Q: While browsing through my professional organization website, I came across this heading “Personality Clashes Cause Most Workplace Discord”. Who can resist clicking on that headline? Not me. So, here’s what I learned.
The No. 1 cause of workplace conflict, is not disagreement about politics, religion or other hot-button issues of the day like you may have guessed; the No. 1 cause of workplace conflict are good old-fashioned personality clashes.
This is good news (we aren’t partisan fanatics, just human) and reinforces what I already believe: Conflict is an inevitable part of life, just like death and taxes. Conflict exists even among best friends. So to me, the source of the conflict is in some ways irrelevant. What’s more important –especially in a workplace setting– is how we approach the conflict and how we resolve it.
In the workplace, I believe it’s management’s responsibility to give employees the tools to deal with disagreements. We can’t just rely on employees’ natural abilities to sort things out on their own. Most of us aren’t naturally gifted at conflict resolution. Left unchecked small conflicts can poison the work environment leading to lower productivity and dysfunction. So what can management do?
- Offer basic conflict resolution skills training to staff so they become familiar with techniques to find common ground, how to “fight fairly” and on how to negotiate and compromise.
- Use one of the compatibility assessment tools available that not only tell your team members what their work style preferences are, but also lets them know how to work best with each other. These tools offer a non-judgmental way for employees to learn about themselves and others.
- Don’t overlook intergenerational differences as a source of conflict. Each generation has unique ways of communicating and approaching work, and sometimes may offend or irritate each other unnecessarily. Raising employee’s awareness will prevent this. BTW, this study found Millennials had more conflict (69% vs. 54% for other generations), and were less skilled at resolving it.
Conflict in the workplace doesn’t need to be a scary monster to be avoided at all costs. Conflict has a known structure and a known path to resolution.
© Copyright Eva Del Rio
