of dealing with at work have you shaking in your boots? How will you feel when other key employees either quit or wrongfully take the fall for your failings? You will be far worse off.

You are the boss. Ultimately, the long-term goals of the organization are your responsibility. Good employees will not want to stay or join a company with a bad performance record. By dealing with the conflict you are afraid of, you can start making headway with the obstacles and problems that are really in your way, and keep the most valuable people in your organization to ensure its future.

3) You’ll Avoid Costly Failures

I’ve seen organizations lose millions of dollars because they were unable or unwilling to confront a conflict problem head-on. Whether it is a failed project, the loss of irreplaceable employees, or worse, I’ve seen it again and again.

Whatever the conflict is, you can mashal allies and resources by making the conflict about the bottom line, not about your fear of doing what needs to be done. So what exactly needs to be done?

So What Now?

Are you unsure about how to deal with the conflict that threatens to derail what you are trying accomplish? Do you know you must do something, but you’re not exactly sure what?

If you’d like to find new ways to get past your workplace conflict situation, resolve the issue and get specific strategies to help, contact me here.  I also encourage you to sign up for my free report on “Costs of Conflict” and receive other detailed reports, tips, and exclusive content.

My work brings individualized solutions to your teams’ lost productivity, loss of key personnel, low morale, and the high costs resulting from bullying, abrasive behaviors and interpersonal workplace conflicts. I turn destructive conflict into productive communication.

-Kathleen Bartle, MA