Recently I was talking with Adrian, one of my FS Partners, about some of the themes we see in our work. We quickly realized that if all managers and organizational leaders were able to do these 3 things, our firm would go out of business:
1. Lead effective meetings,
2. Coach employees to resolve their own tensions effectively, and
3. Have the skill and confidence to bring two conflicting parties together to talk about their differences.
We both agreed that, unfortunately for our clients (and perhaps fortunately for our business), it doesn’t look like this is going to happen any time soon.
What do you think? I’m curious if you have other key ingredients to add to the list.
There are many great training resources for managers and HR advisors out there, including the upcoming seminar series we are hosting this fall. Building internal capacity for dealing with conflict not only reduces dependancy on outside assistance (e.g. external consultants like us) but creates the necessary conditions for work teams to grow and thrive.
Without a doubt, conflict prevention is one of the most effective (and cost efficient!) investments that organizations can make.
Sandy