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Workplace conflicts are inevitable in any organization. These conflicts often arise unintentionally, usually as a result of differing opinions when individuals work towards a common goal.
In many cases, individuals within an organization may lack the skills to resolve conflicts independently. Consequently, these issues frequently escalate to the organization’s manager, who is then tasked with guiding the team through their differences. But what if the manager is not equipped with effective conflict-resolution skills?
Often, organizations hire managers based on their academic and leadership qualifications, overlooking the necessity of conflict resolution skills. Yet, resolving conflict is crucial for managerial success.
Fortunately, your organization doesn’t need to seek new managers. Pollack Peacebuilding offers both in-person and virtual training in conflict resolution. Our courses are concise, enabling your managers to quickly acquire the skills needed to efficiently resolve internal issues, conduct challenging conversations, and repair strained work relationships.
Pollack Peacebuilding Systems firmly believes the manager’s response to conflict significantly influences whether the outcome is positive or negative. If you’re seeking to empower your managers to transform conflicts into opportunities for innovation and collaboration, investing in conflict resolution training is the key.
Pollack Peacebuilding stands for the following reasons:
- We offer certified, professional facilitation that comes with additional conflict training resources.
- Your managers will gain enhanced communication abilities and improved listening skills.
- Managers will develop the skill to craft respectful yet assertive messages by gaining insights into the psychology of conflict.
- Your managers can better handle customer and employee disputes.
Managerial Conflict Dynamics
In many ways, being a manager in an organization is about managing relationships. You will be managing your relationships with direct reports and your relationships with other managers, peers, and every other stakeholder in the organization.
Before you can get lucky and enjoy peace as a manager, you might need to apply a few, if not all, of the available conflict management skills. But what makes it more challenging for managers to manage conflicts compared to other positions in an organization?
Let’s explore some of the aspects that define the complex dynamics of managerial conflict resolution, particularly when a conflict occurs.
Team Conflicts
Managers understand that they play a pivotal role in the success of an organization. Your managers also understand that they should prioritize conflict management in every opportunity that presents itself. However, your manager’s best efforts are sometimes hampered by team conflicts.
Conflicts affecting teams are quite different from conflicts between two individuals. Team conflicts arise when there are disagreements between teams over methods, goals, or needs. Teams also bring together people with different personalities, making it even more complex for a manager to understand each of these personalities enough to provide an effective solution to the conflicts.
Team conflicts appear commonplace, but their complexity can affect the effectiveness of the managerial role. For example, unresolved conflicts among teams can hurt productivity and the general morale of organizational employees. If a manager succeeds in addressing these differences, they are sure to guarantee collaboration, harmony, and productivity among teams.
Inter-Departmental Issues
Conflict resolution in an organization is sometimes reserved for managers, who are usually seen as the decision-makers on matters affecting employees. Your manager can handle conflicts involving one individual and another or those involving an employee and the supervisor. However, their role as conflict intermediaries becomes a little challenging when the conflict cuts across departments.
For example, inter-departmental conflicts can arise as a result of inequitable distribution of resources. An organization can decide that one department deserves more funding than the other organizations, sometimes based on the performance report of each department. However, these decisions, even though they are based on factual reports, can become the very source of conflicts for the organization.
The department that receives less funding will argue that its performance is always low because of less funding. The arguments could also include the unfairness of giving more resources to one department and less of the same to another department.
Your manager cannot argue in favor of any department because they are duly in charge of employees in each of these departments. It is the manager’s role to bring about peace between these departments without creating even more rifts, which is quite challenging. It is even more difficult to resolve these interdepartmental issues because they involve decisions that executives make. Sometimes, resolving interdepartmental issues could involve making decisions that go against the organization’s budget. Whatever direction that managers take, there is always a stumbling block to their efforts to bring peace between warring departments.
Leadership Challenges
Leadership challenges are also a part of the issues that make conflict resolution training for managers such a hard undertaking. Your manager might be a good individual, handling all employees as positively as possible. However, their role in conflict resolution can encounter challenges as a direct result of power dynamics.
