How to Minimize Conflict in the Business Environment

Do you want to prevent or minimize conflict in a corporate/business setting? It’s really very straightforward. All you need do is increase the quality, clarity and frequency of communication, making it integrated, effective and consistent.

How do you do that? Improve yourself. YOU ARE THE COMMUNICATION. There can be no separation between who you are, (at least in the minds of others), and the quality of your communication. The communication model must have integrity, consistency and clarity. In other words, at a bare minimum, don’t send mixed messages.

Endeavor to develop protocols for your company enabling your team to more effectively deal with conflict. Conflict resolution design systems should start with the basics: effective communication skills. There should be conflict resolution training for human resource personnel, your managers in operations, marketing and finance.

Use a specialized Conflict Resolution System design for your company utilizing conflict resolution protocols tailored to meet your company’s needs. Regardless of your company’s size or number of team members, there’s an integrated, specialized protocol that is user-friendly and geared toward the average person.

What does this do for you? The preventive aspect of the protocol assists you in identifying problem areas in your company and taking affirmative steps to prevent incidents before they happen. The smallest of conflicts can lead to lawsuits, terminations and – at the very least – lowered productivity and low morale. Low morale breeds more of the same. It’s much easier to prevent it than to remedy it once it’s occurred.

Your integrity – or lack of it – speaks loudly and clearly in your communications. Here are some “Do’s and Don’ts” for clear, effective communication within the business/corporate setting:

1) Do select your company’s dominant method of communication: e-mail, memos, in-person managing. If at all possible, do not deviate from the method you have selected. It breeds confusion. For example, if your company historically has made important announcements by memo, switching to e-mail without giving advance notice to your team members may confuse them. It also my have a “chilling” effect on those who are not as computer literate as others. For important matters anyway, do choose your method of communication. Make sure everyone knows it is the preferred mode of communication. Don’t change it unless or until it doesn’t work anymore AND you have announced the new, preferred means of communication.

2) Do be consistent in your dissemination of information to your managers and executives. Don’t divulge important information to one or some of your key team members and not others. The ones who have not directly received the communication will hear about it from the others anyway and they will feel excluded and oftentimes betrayed by the selectivity of the communication. Additionally, you can count on the fact that the message that you sent will be delivered differently by others so that the quality and integrity of the communication will be eroded – if not destroyed – in the process.

3) Do issue thoughtful, direct communiqués. Don’t engage in knee-jerk dissemination of information because it relieves you of the burden of interpretation. There is a difference between delegation and dumping. Your employees and co-workers will know the difference…even if you don’t.

4) Do make sure the message content has integrity. Don’t “do as I say, not as I do”. For example, if your company’s stated philosophy with respect to compensation is that the “sky is the limit,” make sure that your company’s compensation policies are consistent with that philosophy. If they are not, it won’t take long for word to get around that no good deed(s) in the company will be rewarded. More than almost anything, it is imperative that, when it comes to compensation practices, a company’s message be clear and unequivocal in its application. This should start at the top and work its way down to the most important person in your company – the one who answers the telephones!

5) Do lead by example, not by false words and promises. Remember the old adage, “Actions speak louder than words”? It’s amazing that in our society, (our companies, our families, and our schools), we seem to have forgotten these important words… or we ignore them. The folks at the top make the most important communication statement daily by their example: they either inspire their team members (a positive communication) or they demoralize them (a negative communication with far-reaching consequences). Once your employees are “on to you”, they probably won’t confront you with your lack of integrity, but they will learn they cannot trust you or the company’s culture. And when that happens, a virus takes shape and takes hold. The results can be devastating to your company and to your reputation.

6) Do build people up. Don’t tear them down. As axiomatic as this might seem, there exist a plethora of top management people who, by virtue of their “success”, think they are above reproach. In fact, they are so far beyond (ahead?) of the rest of us, that they deem it appropriate to verbally abuse their partners and peers in front of other team members. This passive-aggressive behavior breeds contempt and distrust among the ranks. Taking an active approach to problem solving involves “modeling” a positive paradigm. This provides clear, unequivocal communication to employees as to how to behave in a similar setting.

7) Do listen. Do listen. Do listen. Especially if you are a key executive or manager, not listening to your team members, clients, vendors, will cost you. It will cost you your time, training efforts, money and sometimes, your job. Listening is the ability to walk in another’s shoes with your judgment suspended. For more information on how to learn to listen and authentic listening go to ConflictResolution.com. Don’t fail to listen. You do so at your – and your company’s – peril.

8) Do tell the truth. Don’t lie or “fib”. Understandably there are times where the entire truth of a situation is best left unsaid, or is simply not ripe for publication. At that time, be truthful. It’s better to say, “It’s not time yet to explain all that’s transpired, but I (we) will explain as much as we can as soon as we can,” than to lie about the circumstances and be found out later. In the truth there is integrity and once you develop a reputation for being truthful, it’s amazing how much slack your employees and co-workers will grant you. Don’t try to cover up the situation or pretend it doesn’t exist. You make think you can fool your employees but you cannot. The “underground network” that exists in every business organization will prevent you from fooling anyone.

9) Do be a functional organization. Don’t be dysfunctional. What does that mean? If your corporate communication has integrity, consistency and clarity, your company is probably “functional”. If your company’s mode of communication is unclear, inconsistent, selective and disingenuous, your company is, at best, dysfunctional. People of quality are not attracted to dysfunctional organizations.

10)If you’re not a good communicator, take some preventive steps and do hire someone who is and let them do what they know how to do. Don’t continue to pretend that as a leader you are an effective communicator. Set aside your ego for the good of the whole (the company!) and hire someone who can do what you cannot. What you will save in terms of lost time, productivity and employee morale will more than make up for the difference.

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