Surfacing and Dealing With Conflict: An Essential Competency of Leadership

The way in which leaders express their intentions for the future of their organization, whether in the form of a strategic intent or a BHAG what is explicitly or implicitly expresses is we are not preserving the organization of years ago.

• We are going to be at work building the organization for the future - we will be putting the future first
  
• We are going to be creating milestones – part of a necessary and ambitious support structure to realize that future
  
• We will retain and build on all that works that has been created over the years
  
• We will be dismantling and leaving behind what doesn’t work - what is insufficient or inappropriate for the future we want
  
• We will be building what is not here yet that we will need for the future we want.

In the process of realizing our intentions there will be conflict. There will conflict.

Some conflict will be intentionally built into accountabilities, for example - the CFO will be accountable to tightly control costs and the CMO, R&D and others will have accountabilities that will make more demands on resources than are available.

Some conflicts will be a by-product of missing processes and practices, or unclear accountabilities, or poor communications, unclear policies and procedures, insufficient training, mentoring and coaching.

Other sources of conflict will be a function of interpersonal relationships when individual personalities find some others difficult to deal with. Mostly when we think of conflict this is the one that most people immediately think of.

One of the things to get about conflict is that it is not evidence of something wrong. Conflict managed well will be the source of innovation and creativity - if we learn how to surface and deal with conflict powerfully

So it will be essential to create a set of practices and disciplines to surface and deal with conflict and have those practices be as automatic and and frequently used and say, using email.

Some benefits to be derived from conflicts being surfaced and then handled well:

• We discover conflict is constructive, it forwards values, goals and intentions, especially when the outcome includes a focus on important values, commitments, problems to solve and issues to resolve
  
• Authentic communication is a by product that deepens relationship - to values, commitments, colleagues...
  
• Self-expression that is part of the process releases tensions, expresses emotion, unleashes passions, and defuses anxiety, and stress
  
• Collaboration and cooperation expands
  
• in itself learning to deal with conflict is social skill building
  
• It accelerates innovation and idea generation rather that stop and block it
  
• And it Increases individual self-confidence and the confidence of the organization as a whole
  
• Finally, the give and take of dealing with conflict ends up maximizing outcomes with finite resources.