Your managers may lack the power and authority to make certain decisions, which makes it hard for them to resolve issues requiring them to make those decisions. Conflicts that involve power imbalances are difficult to navigate, especially when one party feels disadvantaged and a manager is powerless to change that situation.
Lack of Trust and Cooperation
Lack of trust and cooperation is yet another major challenge affecting your manager’s ability to manage conflicts in your organization efficiently. Trust and cooperation are essential in peacemaking efforts, without which it is almost impossible to manage conflicts. If your manager also fails to facilitate conflict resolution, they are most likely to damage the trust and cooperation that existed before the conflict.
If your manager has to work through conflicts with people who are suspicious, defensive, or even hostile, it becomes a huge challenge. The only way to restore this challenge is to rebuild trust and cooperation—a skill often taught in conflict resolution training.
Pollack Peacebuilding’s Understanding of Managerial Complexities
Your company’s managerial complexities are unique, and they deserve a customized solution when you are seeking conflict resolution training for your managers. Pollack Peacebuilding Systems has customized conflict resolution training programs that go beyond what you can get from trying to master generic conflict management training.
We engage with each organization individually, as it’s essential to understand your distinct needs for developing a comprehensive conflict management training curriculum.
At the beginning, we start by offering you expert-developed formats and then later tailor our programs to suit your unique manager goals and objectives. There are credible reasons why you should choose Pollack Peacebuilding for conflict resolution training programs for your managers.
We pride ourselves in developing programs designed to work well with your industry. If it is healthcare, we have experts with sufficient knowledge of conflict resolution skills for healthcare managers. We know how to tailor every conflict management training accordingly.
How do we navigate existing challenges defining the complexities of conflict resolution for managers? The following are compelling reasons to choose Pollack Peacebuilding for your conflict management training needs:
Assessment
Before we create a successful conflict management and conflict resolution training program, we start with a detailed assessment of your organization and how it operates. In this step, we will hold discussions with representatives of various departments to understand the specific pain points so we can include them as part of the training program.
For example, your manager might be lacking in communication skills, which affects their ability to manage conflicts among peers and other stakeholders.
Training Design
At Pollack Peacebuilding, we understand that conflicts occur at any one time. Your manager may not be equipped to respond better to conflict management, which is the main reason we embarked on a training design.
In this stage, we work hard to include as many details as possible to make sure that your manager can resolve conflict whenever it happens. Our conflict management training design also incorporates the knowledge from experts and field experts who will customize the training program to meet your unique needs.
Training Delivery
Pollack Peacebuilding is designed to provide expert practitioners in conflict resolution training. These practitioners will walk with your manager every step of the way, conducting workshops.
We are not like other training organizations because our trainers make sure that they put their knowledge into practice. Our training delivery involves us giving you full-time organizational peacebuilders who will bring effective training on past experiences.
Customized Training Programs
Pollack Peacebuilding offers organizations customized training programs for managers. The focus on managers in conflict resolution is not by accident. We recognize how the managerial role is critical in ensuring the smooth running of every operation in your organization. We also focus on managers because they need new techniques and approaches for them to solve conflict effectively. Here’s a list of customized conflict resolution training programs for managers.
Communication Skills
The first customized training program for your managers is on communication skills. The conflict resolution course is available in person and virtually. Under this course, managers will:
- Understand the critical role of non-verbal cues in conflict resolution and management.
- Learn some of the most common roadblocks to effective communication.
- Understand the psychological dynamics of conflict resolution.
- Learn how to set boundaries and guidelines for all employees.
- Learn how to communicate effectively and respectfully with all employees.
The communication skills training for managers covers the basics of conflict resolution, showing your managers how some conflicts only need a tactical choice of words, active listening, and eye contact for there to be peace. The conflict resolution course sets the foundation your managers need to understand what it takes to achieve successful conflict resolution, both in the short and long term.
Conflict Resolution Skills
The second customized conflict resolution training program we offer for your managers is the conflict resolution skills training. The program is available in person and virtually, making it easy for your managers to fulfill their roles while completing the program. Under this course, your managers will:
- Learn how to resolve conflict in ways that will meet the needs of all persons involved in the conflict.
