Making Conflict Productive: A Critical Leadership Skill

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the heart of nearly every personal or organizational problem is a conversation that either went poorly or never happened.

The health of any relationship, team, or company can be measured by the lag time between identifying and discussing problems. One survey estimated that when three days pass between identification of a problem and a frank, honest and respectful conversation about it, roughly $5,000 was wasted. But when the lag time extends it becomes even more costly—like 25,000 bucks!

Just because you’re given a leadership title doesn’t mean it’s any easier to tell someone they need to improve their performance or change their behavior. 

When confronted with conflict, the common human response is to find the easiest way out. We're looking for an exit and we'll take it anywhere we can find it.

Yet kicking the can down the road doesn’t get rid of the can. Soon enough you’ll find yourself facing the same conflict.

Making conflict productive is a critical skill for leaders. Leaders who are able to address issues early and effectively can create a more positive and productive work environment, build stronger relationships with their team members, promote collaboration and innovation, and are likely to achieve more of the results they want.

Many of us feel fear, anger, discomfort, or anxiety about clearly confronting issues with others. We often find justifications for avoiding the conversation altogether. We wind up with resentment, which is very stress producing and it leaves the other person in charge. We give over our power. It also takes a physical and mental toll, building stress over time. The irony is that the very outcomes we fear in confronting an issue are practically guaranteed to show up if we don’t address the issue.

Instead of looking at confrontation as something to be armed and armored for, ready for a battle, look at conflict resolution as a search for the truth, for understanding the root cause of what is happening.

How can leaders develop their ability to effectively confront issues?

Here are some specific strategies that leaders can use to resolve issues effectively:

• Meet with the parties involved individually.
• Go into the conversation with curiosity to find out the root cause of the issue. This will give you a chance to hear each person’s side of the story and to get a better understanding of the situation.
• Name the specific issue. If you have many issues with the person, choose the most important one, or see if there is one over-arching issue. Remember, just one issue, and be specific.
• Give specific examples of the issue you are confronting.
• Describe your emotions around the issue. Talking about emotions is intimate and disarming. Emotions make it personal.
• Clarify what is at stake to gain when the issue is resolved; what’s at stake for them, for the team, and for the company
•  Indicate your wish to resolve the issue. This indicates good intentions.
   Invite them to share their perspective, and their side of the story, and go into active listening mode.
• Be more curious, ask clarifying questions, and allow the person to express themselves clearly. 
• Ask more questions and repeat what you’ve heard to make sure you’re understanding them correctly, and to let them know you are truly listening.
• Clearly state your intention and restate the issue to come full circle. Restating the issue refocuses the other person’s attention on the issue.
• Brainstorm solutions together. This can help to foster collaboration and to generate creative solutions.
• Help them to evaluate the different solutions and to choose the one that is best for everyone involved.
• Make the agreement.

Here are some additional tips for making conflict productive:

 

 

• Listen actively – When the other person is speaking, listen actively and try to understand their perspective.
• Stay calm and collected –  when resolving conflict. Avoid getting emotional or defensive. Be respectful –  Even if you disagree with the other person, it is important to treat them with respect. 
  
• Show empathy – being able to see conflict from another’s point of view to avoid bringing one’s own preconceptions to the table
• Be willing to apologize – If you have made a mistake, be willing to apologize.
• Be forgiving – If the other person has made a mistake, be willing to forgive them.

If you are a leader, it is important to invest time and effort in developing your conflict resolution skills. 

Check out a related post: Productive Conflict Is Essential to Your Team's Success  ( 3 min read)

Remember, difficult conversations are not to be feared or avoided. Ensuring that these conversations take place is up to you. In other words, if you know something must change, then know that it is you who must initiate the change.

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile: 323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, facilities services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

 

Leadership Coaching Works: Here's Why

 

How Does Coaching Help? 

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to lead effectively in today’s complex and rapidly changing business environment. Employees at all levels are asked to do more and more with less and less and are feeling overworked, overwhelmed, and stressed out. They need help navigating the complicated business landscape and how to handle the pressures from increased demands, high workloads, and the challenges of running cross-functional projects while working on diverse teams.  

Coaching can help by providing much needed support and strategies for not only surviving, but thriving under these difficult circumstances. It is a personalized process that provides clarity on what success would look like, understanding the obstacles and barriers that get in the way of achieving it, and specific action steps to take that will lead to a positive outcome. Through active listening and powerful questioning, a coach will help the coachee maximize their potential and move toward a preferred future.  

What’s Driving the Growth? 

