An Easier Way to Resolve Conflict: Advice for Your New Leader

"Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were."
-- Cherie Carter-Scott

The Challenge:

Friction, misunderstandings, and miscommunication are bound to happen between co-workers from time to time. But how can we train our new supervisors and leaders to manage this conflict and get the team back on track?

The Solution:

Try the CASE method to understand and enhance interpersonal communication and to achieve desired results in hostile environments.

CASE is an acronym for a feedback model that your new managers can use to first understand the motivations behind a particular employee’s actions, and then create a path by which to move the misdirected worker into a more effective range of performance. We first learned of this method in a SkillPath Seminar (www.skillpathseminars.com). We will explain the strategy first, using an example of a dialogue that will help you understand how to provide this resource to your supervisors.

Situation: You are the owner of a pizzeria, and one afternoon you walk into your kitchen as your star employee is flipping pepperonis onto a pizza she is making. Some of the slices hit the pizza, some do not. The employee picks the ones that missed up off the floor and places them on the pizza. You have no idea what she is thinking!

Clarify

First gain some insight into the employee’s position when you do not understand why he or she did something (usually counter to productivity) that is not in alignment with the team. Every once in a while, we can read a situation totally wrong, and understanding this will keep employees from becoming defensive and give them the chance to explain their take on the situation first.

Use phrases like, “Help me understand what you were doing, using the pepperonis like little Frisbees while making that pizza.” Or try, “I’m confused--you are such a great employee here, why were you doing what you were doing in the kitchen?”

At this point she may respond by saying that some of the younger clients that come in (because her popularity brings them in) had thought that would be a funny way to make a pizza.

Assert Your Position

First state the problem you see arising from your employee's behaviors, then state the impact it may have on the team/organization. Gain his or her commitment by asking if he or she can see why this may lead to something inherently negative, request the change, and elaborate on the consequences -- starting with the positive and then the negative.

You might say, “Making a pizza in this fashion could be deemed extremely unprofessional to our customers. If a long-time customer were to witness this he or she may let everyone know this is how we make our pizzas and we may lose some or all of our clientele. Wouldn’t you agree that this would be bad for business and you could lose your job and I could lose this restaurant? Or just as bad, a health inspector could see this happen and we would be shut down for good. I appreciate your usually high standards as an employee and the work you do here and I think this may be just an isolated incident, so let’s not do it again and we will let it rest. I think you will find that most of the other employees really look up to you. In order to maintain a high level of professionalism here I need you to consider how your actions affect everyone.”

Solve the Issue Together

Here you can recruit the employee further by including him or her in the solution phase of the model. It is important to really let employees contribute heavily to the solution so that they feel your trust in them as a leader.

As the pizzaria owner, you might ask the employee, “What can we do to ensure this will never happen again?” or, “How can we work together to maintain the level of service that you normally provide?”

Evaluate and Commit

At this point, you may “chalk” up the talk with this employee, taking the opportunity to connect and to inform her that you look forward to seeing her back at her usually high level of performance. Also mention that there is no need to write up this incident or pursue any formal disciplinary action. However, it will be the supervisor’s job to keep a critical eye for a little while to make sure that the new strategies are taking hold and that everything is moving forward smoothly.

As a trainer or leader in your organization, you can use this simple but effective model with your new leaders to give them effective tools to resolve situations that come up. Using this model during training and having them role-play will also help them gain the confidence to manage conflict when it arises (and it will) within your organization.

For tips to effectively train your people and streamline your organization, and for other solutions to your staffing challenges, visit www.traininginabox.com. Sign up for our free newsletter at www.quicktrainingsolutions.com to make your HR training and development life easier. Diane Owens designs and delivers innovative and effective training solutions for businesses through NTG, his business development and training company.

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