How to Overcome Conflict at Work: A Guide to Building Strong Teams

Discussing how to properly manage conflict at work in a way that can lead to stronger, more cohesive teams in the tech industry.

Team relationships are one of the essential units of the corporate fabric. Each team has different people. Each team has a different purpose. Each team performs differently. This is true in all industries including tech. Despite an increase in the amount of automation businesses are using today, team cohesion is still one of the most important multipliers of overall company productivity and individual satisfaction. There are many philosophies on how to build the most effective teams and many of those philosophies are appropriate for their own context. Throughout my experience in executive and leadership coaching, I’ve seen many strategies work effectively. In this article I want to focus on the various patterns that the manager can focus on in order to manage conflict at work and lead the team toward the best outcome. 

RELATED READING: How to Get a Promotion in Tech: Balance Technical and Soft Skills 

How to Overcome Conflict at Work

Begin with the People

It all starts with the individuals. Who are they? Where are they coming from? What are their skills and what is their experience? Great leaders do their best to learn as much as they can about individual members of the team before suggesting more concrete team organization. It is crucial to interview and understand everyone's background and whether or not their skills and experience are a good match for the project. 

This is a very difficult part of the process. Humans are not cogs and are not built per factory specifications. Some of their past experiences might overlap, some experiences might be beyond what is needed and some experiences could be just right. Mixing and matching and looking for growth and flexibility of adjustment are the keys to resolving these puzzles. General patterns that work here are asking open-ended questions about the experiences needed for the project, and also asking about flexibility in case project parameters would change. 

Vision and Aspirations

Once the team has been put together sufficiently, we can start talking more about what the project is about. The leader is responsible for communicating the vision in as much detail as they can and soliciting feedback from the newly formed team. The team will do its best to ask clarifying questions, but many more questions will be asked during the implementation phase. Keep in mind that leaders will be more familiar with the context of the project, and while the team is learning about the new assignment new information will come that has not been visible before. 

It is false to assume that even if the team has initial understanding of the project that it is set in stone and won’t waver. New facts and perspectives appear in dynamic ways as the team engages in the process. Keeping this flexibility in mind will reduce instances of regret and create moments for passionate debate and constructive disagreements. It is the responsibility of the leader to hold these conversations within emotional boundaries and create soft off-ramps for parties whose suggestions were not promoted to action.

Clear Lines of Ownership and Responsibility

The operational and tactical activities of the project move with less friction when there are clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Individuals should know who to ask for what and what is expected of them. Granted, in the smaller teams those lines of ownership will move around a lot, but it is always good to reconnect and re-establish people responsible for certain areas and tasks. Having clear lines defined allows people to fully commit to delivery and own the outcomes of their efforts. When overlap does happen, it should be promptly addressed through re-alignment conversion to avoid any wasted effort.

Expectations are Communicated

One of the main sources of frustration when working with teams are misaligned expectations. Individuals believe that they are doing their best work, investing time and accuracy into the project, just to find out that they have been focusing their expectations on the  wrong thing and the right thing has not been started yet. The same frustration is experienced by the leader who believes that the expectations were communicated and at the last moment has to juggle resources to get the projects over the finish line.

There are a few ways that we can avoid these outcomes, but it’s fair to expect that some amount of work will be done in an unfortunately wasteful session. To reduce the numbers of these instances, focus on the initial agreement through the method of repeating outcomes to each other. Basically, have the leader state what the expectations are and have the team repeat them back. This way you can make sure that information was not misheard or misinterpreted. It also makes sense to put these agreements in writing in the form of short bullet point lists that can be emailed to everyone. This list can be then used as a reference at the milestone reviews and adjusted as new information is introduced to the process.

Expect Changes

Despite the most intricate planning, most projects don’t go according to plan. In the best-case-scenarios, the changes are small and easily implemented. In many projects, the changes are big and affect everyone. While we cannot do much to prevent changes entirely, we can always make the impact of these changes feel less drastic. One of the concepts I frequently discuss during executive presence coaching is the importance of navigating these changes with grace. The leaders are responsible for cushioning the emotional and logistical impact that the changes can bring on the team. The communication of the changes has to be proactive, detailed and substantiated. The more background of the change is shared, the more likely the team will be accepting the course change - and the easier it will be to manage conflict at work between team members. 

Celebrate Wins

Sometimes working hard is its own reward. However, working for long periods of time without recognition demotivates the team. While the leader will be busy and mentally occupied for a long time even after the project is over, individuals are accomplishing great feats of productivity for each milestone. Remember that celebrating these wins is as crucial as pushing the whole project over the finish line. Celebrations create meaning, purpose and recognition. Celebrations create memories and strengthen cultures. They create stronger bonds and help the team persevere through any upcoming challenges. This recognition can sometimes help to avoid interpersonal conflict altogether.

Always Dynamic

No matter the guidelines, changes to the project will always throw in the wrench in your process. Instead of being rigid and sticking to all of the guidelines and rules, reassess if they are still appropriate in the context. As leaders, we have to optimize for the most human outcome as without people we don’t have a team. The less friction, conflict, negative emotions, frustrations that the team experiences, the less there will be opportunity for conflict that can fundamentally derail your project.

The Big Whys

Throughout your management practice, in addition to vision, keep the “big whys” answered for the team. Why are we here? Why are we doing this project? How will our technology help solve this problem? We are purposeful creatures and it is important for humans to feel purposeful. 

If you want to learn how to overcome conflict at work and discover the more human side of managing technology teams, let’s chat more and focus on your growth - schedule a complimentary coaching session.