Subscribe to our newsletter
|
May News  This month's topic is Managing Conflict looking at different conflict approaches, which one(s) you use and how to flex your style to be even more effective.
Welcome to the May issue of the Pelican Coaching newsletter. Pelican Coaching and Development celebrates it's second birthday this month (hip, hip, hurray :) ) It's been a wonderful couple of years where we've had the opportunity to partner with many inspiring leaders, creative teams and motivated individuals - supporting them to develop unique ways of being even more effective, resilient and healthy. We've also learnt a lot along the way and hopefully will continue to learn and grow as the business evolves. I've also been writing these newsletters for two years. Thanks again for your continued feedback. One bit of feedback I received is that it is difficult to remember ten 'headline tips' so from now on I will cut back to five, each with slightly more content. The other bit of feedback is that I should move the Pelican highlights to the front of the newsletter, before our featured topic, so I will do that from now on too. I hope you continue to enjoy the newsletters and do let me know if the evolving format works for you. Highlights from last month Wellington is growing up Our puppy Wellington is growing up very quickly. He is now six and a half months old and an absolute joy. The house training and chewing days are behind us and he is now able to go for walks off the lead, comes when he is called (most of the time!) and is going for his puppy bronze certificate! It is amazing to think we've only had him just over four months. Telephone Coaching Surgery New Leader Coaching Featured Topic: Managing Conflict This month's featured topic is Managing Conflict giving you five key areas for thought. 1. Understand your typical reaction in a conflict situation Conflict situations are those situations in which the concerns of two people
appear to be incompatible. In such situations, we can describe an individual's behaviour along two basic dimensions (according to the Thomas Kilman instrument): assertiveness, the extent to which the person attempts to satisfy his own concerns and cooperativeness, the extent to which the person attempts to satisfy the other person's concerns.
These two basic dimensions of behaviour define five different modes for responding to conflict situations:
Understanding how you typically react to conflict is the first step to developing a more effective approach. Which of these of these strategies do you use? When? 2. Think of conflict as a good thing What is your view of conflict? If you think of other words that you associate with conflict do they tend to be positive or negative? What does this say about your usual conflict managment strategies? Conflict used to be considered a bad thing in teams and organisations, something that should be resolved or avoided. The latest thinking is the complete opposite. Just as a certain amount of pressure is vital to push up performance so is a certain amount of conflict and challenge. High performing teams always go through "forming, storming, norming and performing" stages and without the storming (or conflict) stage they would not hit their peak and fully engage everyone in the team. The most creative and satifying working environments have contradictory values, perspectives and opinions - this is what diversity is all about - and managing these conflicts in a proactive and collaborative way is a key tool for getting people to fully commit, focus on the right things and perform to their potential. Conflict usually occurs when you feel that your values and perspectives are threatened by someone else, a team or an organisation or when you find yourself operating in a way that does not fit with who you are. We usually find ourselves conflicted several times a day, if we are honest, and these conflicts can help us to challenge ourselves and evolve who we are. 3. Stay centred and grounded
Conflict only becomes a problem when we manage it badly and then it can hamper productivity, lower morale, causes more and continued conflicts, result inappropriate behaviours and make us feel miserable. If we choose to we can deal with all conflict in a balanced and measured way focusing on the issue and not the person. Take the time to notice why something is irritating you and take responsibility for it. What values, perspectives or opinions are you finding it hard to deal with? What outcome do you want from this situation? What is the best way to achieve this? This may involve you stepping away from the situation to give yourself some reflection time before you make the decision to speak up in a calm and assertive way. If you have a particular person that you are in conflict with, you may find it useful to create a specific plan of action. First, write down what physiological responses you have when you know you are in conflict (e.g., my palms are sweaty, my heart is racing). Second, write down what thoughts you typically have when in a conflict (e.g., “I want to hurt him”; “I want to just get away from her”). Finally, list the steps that you can follow to help you manage your thoughts and emotions in a productive way to manage/solve your conflict (e.g., 1. I will take a deep breath; 2. I will think about how I want to respond, etc.). 5. Experiment with different approaches There is no single conflict managment approach that will work all the time as all situations and people are different. So try flexing your style and experimenting with different approaches. If you know that you are typically very assertive then try experimenting with the skills that are more cooperative - if you are typically cooperative try exploring more assertive skills. The competing mode is useful when quick action needs to be taken, when unpopular decisions need to be made, when vital issues must be handled, or when one is protecting self-interests. Competing Skills: arguing or debating, using positive or influence, asserting your opinions and feelings, standing your ground, stating your position clearly Often people will avoid conflicts out of fear of engaging in a conflict or because they do not have confidence in their conflict management skills. Times when the avoiding mode is appropriate are when you have issues of low importance, to reduce tensions, to buy some time, or when you are in a position of lower power. Avoiding Skills: ability to withdraw, ability to sidestep issues, ability to leave things unresolved, sense of timing The accommodating mode is useful to show reasonableness, develop performance, create good will, or keep peace. Some people also use the accommodating mode when the issue or outcome is of low importance to them. The accommodating mode can be problematic when one uses it to keep score or be a martyr. For example, if you keep a list of the number of times you have accommodated someone and then you expect that person to realise, without your communicating to the person, that she/he should now accommodate you. Accommodating Skills: forgetting your desires, selflessness, ability to yield, obeying orders The compromising mode can be seen as “giving up more than you want,” while others see compromise as both parties winning. The compromising mode is appropriate are when you are dealing with issues of moderate importance, when you have equal power status, or when you have a strong commitment for resolution. Compromising mode can also be used as a temporary solution when there are time constraints. Compromising Skills: negotiating, finding a middle ground, assessing value, making concessions Collaboration can be described as “putting an idea on top of an idea on top of an idea…in order to achieve the best solution to a conflict.” The best solution is defined as a creative solution to the conflict that would not have been generated by a single individual. With such a positive outcome for collaboration, some people will profess that the collaboration mode is always the best conflict mode to use. However, collaborating takes a great deal of time and energy. Therefore, the collaborating mode should be used when the conflict warrants the time and energy. For example, if your team is establishing initial parameters for how to work effectively together, then using the collaborating mode could be quite useful. On the other hand, if your team is in conflict about where to go to lunch today, the time and energy necessary to collaboratively resolve the conflict is probably not beneficial. Times when the collaborative mode is appropriate are when the conflict is important to the people who are constructing an integrative solution, when the issues are too important to compromise, when merging perspectives, when gaining commitment, when improving relationships, or when learning. Collaboration Skills: active listening, nonthreatening confrontation, identifying concerns, analysing input Coming next month Next month we will be starting some more coaching Programmes, continuing with our current coaching contracts and running and developing some new workshops for clients in the areas of resilience, effectiveness and change. The featured topic next month will be Problem Solving. Do let me know if you've enjoyed this month's newsletter. Warm wishes, Helen Leadership and Team Coach www.pelicancoaching.com |