Conflict—which is an expression of disagreement between people about what should be done or how it should be done—is prevalent in every office environment. During a session at AACRAO’s Annual Meeting in Orlando, Ginnifer Cié Gee of The University of Texas San Antonio engaged the audience in a discussion about leading through conflict. According to Gee, conflict can be vocalized or present itself as internal festering grievances.
Reasons for conflict
Gee asked the audience to provide their thoughts on why conflict occurs. The reasons included: perception, miscommunication, assumption, veering into other’s responsibilities, and heightened emotions such as hurt feelings, fear, and anger.
How do YOU handle conflict?
According to Gee, “conflict management is managing, while conflict leadership is leading.” To demonstrate this concept, Gee asked audience members to participate in scenarios that demonstrated how not to lead someone through conflict.
Don’t:
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Ignore it
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Dismiss the issue
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Feed into the conflict
It’s important to evaluate your interpersonal skills to see if your actions lead towards a positive environment. To positively lead through conflict, Gee offered several suggestions.
Do:
The takeaway from the session is that interpersonal skills and how you communicate can make or break a situation. According to Gee, you can’t pretend that conflict is not there—you can’t go over it or under it; you have to go through it. Learn from the conflict and its resolution, and apply those practices to future situations.