Why do excellent people know how to manage conflicts effectively?

In recent days, the media has been flooded with information about Shanghai.

There is good news, such as medical staff from all over the country rushing to Shanghai and various material donations coming in a continuous stream.

There is bad news, such as Shanghai's daily confirmed cases breaking 10000, and conflicts and discordant voices occurring from time to time.

The essence of conflict is differentiation.

Due to differences in positions, interests, and perceptions, it is difficult for us to see problems comprehensively, and conflicts arise when we do not understand ourselves or others.

The same goes for enterprises, where various conflicts in the workplace are difficult to avoid. How to deal with conflicts tests the basic skills of managers.

Truly excellent managers are masters of 'conflict management'.

Conflicts are very common in the workplace. Let me give you a few scenario based examples:

For example, if a leader is parachuted in, and the old employees do not cooperate, they will always have conflicts with the new leader, thinking that the country they have worked hard to build, why let others interfere and guide them?

For example, the business leader asked HR to recruit, but none of them were satisfied. The business department accuses the human resources department of not understanding the business, and the human resources department accuses the business department of being reckless and difficult to serve.

For example, if the company's performance declines, sales and operations blame each other, sales complain about the poor quality of leads provided by operations, operations criticize poor sales ability, and low conversion rates.

Conflicts are everywhere in work. But is conflict necessarily a bad thing?

Not necessarily.

Conflicts can be divided into two types based on their nature: constructive conflicts and destructive conflicts.

1. Constructive Conflict

What is a 'constructive' conflict? It is a valuable conflict where both parties can solve problems or bring growth through positive interaction.

General Electric CEO Welch said, "Constructive conflict can allow different perspectives to clash and spark new ideas, which is beneficial for managers to promote reform and innovation in a timely manner

At General Electric, Welch often communicated and debated face-to-face with members, triggering conflicts among them, constantly discovering problems from conflicts, and improving management.

General Motors President Sloan also attaches great importance to this point. He presided over a meeting to discuss an important decision. If there is no red faced controversy at the meeting and the attendees fully agree with the proposal put forward by the company's decision-making team and unanimously support it, he will announce, "Now adjourn. We will postpone the meeting to make a decision when we can hear different opinions

Sloan believed that disputes "bring true knowledge". If there is only one voice and there are objections and collisions, then there must be problems with this decision.

Sloan led General Motors for 33 years, and the company's market share increased from 12% to 56%, largely benefiting from the controversy.

2. Destructive conflict

What is' destructive conflict '?

Such conflicts have no benefits, only drawbacks, and are destructive. Everyone is limited by their personal interests, blaming and attacking each other.

This is actually an internal friction, the more severe the conflict, the greater the damage it causes. The team cannot work together, management cannot be effective, and the result is inefficient, ineffective, or even negative.

There is a saying about the "crab effect": if you put a crab into a bamboo cage, you must cover it with a lid, otherwise it will easily crawl out. If there are many crabs in the bamboo cage, you don't need to cover it. Because as soon as one crab is about to climb out of the bamboo cage, other crabs will attach to it and drag it down, and the last crab will not be able to get out.

In the end of destructive conflicts, this' crab effect 'often occurs. Team members compete with each other for their own interests and hold each other back. Over time, everyone becomes trapped in internal friction and struggle, and the strength of the team is exhausted. Not only can it fail to generate value, but it will also backfire.

So, conflict may not necessarily be a bad thing. The key is how you handle conflicts and whether you have done a good job of 'conflict management'.

How should managers handle conflicts when they arise? Management expert Mary Parker Follett believes that there are three ways to handle it:

Suppression, compromise, and integration.

The first type: suppression.One side defeating the other is the easiest way to handle conflicts, but its effect is short-lived and not successful in the long run.

The second type: compromise.Both sides make concessions and give up something, which is the most common way to resolve conflicts, but to be precise, no one really wants to make concessions.

The third type: integration.When conflicts are discovered, break down the needs of both parties and integrate them together. This approach meets the requirements of both parties and requires no sacrifice from either party.

From the results, integration may be the most effective way to handle conflicts and differences.

So, how to integrate the requirements of both parties? I think there are three very important things:

The first one is to attribute correctly and clarify the 'key conflicts'.

When a conflict arises, do not rush to draw conclusions. Because your conclusion may not necessarily be correct.

In an organization, when faced with different viewpoints and opinions, people tend to habitually base their judgments on their own positions, using their own experience and cognition. Even if they are wrong, they will try their best to prove their viewpoints.

Once you get caught in the vortex of 'I am right and you are wrong', it becomes difficult for you to see the problem comprehensively and draw the correct conclusion.

So, you need to be open and tolerant towards different viewpoints and opinions, not seeing conflict as a struggle of right and wrong, but as a manifestation of differentiation.

Then, you need to clarify what the key conflict you are facing is, and you need to see what essence is hidden behind the surface of the conflict.

For example, if there is a conflict between an old employee and a new leader, you need to smell the smell. The root cause of the conflict is cultural problems or problems with the distribution of benefits mechanism.

When you identify the key conflict and find the root cause of the conflict, you can prescribe the right medicine.

The second is to abandon individualism and find common goals and values.

For enterprises, goals and values are the greatest common divisors of all employees. In the event of a conflict, you need to abandon individualism and find common goals and values for both parties.

What goals does the company want to achieve, what is the significance of achieving those goals, what goals do teams and individuals want to achieve, and what is the significance of achieving those goals.

Simply preaching cannot solve the problem. You must involve everyone and fully express their own ideas in order to truly reach consensus and form a common goal and value pursuit.

For example, an example of a conflict between the sales department and the operations department. The KPIs of the sales department and the operations department are definitely different, and the bosses who report to the two departments are also different. The sales department is concerned about the quantity and quality of sales leads, while the operations department is concerned about lead conversion rates and customer experience.

In communication, the operations department should not only focus on achieving their own results, but also identify the issues that sales are concerned about. They should tell the sales department how leads come from, how to improve the quality of sales leads, and analyze which leads have the best quality.

The operations department also needs to provide data and cases to tell everyone how many leads have been wasted by sales. By giving a negative example, the order was lost due to improper follow-up and quick success in sales. Through these pain points, make sales value leads and services.

When both parties find common goals and values, they can build consensus and resolve conflicts.

The third one is to establish a trust relationship with naked hearts.

Many times, conflicts arise mainly from a lack of understanding towards others. So, it is essential to create an atmosphere of open communication and exchange.

Naked heart would be a great tool. At naked heart meetings, everyone reveals their inner self. Only when you understand someone else's story can you truly know them and see them as human. Through this approach, the team's unity and cohesion are enhanced, and everyone is more willing to strive for the same goal.

In addition, after the conflict is resolved, you can also use a naked heart meeting to heal the scars in your heart and rebuild a trusting relationship. When a team forms an atmosphere of mutual trust, battleThe fight also came up.。

Information source: Enterprise management