Conflict Competence (and Confidence) for Leaders

People tell us that they spend a frustrating amount of time dealing with interpersonal conflict, and that this understandably a part of their role. But what they do not need is to step into the ring as the official and delegated peacemaker: getting two team members, colleagues, or reports into a room to thrash things out.

Far more than this, leaders tell us that they  come across conflict, and wish to address it better, in the context of:

• Contentious meetings, whether on Zoom/Teams or live, where they have to deal with raised voices, someone trying to dominate, or people de-railing discussions away from the agenda

• Difficult interactions and conversations with individuals, either where they need to raise a thorny issue with someone, or they themselves get ambushed by someone who is unhappy with them

• Day-to-day fall-outs or disagreements between team members or colleagues, where each individual will repeatedly tell on the other in a ‘he-said-she-said’ stand-off, to the point where the piggy-in-the-middle leader has to get the two parties together, and quickly

The skills required to manage these situations can be taught, of course, but along with this competence in addressing all of these situations, there needs to be a significant level of confidence. As we know, competence is about being able to do something: having the knowledge, skills, or tools available to you. But confidence is about believing you can do it: trusting in your own abilities and understanding.

What skills are required?

A high level of confidence in any area of professional practice can get us a long way. Especially when working with interpersonal conflict, there is a real need to have not just a well-stocked toolkit, but also an understanding of what is going on beneath the surface when people get into such difficult interactions: either with us or with one another.

Understanding the people who are in conflict is the key to understanding how to resolve that conflict. Just as importantly as the tools and knowledge, we need to understand our own responses to conflict so we can open the door to working with such difficult situations with both adeptness and self-belief.

In response to this requirement, we have developed a range of one-day masterclasses as an alternative or add-on to our mediation training courses. These are designed to equip leaders with the skills and confidence required to address the most commonly-encountered conflict situations.

Find out more about our Conflict Competence for Leaders suite of programmes here.

Reach out today

Looking for mediation services or training? Here at UK Mediation, we offer a variety of services and training for organisations and individuals. Please contact our team today for any additional information or enquiries.