Have good conflict resolution skills.

Most employees have differences with their manager. These differences can be about how to get a project done, about how to set priorities, about how to build a team, or about how to coordinate with other teams. It can be difficult to resolve these differences because they have to do with fundamental differences in opinion. You think a certain way, and the employee thinks another way. You have different priorities, different values, different roles.

The quicker you can resolve a conflict, the less damage it will do. But it is important to recognize that a conflict can never be perfectly resolved. Somebody is going to lose, and that person may be you. You may want the project completed a certain way, but the employee may have a different idea, and the project is the employee’s to complete. You may have a goal of building a team, but the employee may want to do it her own way. You may have the role of coordinating with another team, but the employee may want to coordinate with that team on her own. Resolving that conflict means accepting that you will not get what you want.

A good manager recognizes that a conflict is a sign of a healthy organization. People who are passionate about their work are bound to have differences of opinion. They are bound to have different priorities and different ways of getting the work done. They are bound to have different ideas about how to build a team. It is the manager’s job to bring these differences out into the open, to channel the energy, to resolve the conflict, and to use it to get to a better result.

Giving people the chance to be heard in a conflict, even if you are going to reject their point of view, is the single most important thing you can do. The most efficient way to resolve a conflict is to ask the employee how she thinks you should resolve it, and then do it. A good manager is constantly looking for a better way to get a job done, and if an employee comes up with a better way, the manager is flexible enough to try it out.

That does not mean that the manager abandons his or her goals. It just means that the manager is able to shift his or her goals in order to resolve the conflict and move on. It takes a lot of courage to be flexible in this way. You are effectively admitting that you were wrong, that the employee is right, and that you need to change.

GamdAi Media
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