- Learn how to avoid reactive responses to conflicts and instead learn to become proactive.
- Learn skills that will benefit all stakeholders involved in managing conflict.
- Practice reflective listening and dialogue skills.
- Learn how to manage unresolved conflict creatively to achieve positive outcomes every time.
The conflict resolution training program comes after an introduction to effective communication skills for managers. After training your managers on how to communicate effectively, we will introduce them to the critical skills they need to navigate the identified challenges that specifically affect a manager’s ability to resolve conflicts.
In this course, your managers will learn active listening and problem-solving, which are critical skills that facilitate effective communication.
Mediation Techniques Training
Conflict resolution is akin to actualizing mediation efforts in real-life scenarios. This training program is available in person and virtually. At the end of this training program, your managers will:
- Know the basics of managing conflict and how to develop a positive perception toward conflicts.
- Learn the basic mediation techniques that uncover possible alignments between conflicting parties.
- Use brainstorming techniques to find solutions for workplace conflicts.
- Adopt best practices for implementing accountability.
In real-life scenarios, managers, supervisors, and executives need to master the essential skill of resolving conflict effectively during and after they occur. Managers are always in the mediation position, and they should have the skills they need to succeed as mediators. Successful conflict resolutions are those that achieve mutually acceptable solutions, which is why this program focuses on conflict prevention within the organization.
Benefits for Managerial Teams
Managers will enjoy a number of benefits when they choose our training programs. Pollack Peacebuilding is focused on helping team leaders, emphasizing the importance of resolving conflict and facilitating some of the following benefits:
Better Organizational Communication
Breakdowns in communication are one of the leading causes of conflicts in the workplace. It could be because an employee displays ignorance in their roles, which then causes a rift between that employee and their supervisor.
Misunderstandings in the workplace are also common, which can lead to hostile responses if they are not handled well. With workplace conflict resolution training, your manager can bring these conflicting parties together by using effective communication. Better communication in the organization means the use of words that positively impact others while also showing a deeper understanding of their points of view during a conversation.
At Pollack Peacebuilding, we insist on conflict de-escalation as the surest way to minimize hostility during conflict and create a fertile ground for understanding between two groups or two persons. In general, when everyone communicates properly, the entire organization is on its path to smooth operation.
Stronger Organizational Culture
Our training courses at Pollack Peacebuilding are designed for managers, but the skills they acquire will eventually transcend throughout the organization. One of the benefits of workplace conflict resolution training for managers is their ability to influence the organization’s culture.
The training course equips managers with skills that help them connect well with workers and with others. The experiences that define our courses and programs will make your managers good at knowing the aspects that strengthen a company’s culture, especially how to make management positions more accessible to average employees.
Our workplace conflict resolution training indeed focuses on specific incidents of conflicts that managers must handle. However, our experts always deliver the contents of the course to ensure it covers the root causes of conflicts.
That in-depth conflict analysis in our conflict management training makes managers active participants in the course, which then imprints on them to become a part of their personality. As role models, your managers will surely influence others to adopt similar practices that strengthen the company’s culture.
Productive and Happier Employees
Employees can feel disregarded or ignored in an organization, especially when some decisions seem to go against their needs and desires. However, managers who have completed conflict management training and workplace conflict resolution training courses at Pollack Peacebuilding will understand the importance of giving employees a platform to become part of important decisions.
These managers, equipped with enhanced conflict management skills, understand how employees can feel heard, seen, and understood, especially during a workplace conflict resolution process.
Contact Pollack Peacebuilding Anytime
At Pollack Peacebuilding, we understand that managers can easily become overwhelmed by conflicts. As a manager, you shouldn’t have to endure the daily frustrations caused by persistent, difficult-to-resolve conflicts. Our conflict management training aims to equip you with the necessary skills to handle these challenges effectively.
While there’s no simple fix for conflict resolution and no surefire way to avoid conflicts altogether, we have developed efficient and effective programs to assist you in tackling the most challenging aspects of your managerial role. Get in touch with us today to learn how we can help.