As a manager, you will come across many conflicts between your employees; these conflicts will make the work environment unhealthy and can push your employees to leave the company. Too many conflicts can harm the company’s reputation; therefore, there will come a time where you have to interfere to solve these conflicts.
So, if you’re a manager or about to be one, you have to know how to put out the fire between employees and how to solve feuds between them.
Here’s how you can do so.
1- Search for The Source of The Conflict
Before doing anything, you have to search for the main issue that caused this feud.
Don’t make assumptions of why your employees are having a conflict; instead, search for the main reason why they’re going through this situation. Many things can start a conflict between employees; it can be work, one of them not being helpful, or sometimes non-work-related issues like bullying or even harassment.
So, before interfering, figure out the main issue.
2- Listen To Both Parties
Don’t just stick to one side, you have to listen to both.
Avoid listening to any opinions from your employees because some of them might make you build a false assumption or make you biased to a certain side. Instead, start by arranging a one-to-one meeting with each party and listen to what they have to say.
Listen carefully to each individual’s reason for having a conflict and then start forming your own conclusion. Be objective and don’t take sides.
3- Investigate The Situation
If the conflict is serious then you have to investigate the whole situation.
After listening to both sides, you can start asking the rest of the employees about their opinion and what is really going on. Investigating might lead you to new angles of the story and might open your eyes to the core of the problem or a solution.
Make sure that while investigating you remain unbiased until you reach the truth.
4- Confrontation Can Be A Solution
Arrange a meeting with both parties to talk about the problem.
Making both parties confront each other will make them learn about each other and put their own boundaries when it comes to dealing with each other. It will also reveal the truth and will clear any misunderstanding. In fact, this might make one of the parties realize they’re wrong and apologize.
5- Spread The Open Door Culture (Only If Necessary)
Tell your employees they can come to you when they face a problem but they also have to try to solve it on their own.
You have to be involved to know if your team is having problems with each other, this will give you an overall idea of how the work environment in the company is like, which will make you realize if it needs enhancement.
The only thing you need to do about the open-door culture is that employees can come to you when it is serious. Your employees need to know how to solve their problems on their own, especially if they’re not big!
So let them know that you will interfere to solve a problem only if it’s serious and necessary.
6- Put Some Ground Rules
Learn from these conflicts and start creating rules to avoid any future feuds.
These conflicts will tell you what each individual’s personality is like; you will find yourself knowing them better. This will help you set some ground rules when it comes to work and tasks, especially if the problems are work-related.
Remember to always spread tolerance and collaboration among your employees so they can always work together.
