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You are now at > Men's Relationships > Harmony at Workplace - Resolving Conflicts

Resolving Conflicts

Conflicts at work can be an important source of stress for some of us and are almost unavoidable at workplace. Learning to deal with and resolve conflicts at work is thus of much importance to any working man. Successfully dealing with conflicts at work helps make workplace a less stressful place and achieve better harmony at workplace.

How do conflicts affect you?

• Conflicts and friction in the workplace can be stressful for everyone involved, and affect relationships at work.
• Poor relationships at work waste time and energy; reduce work efficiency and productivity and dampens morale.

The importance of successful conflict resolution

• Conflict resolution can be seen as the civil way in which mature people make compromises and trade things of value.
• Conflict resolution
• reduces stress
• saves time
• reduces unnecessary hassles
• increases productivity at work
• minimizes negative feelings
• strengthens communication and improves relationships among colleagues

Do You Know---

Successfully resolving conflicts with your colleagues at workplace can improve understandings with them and lead to more cordial working relationships.

We can approach the question of conflicts at work in similar ways as we handle many health problems:

• Prevention - minimize conflicts
• Treatment - handle conflicts
• Rehabilitation - recover from conflicts

Minimize conflicts

You can minimize conflicts by taking some preventive measures.

1. Respect others

• You are more likely to win respect from your colleagues when you give them due respect
• You can never be too polite

2. Be appreciative towards your colleagues

• Don't take anything for granted
  
  

3. Don't make things personal

• Focus on objective facts
• Avoid gossips and personal attacks
  

4. Stay cool and manage your anger

• Speak calmly, politely and rationally
• Avoid expressing hostility in your posture, facial expression or tone
• Be assertive without being aggressive

5. Communicate clearly

• Express clearly what you want and offer constructive suggestions
• Good communication minimizes misunderstandings

6. Avoid taking sides unnecessarily

• Your colleagues are more likely to listen to your ideas if you are seen to be fair

7. Don't let things build up

• Make your feelings known. It is usually better to air grievances than to let them pile up
• It helps clarify misunderstandings

8. Learn to say "no"

• Say "no" and point out your difficulties early if you have to
• Failure to do so may mean you end up getting blamed for "not saying it earlier"

9. Seek help

• Speak to your supervisor if a problem with any colleague seriously threatens your work

10. Seek help

• Conflicts and stress are closely related
• Stress at work can make us more irritable and lead to conflicts among colleagues
• Successfully dealing with stress effectively can thus help prevent conflicts

Handle conflicts

When conflicts arise, handle them in a mature way.

1. Don't take things personal

• Stay cool when being criticized
• Remember that it is your work which is being criticized. Your critic may be trying to help you make improvements rather than trying to make you feel bad

2. Listen actively

• Listen carefully: What is your colleague trying to say? Be sure you understand his/her position
• Express interest in what your colleague is saying. Reinforce that impression with body language, like leaning forward, nodding your head and summarizing or paraphrasing what you have heard, for example "As I see it, you are saying..."
  

3. Show empathy

• You can make others know that you understand his/her ideas or feelings without necessarily agreeing, for example, by saying, "I understand that you feel this way. Here's how I feel......."
  

4. Put yourself in other's shoes

• Try to look at things from your colleague's perspectives. That may help you understand the difficulties your colleague faces

5. Be flexible

• Make allowances for other people's opinions and be prepared to make necessary compromises

Health Tips

Making appropriate compromises is the key. The main goal is to succeed at achieving your aims or objectives, but not to win at all cost.

Recover from conflicts

Successfully recovering from conflicts can help minimize the negative impact of conflicts.

1. Be positive and pragmatic

• When there are people, there are conflicts
• Accept and face the situation with a positive mind and attitude

2. Always look at the bright side of life

• Don't just focus on the negative things at work
• Don't let negative happenings occupy all your thoughts or dictate your mood
• Life is too short to spend most of your waking hours feeling miserable in a job
• Think about other positive or happy aspects of work - for example, the pay day
  

3. Adopt a healthy lifestyle

• Healthy lifestyle helps keep us in good physical and mental health
• A healthier body and mind can withstand better the negative impact of unpleasant life happenings

Tips in Dealing with those "Special Ones"

There are always some colleagues at workplace who will give you more headache and trouble than others. Dealing with them may mean a little bit more efforts. Here are a few small tips for your consideration:

1. General approach towards those with problematic personalities

• Try to understand what motivates their behaviour
• You may be able to communicate and work with them more effectively once you grasp why people behave as they do

2. Handling bullies at work

• Be firm and forceful in expressing your opinions
• Take a firm stand and don't allow them to pressure you into doing anything unwanted
• Act with a bit of caution

3. Around complainers

• Avoid acting too sympathetic if you feel their complaints are ill-founded
• Be direct and squarely ask them what they want
• Ask how they plan to change the situation