Conflict is a normal part of any relationship; thus, it’s an unavoidable part of the workplace. When conflict is not handled appropriately it can impact your people and productivity. It can break down team effectiveness, lower morale, increase safety and health issues, and so on.
Conflict behaviours like gossiping, sarcasm, attacking character, blaming, finger pointing, and defensiveness will drain your workplace culture – drip by drip – if it’s not managed.
There is a way to turn these destructive behaviours into constructive conflict to create more positive and productive outcomes. It’s not easy. It’s not going to happen overnight. Like everything worthwhile, it will take a willingness and dedicated practice to reverse the negativity into improved engagement and collaboration.
The trick is to take these automatic thoughts that pop in our heads and manage them before they lead us astray. This is the value of training to learn how to improve workplace relationships. Here are a few tips if you’re experiencing conflict at work.
