Dealing with conflict
Most organizations and institutions globally solely depend on group work for effective work delivery. There are many theoretical ideas and techniques used by various groups to realize a perfect job. These groups consist of team leaders who hold several different positions. The team leader is mandated to take into account all his followers and value their opinions so that they can work together towards achieving a specific goal. A group of people working together forms up a team, and teamwork is a valuable asset to many institutions and organizations. This paper will discuss the importance of teamwork and how challenges affect collaboration in organizations.
How to deal with conflict in an effective manner (500 words)
Conflict is a significant disagreement or opposing interests. Battles are always inevitable whenever people work together as a group. It is, therefore, essential to consider as a healthy and natural part of any workplace resulting in employee’s differences in both their personalities and values. When conflict occurs, there is a tendency for employees to lower their working morale and a notable decrease in productivity. While we choose to consider conflict as a common phenomenon in all moving centers, how we want to deal with it is the biggest challenge. For instance, to solve disputes in a residential service, various techniques need to be employed to deal with the conflict. Notable methods include the following:
- Separating people from the problem
The technique is applicable if a change in the shape of the table is conducted, unlike sitting directly opposite the opponents. The seating needs to get arranged so that all the parties face a board where the problems get presented. This technique allows all participants to meet the puzzle together. It eradicates the notion of “us being against them” and brings a case of “all of us against it.” For instance, an example from the residential service where family members of mild intellectual disabled young people start complaining of mistreatments from the eight social care workers, the senior managers need to call upon the conflicting parties and address the issue without fear or favor. Cases of blame games need to get voided because taking care of such people is done at heart, and not all individuals are capable of being social care workers.
- Distinguish between interests and positions
Another method of dealing with conflict occurs by asking why the conflicting parties want the conflicts resolved and not asking them what they want. This method occurs when preparing for negotiation or after it has already begun. As a team leader, I’m obligated to focus on understanding the interests of conflicting parties during discussions. For instance, conflict may arise when the old workers in residential service intimidate the new workers for underperforming or lacking the relevant skills and competency. The best way to approach such a conflict is to distinguish between interests and positions. The two conflicting parties also get urged to work together as a team. The old workers should help the new workers in areas that they are less skilled and show them on the effective ways of conducting work in the residential field.
- Only one person can get angry at a time
Finally, giving one person a chance to get mad as he or she explains the reasons for conflict is an effective mechanism to help individuals keep a cool head and pay attention to both process, strategy, and substance of negotiation. If it is not the turn of a conflicting party to be angry, the exercise of resistance expressed by the party may be turned into a positive opportunity to observe what is happening with a third eye. Conflicting parties yelling at each other does not show negotiation but confrontation. Such situations attract possible winners as well as potential losers. Such a situation may occur when a subgroup in the team from the residential service develops some disagreements. Such a case may involve a staff meeting getting arranged by the team leaders. The conflict will effectively get settled through observing the feelings and emotions of the conflicting parties when allowed to express their anger.
Facilitate the team to make effective decisions
Effective decision making entails a logical cognitively driven process. Both intensive and extensive research on decision making has acknowledged motivation and emotion has on making effective decisions. Certain specific emotions, such as joy, fear, and anger, trigger visceral reactions that have a substantial impact on decision making. For the teams in residential service to make effective decisions, the team leaders need to gather adequate information before making decisions. This method allows the team members to learn what is best for the conflicting parties and what they can benefit from. Going blindly through a problem makes it difficult to come up with a final decision. Team leaders are encouraged to gather adequate information beforehand. The method renders effective because it allows the team leaders to quickly come up with an amicable arrangement, especially when handling conflicts between the other two team leaders and the eight social care workers.
Additionally, team leaders need to discover the strengths and weaknesses of their employees in the battle to make effective decisions. When large tasks need to be accomplished in residential service, dividing the work, and sharing responsibility using collaborative efforts makes the work to be more comfortable and shorten the completion time. With contribution from the diversity of people such as social care workers, the two team leaders, and other staff members leads to a more significant creative input. This strategy leads to visibility and quality of work.
To solve employees’ weaknesses, team leaders in residential services need to accept conflicts that are also stressful and unpleasant. Notable examples include social care workers demanding a pay rise for handling mentally ill young people. These people get diagnosed with mild mental illness, and treating them requires a lot of attention. They get dirty quickly, pee on their clothes all the time and cry like babies. To handle such a case, team leaders need to remove emotions from the situation. Team leaders need to encourage honesty, understanding, and partnership and resolution mechanisms. Social care workers need to get trained in the core skills of handling mild, mentally ill patients without struggling. This method will pose a good step toward building a productive work relationship.
Finally, team leaders need to act as both servant and transformational leaders. They should be available to help and be on the same level as the group they are leading. Collaborating with the employees boosts a sense of morale and trust among the group members. This technique characterized by shared problem solving and decision making. For instance, team leaders can spare some time and help the social care workers with taking care of the mentally ill persons. This method will give social care workers morale to work hard and learn about the new skills they didn’t have. This technique will facilitate the team to make effective decisions.
Effective leadership of the team
Effective leadership of the team happens when leaders try to influence the behavior of their groups or individuals. Effective leaders are the most influential mentors. They help in grooming their staff to take their place through teaching, inspiring, and assisting the staff members in attaining their goals as well as achieving the purposes of the organization. Based on research by ( ), effective leaders get out of their comfort zones to boost their employee’s self-esteem. If employees believe in themselves, it’s incredible what they can accomplish.
An effective leader can create followers who are more capable of leading themselves. This technique makes employees feel independent, confident, and competent. Such leadership style can get practiced through the team leaders in residential service, creating a good rapport with the staff members. The staff can record high-performance rates as a result of being directed on the practical techniques of managing themselves without their leaders supervising them.
Furthermore, effective leadership occurs when the leaders understand the environment of their workers. Most often, the situation has proved to be dynamic. Leaders need to train their employees’ that the approach that might work today might fail to be productive tomorrow or from a different perspective. This technique also forces leaders to be responsive to situational changes while offering leadership. Leaders should understand the fact that one appropriate leadership style cannot get used for every occasion. Different situations call for varying leadership styles. In residential service, the system of leadership used on social care workers and the mentally ill people is very different from the leadership style used on the two team leaders by the senior managers.
Finally, effective leaders can pass out messages to their employees and get the appropriate feedback on time. Good leadership entails results and not the authority of a position or the position itself. Noteworthy, effective leaders are always flexible and open-minded. This ability makes such leaders have the ability to utilize different leadership styles to approach various situations. Flexibility in a leader gives room for things to get done I the right manner. For instance, effective leaders can train the eight social care workers in different approach methods of handling the six mentally challenged people. Each member might be tasked with a different responsibility when attending to the mentally ill. The main goal is to make sure each worker masters various relevant skills, presents quality work, and finally saves on time and energy used while attending to them.