No business is immune from workplace conflict. When you work with others over time, people (and yes, that can include you) won’t always see eye to eye on everything or choose to act in in perfect harmony with those around them.

Recognising that certainty, here’s a question: What’s your ‘go to’ leadership approach when you need to tackle disagreement or discord in the ranks?

Are you typically a ‘peacemaker’, a ‘compromiser’ (if that’s a word), an ‘ignorer’ (who hopes the problem will just go away/blow over — largely because you prefer to avoid confrontations), or do you lean towards being a bit of a ‘take charge merchant’, who might even dictate solutions? Or maybe you adopt a hybrid of these with something else?

What ever your thinking, here’s a truism about how conflict tends to germinate from Linda Putman, Professor of Communications at the University of California-Santa Barbara, who opines:

“Conflict starts as a dance or a dialogue, not a war”

True. But if it’s allowed to get legs, things can turn ugly in quick order…

…Which is why, as mentioned in previous posts, leaders who bury their heads in the sand instead of grasping emerging nettles tend to court a deal more trouble than their fast acting peers.

That said, here’s another truth — managing conflict in the right way can be a tricky business.

And knowing that there are many pitfalls that can beset you, wouldn’t it be helpful to learn from those with best of class knowledge about what works and what doesn’t?

If you said yes, you’re in luck as today’s expert interview is with behaviourist, speaker, author, President of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers, and expert in decoding conflict situations and behaviour, Faith Wood.

Lean in as we delve into a plethora of ideas leaders would likely find helpful when tackling friction in the workplace.

11 Easy Ideas You Can Use to Defuse Conflict Before it Escalates

Listen in as we discuss:

• How a reluctance to tackle workplace conflict is a very common, but dangerous mindset
• Why zeroing in on players and behaviours can help you to get to the root of what’s causing conflict before you try to fix it
• The elixir of adopting a shampoo and rinse strategy to find out what makes folks tick
• How shaping your conversation to be in sync with personality profiles pays
• Why asking for a do over can solve many a bother
• How an ounce of prevention can avert a ton of pain
• The power of body language and why a softer approach can yield better results
• What picking your toes up has to do with reducing tension at work
• Common barriers to defusing bust ups – including the problem with ‘why’
• How injecting humour and dancing into your thinking can change everything, and
• Don’t play snakes and ladders. Try chess instead.

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Photo Credit: Simon Blackley