A reporter recently reached out to me to ask me how I would approach resolving conflicts between managers. Here is my response.
1. How do you resolve conflicts between managers in the workplace?
Ideally – you shouldn’t have to. Managers should be adults who know how to resolve disagreements civilly and effectively in the best interests of the organization. But – if they aren’t good at resolving differences and it turns into a conflict, then yes, upper management (usually HR) has to get involved.
If I were coaching managers on how to deal with this (and I do have online courses that teach this), the first thing I do is encourage both compassion and responsibility. The other person probably means well and if you can get out of your head enough – you can listen to their objections and help resolve the disagreement by making either a compromise or sorting it out – as adults do.
The first approach is to always assume both parties mean well and have valid reasons for their actions – and to figure out what those are. Often – just encouraging both sides to view each other as allies and not enemies is enough to jump start the process.
If one side refuses to do this – then – you have a problem.
2. Why do you need to resolve conflicts swiftly?
Disagreements should not escalate into conflicts and if they have – you have a problem. Dealing with it swiftly is important because a) you don’t want it to escalate further and b) the longer it goes on – the harder it is to bring the parties back into allyship to resolve it. Once disagreements turn into conflicts – tribal thinking takes over and people can really solidify their opinions that the “other” side is evil or insane. If allowed to fester, those biases will negatively impact all work going forward. You need you team to think of themselves as being on the same team – not enemies.
3. How can you avoid conflicts in the first place?
Foster a humanistic workplace. Reward managers for collaboration. If you keep getting conflicts – either the managers shouldn’t be managers or your reward system within the organization is rewarding the conflicts or both. Sears is a famous example of this. They made managers compete with one another instead of rewarding them for collaboration and the result was disastrous.
More practically – practice and encourage – collaborative problem solving as the cultural norm within the organization.
4. What are some other ways in which you can foster a healthy work environment?
Actively reward collaboration and happy employees. Keep reinforcing compassion for people who disagree and the dignity and worth of every individual in the company. Also – not everyone is cut out to be a manager. If someone just can’t handle the pressure and doesn’t know how to positively reinforce people – teach them – explicitly – how to do this.
5. At what point does HR need to get involved in a conflict between managers?
As soon as it becomes obvious – that this is a conflict and not simply a disagreement. If managers can’t resolve disagreements without it becoming a conflict – then something is wrong. Get involved. Treat both sides with dignity and recognize their worth and help them see that in each other.
6. Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Learning how to deal with conflict, and bullying are basic management skills. Train your new managers on how to handle interpersonal problems. If you don’t train them – don’t expect them to magically – know how to handle difficult interpersonal situations.
Learn more by taking one of my HRCI & SHRM approved courses at https://humanistlearning.com/
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