Handling Conflict Introduction:

Nearly everyone dislikes conflict to some degree. This is a normal human response to discord and uncertainty in our environment and relationships. However, conflict exists in some form in every human relationship and must be addressed in the workplace.

Do you disagree with the handling of a particular task? Does an employee want a promotion even though they aren’t ready? Does an employee miss a lot of work, and those absences are stressing the other team members? Does an employee make insulting or demeaning remarks to others and then state they are “just kidding” or say the offended party is “too sensitive”?

All of these potential situations arise in just about every workplace—yes, even those with positive cultures and high employee engagement. This element of working with humans is just a part of life. HOW you handle it is the key component of high-performance organizations with a positive culture and high employee engagement.

Avoidance of conflict and discomfort, in general, is a normal human response to these kinds of situations. But avoidance isn’t going to help you guide and nurture employees, employee experience, employee engagement, culture, or performance. Like it or not (and most of us don’t like it), the only way to get conflict fully wrong in the workplace is to ignore it.

Remember the old saying, “There is no bravery without fear”? It applies to handling workplace conflict, too.

Read the following best practices and the content on those best practices to learn more.