Why You Need to Have Conflict Management Skills

What are conflict management skills, and how can they help?

Have you ever found yourself stuck in a conflict between individuals and you have no idea on how to solve it without seeming like you are taking sides. Most people find themselves between a rock and a hard place when they are met by such situations Strong conflict management skills are an advantage in most positions, as conflict is virtually impossible to avoid. It is human nature to disagree, and disagreements are healthy when approached correctly.

Most organizations have adopted conflict training lessons to their employees. According to a report by CPP 57% of employees in the US had some conflict training. 95% of those with training reported it helped them find positive conflict resolutions. 58% of individual contributors with training looked for win-win solutions to real conflicts.

Eliminating conflict entirely would cause its own problems: there would be no diversity of opinion, and no way for us to catch and correct flawed plans and policies.

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What is Conflict Management?

Conflict management also known as conflict resolution involves having an environment that precludes conflict and a management team that successfully handles and resolves conflict issues (Alfred, 2018).

What Are Conflict Management Skills?

Conflict management skills are abilities that help us manage how conflict affects us and those around us by identify and handling conflicts in a sensibly, fairly, and efficiently manner.

What Causes Conflict?

The sources of difficult conflict within an organization or a team depend on many factors from how people interact with each other their ages and the industry they work in, whether they’re under stress or experiencing burnout.

Certain times of the year might be worse for some team members or they could be going through personal problems that make them prone to being in conflict.

Knowing how conflicts are caused can help you manage conflict and find the best solutions.

Related course: MANAGING ACROSS CULTURES

How Then Do We Solve Conflicts?

There are many ways of solving conflict. However, the most efficient methods are:

Communication

Many unnecessary conflicts can be avoided simply with clear, accurate written, and verbal communication; a single lost email could lead to failed plans and fingers pointed.

Many assumptions about what other people already know, think, or intend can cause resentment or even worse. Some people argue just because they want to feel heard.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand your own feelings and those of others and to handle those feelings well (Mwangi, 2016). People who have high emotional intelligence are good at identifying and meeting the needs of others while taking responsibility for their own needs and feelings.

Empathy

Empathy means feeling what others feel. The ability to see a situation from someone else’s viewpoint, understand their needs motivations, and possible misunderstandings, is critical to effective conflict management.

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Importance of Solving Conflicts

A conflict arises when individuals have varied interests, opinions and thought processes and are just not willing to compromise with each other.

It is always wise to adjust to some extent and try to find a solution to the problem rather than cribbing and fighting.

Imagine yourself constantly fighting with your fellow worker. Would you ever feel like going to the office?

Nothing productive will ever come out if you and your fellow employees are constantly engaged in fighting and criticizing others. Conflict management plays a very important role at workplaces to prevent conflicts and can help all employees to concentrate on their work.

Conflict management goes a long way in strengthening the bond among the employees and half of the problems automatically disappear.

Everyone must feel motivated at work and find every single day exciting and challenging. Before implementing any idea, it must be discussed with everyone and no one should ever feel ignored or left out. This way every individual feels indispensable for the office and he strives hard to live up to the expectations of the company goals and mission and in a way contributing to the organization in his best possible way.

Conflict management also plays an important role in our personal lives.

Tussles and fights spoil relationships and only increase our list of enemies. Everyone needs friends who will stand by us when we need them. Conflict must be avoided at homes as it spoils the ambience and spreads negativity.

Conflict management helps to find a middle way, an alternative to any problem and successful implementation of the idea.

Problems must be addressed at the right time to prevent conflict and its adverse effects at a later stage. Through conflict management skills, an individual explores all the possible reasons to worry which might later lead to a big problem and tries to resolve it as soon as possible.

Conflict Management is very important because it is always wise to prevent a fight at the first place rather than facing its negative consequences.

Stress disappears, people feel motivated, and the world definitely becomes a much better place to stay as a result of conflict management