There are many factors driving the growth in coaching. Quite simply, there is evidence that it works. Organizations and individuals are investing in coaching because it is a powerful form of development that leads to change and results. According to the International Coaching Federation, 86 percent of organizations saw a return on their coaching investment, and 96 percent of those who have been coached said they would repeat the process again. 

There are many tangible and intangible benefits of coaching that lead to these impressive results. Key tangible benefits include increased productivity and performance, reduced costs, growth in revenue and sales, and higher retention and engagement of employees. 

Intangible benefits also enhance the effectiveness of coaching. They include increased confidence of those being coached, improved communication, better relationships with key stakeholders, career advancement, and greater balance between life and work. It truly is a win-win for individuals and organizations.  

Why Is It So Powerful? 

A good coach who builds trust and rapport with their client can help the coachee get unstuck, shift their thinking, see new possibilities, try different behaviors, and achieve breakthrough results. Specifically, coaching is most powerful when the following five factors are present during the coaching process: 

Awareness: This is about helping the coachee become aware of the key behaviors that either help or hinder their progress and growth. We can’t change what we’re not aware of, so cultivating awareness in the coachee for how they show up and what they can do differently is crucial. 

Alignment: Coaching works best when there is alignment with what the coachee wants to work on and what is significant to the organization. It is also important to have buy-in and involvement from a sponsor such as a direct boss or human resources representative, so there is a common understanding of the focus of the coaching as well as internal support for the process. 

Action: Creating clear goals and a written action plan will help provide a road map for achieving the vision for the future. The plan also provides a baseline for the current state, pre-coaching, and indicates progress toward the desired state post-coaching. 

Accountability: Coaching by design creates the conditions for the coachee to take responsibility for their growth, and provides built-in accountability because the coach will check in on the progress the coachee made toward agreed-upon action items from the last coaching session. 

Acceleration: Due to the clarity of goals, support in overcoming obstacles, alignment on the focus of the coaching, a written action plan, and a committed coach that holds the coachee accountable, the pace in which a coachee achieves results is often significantly accelerated. Oftentimes, challenges that a leader has faced for many months or even years that they have been unable to address on their own become resolved much quicker and with better results when a coach is involved. This is the power of coaching in action. 

 

Check out a related post and Ted Talk:

Post: Coaching is A Super Accelerant to Achieve Business Results (3 min)

Ted Talk: Want to Get Great At Something? Get a Coach (16 min)

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement ? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, facilities maintenance services, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

 

5 Ways to lead a Team that’s Understaffed and Overworked

 

 

 

 

 

 

You’ve got a job and have been productively working away at it: doing what needs to be done to move forward the projects in your department. As a result, your department has done so well that it’s been “rewarded” — with more work, but no additional staff. You’re grateful for the demand for your team’s services, but also feeling overwhelmed. How can your department manage more when everyone was already at capacity?

This is a question that many team leaders face when the Great Resignation reduced companies’ staff while also decreasing the number of people in the job market. And with recurring warnings of recession looming organizations are looking to tighten up their financial statements. Whether or not the warnings are accurate, companies still aren’t eager to hire additional people when the business climate feels uncertain, but they still need to get new innovative work done. They feel the need to do more, with less.

As a leadership coach, I help individuals to navigate these tricky waters where you’re under-resourced but overly in demand. There are ways to get the most important items done and stay sane and healthy in the process. Here’s how to manage an overly heavy workload until you can increase your headcount:

Be honest.

One of the phrases I like is “reality always wins.” Even if you think that your staff can just squeeze in more and more into an already full schedule, at some point, something has to give. Even with the best time-management strategies, an overloaded department won’t get everything done. When you are honest about that, you can make proactive decisions to adapt and adjust instead of reactive ones once things start to fall apart.

Prioritize consciously.

The best way I’ve found to visualize the interrelated nature of your priorities is something that is called the “dynamic priorities model”: Imagine that there is an infinity pool whose walls represents the outer limits of the time available. (In the case of department overload, that would equal the total hours your staff can work.) Then visualize a series of concentric circles within that pool representing the different ways in which your staff uses their time. When one of those circles expands — for example serving more customers — one of the other circles will need to contract or fall over the edge.

To maintain optimal effectiveness, you’ll want to choose where your team can reduce their time spent — or eliminate it completely — instead of that happening by default. Review the projects and services within your department and think about the annual goals. Based on where your team can add the highest value and what’s most important to the organization, make cuts from the lower priorities so you can focus on the top ones. You should not only communicate this out to your team, but also ask for their input on what they believe is realistic.

If part of the reason that the department’s workload is too high is that you’ve lost staff members, then team members will need to plan out their daily work differently than before. Instead of falling into their regular routine of how they organize their time, they’ll need to consider how to balance out the most important priorities from their current job as well as the most important add-on activities from the departing colleague. As a team leader, you can help by reassuring them it’s OK to put aside some nonessential activities from their current role so that the most critical items get done.

