Momentum - Business to Business Online Magazine MOMENTUM August 2019 | Page 12

HR CORNER
SHARON BAYUS, MA, LPC-S
President & CEO
Innovative Alternatives, Inc.
www.innovativealternatives.org
Is Conflict in the Workplace
a Bad Thing?
W
hat is your style of conflict resolution?
Do you know? Do you care? Does it
matter? Do you have any idea how it
impacts your teams and supervisees?
Few of us have opportunity to learn
good communication skills, let alone healthy conflict
resolution skills. Conflict is not just overt arguing,
screaming and/or fighting over who is right or wrong.
That misconception causes many leaders of many
companies to say, “We really do not have any conflict
here.” However, avoiding conflict actually exacerbates
it. Like an infected wound, the poison is just under the
surface, but will eventually erupt, as the healthy tissues
cannot contain it. In the same way, if you, others on your
leadership team, or even key employees avoid dealing
with issues; or on the other extreme, want to confront
everyone about everything, your business may suffer.
10
MOMENTUM
However, the latter is undoubtedly much healthier than
the former, because at least issues get on the table.
If you are the sharpest tack in the box, but cannot
get along with others, or address important issues
when they arise and put them behind you, your full
capacity and real success becomes unattainable. Don’t
let your business become a statistic! In a business
of 25 people, losing 2.8 hours per week per person
dealing with conflict—whether straight up gossip among
employees or disciplinary issues—means the loss of 70
hours productivity or the equivalent of 1.75 full-time
salaries per week! It is too costly to ignore. Conflict
is anything that causes a relationship not to work
well or comfortably for one, both or all parties
concerned. It is really a neutral thing, just indicating
that something needs to change for the relationship
to become as functional and productive as possible.
Don’t be afraid of it. Embrace it as an opportunity
for positive change—when handled correctly that is.
It can actually get your business on the right track.
The average employee will not report a problem to
leadership unless it costs more than $100,000! If your
folks are afraid to speak up and disagree with you
as the owner/leader, you may make your own costly
errors. If they are distracted by conflict with one
another, or afraid to say they need help or don’t fully
understand how to do their jobs, we all know how
much this can cost!
In most instances, a 4-8 hour staff development
workshop on communication and conflict resolution
can assist your team in knowing how to address
conflict and uncomfortable relational issues in the
healthiest fashion. Not only that, but if everyone
takes it at the same time, it is much less intimidating
to use the skills with one another—even while they
are still a bit clumsy—rather than being the only
person who knows the skills and others are still
using unhealthy approaches. This is a formula to
cause folks to give up too soon on the new skills they’ve
learned.
Study by CPP, Inc. makers of Myers Briggs and Thomas Kilman
Conflict Mode Instrument