Workplace conflict is unavoidable. Here are nine tips to help you quickly and effectively resolve those disagreements.

1. “
Go beyond+
good leadership
9 ways to manage workplace conflict better

2. Conflict in the workplace is unavoidable. Here are nine tips from
our members and other professionals to help you best navigate
workplace disagreements.

3. Avoid editorializing and exaggerating
during the discussion.
Focus on the facts as well as potential
solutions. It’s about the end game, not how
you got to where you are.

4. Conduct individual chats.
Then strategically attempt to identify
common interests and expectations.

5. Create opportunities for healthy conflict.
Identify the parties participating in the
conflict and bring them together to voice
potential solutions.

6. Don’t interrupt or jump to conclusions.
Take a ‘strategic time out’ to think over
the situation before responding. If you
can’t work out your differences, bring in
an unbiased third party to facilitate a
productive conversation.

7. Make sure all parties feel they’re
being heard.
Set up a dedicated time for the discussion
and use reflective listening skills – try to
understand the other person’s perspective
and repeat it back to them.

8. Assume positive intention.
Suspend your right to be offended and
instead make the most generous
assumption possible about the other party.
You’ll discover that at the root of most
conflict is a positive intention gone awry.

9. Learn communication styles and
preferences, beginning with your own.
The more attuned you are to one’s
communication style, the more effective
you’ll be at landing your important points
and navigating a difficult conversation.

10. Put yourself in your colleague’s shoes.
Imagine the situation from your colleague’s
point of view and allow for the fact that they
may be right. What changes about your
point of view from this perspective?

11. Resolve workplace conflict with DUEL.
Diffuse, Understand, Explain and Listen.

12. Thank you to the following contributors:
 Steve Berry, Owner – Neos Learning & Realis
 Kathleen Bezuidenhout, Cost Controller – ZZ2 Farming
 Ashraf Elkotaney, CPA, Senior Manager –Technical Accounting and Compliance
 Hanré Erasmusm, CIMA Student, Financial Accountant – Signature Business Solutions
 Diana Ororbia-Knapton, CPA, CGMA, Director – Emergent BioSolutions
 Gretchen Pisano, CEO, pLink Leadership
 Jess Rudd, CPA, CGMA, Controller – Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency
 Sudheera Senaratne, ACMA, Director of Investigations – Insurance Regulatory
Commission of Sri Lanka
 Michael Soza, CPA – Independent Consultant
 Mohamed Yassin, CIMA Student, Group Reporting Analyst – Metito Holding Limited