Click here to read a related post: How to Prioritize When Everything Feels Important

Communicate priorities upward.

You won’t just need to get alignment within your team; you’ll also need to communicate up to your boss. Proactively introduce the topic with your manager by starting the conversation from a clear, decisive point of view and listing your priorities. Without this information, your boss my have different expectations of your objectives. Being upfront at the start prevents misunderstandings — and reduces the risk of a negative response after you’ve already started down your team’s planned path.

You can come at these discussions from a number of vantage points. One is to present the plan you made for your department where you identified the highest-value activities and those that were most aligned with your annual goals. You can frame this discussion as wanting to make sure your boss achieves her objectives so you’re making strategic decisions to ensure that still happens. You can also explain that means deprioritizing certain items so that your team can focus on the highest impact activities.

Some supervisors will be less than enthusiastic to hear about projects you’ll have to stop doing or put on the back burner. In this case, use data to back up your argument. Ask your team to track which projects they’re working on, how long those activities are taking, and how much time it would take to get done the additional activities that they’re not getting to right now. Present these findings to support your push for prioritization.

Finally, once you’ve agreed on priorities, hold your manager to them. If your staff doesn’t increase, then you either can’t take on new responsibilities as a department or your boss will need to make tough strategic choices. For instance, if she brings up a new initiative, you can say something to the effect of: “That sounds like a great idea. If we take that on, which project would you like us to take off our plate for now?”

Click here to read a related post:  How to Say 'No' When You Don't Feel You Can Say 'No.'

Delegate externally.

When you’re maxed out internally, another pressure release valve is to delegate to individuals outside your team. Think about whether your organization has any shared services that could take on some of the load for event coordination, travel, design, communications, deck prep, or any other items that currently take up the department’s time. Where you can hand off work, do so.

Another option is to see if there’s budget to bring on outside contractors. Could you have a contractor take on responsibility for a special project that no one else has the bandwidth to move forward? If one of your department’s capacity issues is a higher volume of customers, could you hire a contractor whose only role is to promptly respond to client inquiries and questions? Get help where you can, even if you can’t onboard a full-time staff member yet.

Reset expectations with stakeholders.

When your department has to make changes to their priorities or level of customer service, it’s important to communicate those expectations to all stakeholders, whether they are internal or external. Update the people impacted by the changes to let them know if projects will be delayed or stopped. For instance, if there will be changes in turnaround time, such as items now taking two weeks instead of one, let people know in advance so they can plan accordingly.

Not everyone will be happy with deferred projects or longer turnaround times. But it’s better to reset expectations upfront than to have to deal with angry and disappointed people when you haven’t met their expectations.

Request more staff.

Finally, if your department’s workload is up and will continue to have an elevated level, advocate for more headcount. It’s unfair to your team for them to constantly feel behind and like they can’t keep up — not because they’re not trying hard but because there is too much work. Even if a new hire isn’t in the cards right now, making a case early and often might put you at the top of the list when budget does allow it.

Evaluate what your department needs, whether it’s more team members to work on projects or more administrative support, and then do what you can to get the help in place. It’s one thing for the department to be understaffed during a short season. But perpetually having work overload is a recipe for burnout.

Finding yourself in a season where the work has increased but your staff hasn’t is uncomfortable, but it can be managed. Use the strategies above, and remember to take time to rest and recharge each week so that you and your team members can create a sustainable work schedule in a challenging work environment.

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile: 323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, facilities services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

 

 

 

13 Quotes on the Power of Positive Thinking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has been well established by science that humans possess an intrinsic instinct for mimicry. Frown at someone, and they will often glower back. Smile and you’re likely to inspire a reciprocal grin. A similar theory underlies the power of positive thinking: When we consciously choose to introduce a positive thought into our minds, our bodies respond instinctively. Positive thinking can reduce stress, improve immunity, and even make us more resilient in the face of adversity. When our bodies get the signal from our brains that all is well, they, in turn, signal our brains to feel more content. It’s a positive feedback cycle that can be quite powerful.

These encouraging quotes remind us that whether we’re striving for an Olympic gold medal, aiming at a big promotion, or working tirelessly to raise a happy family, staying on the bright side will always be a benefit to both our bodies and our minds.

"Sooner or later, the man who wins is the man who thinks he can." 

~Vince Lombardi

"One small positive thought can change your whole day."  

~Zig Ziglar

"We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses."

~Abraham Lincoln

"If you don’t like something, change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it."

