Leadership Resolves Conflict

Doggedly pursing a topic inevitably leads to new insight. Tracking the theme of difficult bosses led from The Alpha Male Syndrome to another (not quite so new) book, When Goliaths Crash: Managing Executive Conflict to Build a More Dynamic Organization (Howard M. Guttman, reviewed HERE). It focuses the need for executives in organizations to become better at resolving conflict.

Although the reference to executive conflict first attracted me, the book can really address all conflict, which reinforces my faith that core skills apply in all situations.

So, what's the new insight? Simply this: most people in organizations have virtually no training in dealing effectively with conflict... even though conflicts of ideas, strategies and styles are inevitable and therefore are often no one person's fault – neither the executive nor the employee.

One may be more at fault, but both executives and employees are about equally likely to have poor skills due to lack of experience and training. They may both approach situations with fear of confrontation that makes them edgy and even more uncertain. Some deal with it by attacking, some by withdrawing or glossing over issues. Of course executives can get away with the attack model more easily, but angry employees strike out quite frequently as well and are more often avoided than disciplined or constructively spoken with.

Sometimes one can draw the other into productive conversation that gets the issues resolved without boiling over. More often neither can and time slips by leaving people angry and frustrated without entirely knowing whether things could have been different.

The skill of finding balanced ways of discussing problems before they get dropped, shortchanged, glossed over or just grumbled about can be a very productive addition to the repertoire of everyone in any organization. Undoubtedly the greater onus falls on bosses, as does the onus for managing all factors in business, but that doesn't excuse employees from responsibility for carrying their end of the load. While it takes two to fight, it also takes two to get to the bottom of things and find a solution that works for both. True, some bosses won't allow this, but then neither will some employees.