~Mary Engelbreit

"Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results."

~Willie Nelson

Optimism is the most important human trait because it allows us to evolve our ideas, to improve our situation, and to hope for a better tomorrow.

~Seth Godin

"Just think happy thoughts and you’ll fly."

~J.M. Barrie

"Choose the positive. You have a choice. You are the master of your attitude. Choose the positive, the constructive."

~Bruce Lee

"Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you."

~Mark Spitz

"Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier."

~Colin Powell

"The choice to be excellent begins with aligning your thoughts and words with the intention to require more from yourself."

~Oprah Winfrey

"The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible."

~Winston Churchill

"Believe you can and you’re halfway there."

~Theodore Roosevelt

Of course, it’s important to acknowledge that life will have its ups and downs, but if we can try to see the low points as part of the normal fluctuations that we all experience, we can turn our focus toward the positive, and help ourselves move in the direction of the things we want. More than anything, positive thinking is about setting intention and being open to possibility.

The best is yet to come!

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile: 323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, facilities services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

 

The Four Leadership Lessons of Halloween

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom woke up Halloween morning and mentally previewed the day ahead. He didn’t have to think much to know it was going to be a long one. A full day of leadership training followed immediately by the costume party his wife was dragging him to. The only good thing about the day that he could think of was that he wouldn’t have time in between the training and the party to put on a costume. Since he wasn’t a big fan of Halloween or of costume parties, that would be just fine with him.

He smiled as he thought about how he’d slipped this one by his wife.  He said if someone asked, he’d say he was dressed as a businessman on casual Friday. . .
The training went fine — it was like lots of other training he had been to. Anita, the trainer, was earnest and really seemed to care. As a senior manager, he had heard much of the material before, but there was one thing that stuck in his mind. 

At one point the trainer said that leaders could choose to learn from any situation if they chose to. She encouraged everyone to take a few minutes each morning to reflect on the previous day’s activities to look for those lessons.
He told his team (they were all participating in the training) that he wanted them all to try that exercise and come to their staff meeting the following day with their lessons from today. That declaration made the trainer smile. At least someone is really enjoying this day, she thought.

As the training ended, he was more rushed than he even planned; a couple things came up and the Cleveland office needed some help on a decision, and he spent a few minutes with the trainer, then he was off to the party to meet his wife and endure that event.

The Day After

The next morning he woke up and remembered what he had committed himself and his team to. He poured himself a strong-as-the-day-is-long cup of black coffee and sat down to reflect on the leadership lessons from the previous day. He didn’t exactly know how to do this “looking for lessons” thing, but he thought it had merit, and he wanted to lead his team by example by giving it more than the college try; he wanted to have something that showed he had really thought about. Besides, he had invited Anita the trainer to come sit in on the meeting. 

After a couple of sips of coffee staring at the blank computer screen, he had a flash. Everyone else is going to share lessons from the training, which would be perfectly appropriate but would be pretty “easy.”  This wasn’t the kind of reflection Anita had meant — she meant to look at your everyday experiences and look at them through the lens of leadership.

He had it! He’d think about what he learned about leadership at the party that was more fun than he expected. 

Here is what he wrote:

Leadership Lessons from Halloween 

Identity Matters. One of the reasons people like Halloween is that they get to take on a different identity. While that might be fun, as a leader our identity must be consistent and well known. Masks might be fun on that day, but as a leader, I can’t wear a mask. To be most effective I must be real, transparent and authentic.

Engagement matters. While costume parties aren’t my favorite, they are for many people. Why? Because everyone is engaged! Everyone participates! People didn’t even give me too hard of a time for my weak non-costume, because they were spending all their time talking about how much effort they went to in creating theirs. When people are engaged in an activity, the effort isn’t their focus. They will do whatever it takes. How can I raise the level of engagement on my team?

Creativity matters. There sure was creativity on display at that event. Even the attorney at my wife’s office that she says is always straight-laced and proper had a great (and pretty wild) costume. He was telling me about how he came up with the idea and how jazzed he was by the process. When I give people an outlet and purpose for their creativity, they will be creative. As a leader that is an important part of my job.

Fun matters. One of the reasons Halloween is the most popular adult holiday is that it gives people permission to just have fun. There isn’t any other “reason” for the holiday — it is just about fun. As a leader I must remember people need to have fun sometimes to be most productive all of the time.

Before he went to get a second cup of coffee and start his normal daily routine, he read back over his four insights. While driving to work, he realized that the 10 minutes he spent reflecting made his previous day more productive. He was excited to share these lessons with his team, and see what lessons he would capture tomorrow morning.

Happy Halloween!

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile: 323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, facilities services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.