1000 Business Lessons Every Businessman Must Know

Chapter 85 Resolving Conflicts: Building a Strong and United Combat Team (1)
[-]. In the face of contradictions, coordination is the key
693. Using the Coordination Method of "Mutual Humility"
It is not uncommon for people to disagree about a task or an issue in terms of their interests and views.Sometimes even the two sides will be at loggerheads, blushing, and get very tense.

Some estimates suggest that leaders spend about 20% of their time dealing with conflict, but this does not prove leadership incompetence or failure.Conflicts are inherent and unavoidable in interpersonal relationships, and must be properly dealt with in order to form an atmosphere of "human harmony".

This requires leaders to use the skills of mediating disputes and handling conflicts to coordinate the differences in understanding and conflicts of interests among all parties.So, how to deal with disputes, conflicts and disagreements?There is no ready-made formula to follow, but the success of leaders in managing conflict depends primarily on three factors:
One is the ability of leaders to judge and understand the causes of conflicts;
The second is the ability of leaders to control emotions and attitudes towards conflict;
The third is the ability of leaders to choose appropriate behaviors to deal with conflicts.Specifically, the method of resolving conflicts and ensuring "human harmony" can generally adopt the method of "mutual humility".

The coordination method of "mutual humility" is to force the disputing parties to make a concession and reach a mutually acceptable agreement.This is the most common way to mediate disputes and resolve conflicts.The key to this solution is to find the appropriate point for coordinating both parties.Whether it is mediating political disputes or resolving conflicts in daily work and life, if the two sides are to unite and act together, they should not adopt the approach of favoring one party and suppressing the other, but should use the method of giving in and taking one step at a time to solve the problem.

694. Use the coordination method of "accepting time"
When the conditions for resolving conflicts are immature, it is necessary to maintain the status quo and wait for an opportunity to resolve them; or after a period of accumulation, work or life itself is gradually adjusted.The method of "accepting time" can be adopted, allowing people to gradually abandon old prejudices after a period of time to adapt to new ideas and new facts.

This approach to conflict resolution is very sensible.Because the change of a person's beliefs, concepts and positions often requires a process of experience.If an imposing approach is adopted, it will often intensify conflicts, deepen estrangement, hurt people's feelings, and produce adverse consequences.And "accepting time" can make conflict resolution more natural and smooth.

For example, when someone disagrees with the organization's resolutions, the organization allows them to "reserve their opinions" instead of abusing organizational means to force them to change their views.Of course, the premise is that the decision must be implemented in action.The so-called "allowing reservations" is the method of "accepting time".

695. Use the Coordinated Way of "Walk Around"
Under certain conditions, some unprincipled disputes should be dealt with in an ambiguous way, or in order to resolve certain conflicts, some necessary cooperation, compromise or concessions and compromises can be made.

For example, encouraging both parties in a conflict to combine their interests so that both parties’ demands are fully met; or to seek a compromise solution between the demands of the conflicting parties so that both parties can be partially satisfied; or to drive one party to Abandoning one's own views and interests to meet the requirements of the other party; or encouraging the conflicting parties to resolve their differences by hinting or regardless, etc.If both parties are engaged in factional struggles and disputes for the self-interest of their respective small groups, which is completely against the interests of the whole, then when resolving such disputes, there is no need to distinguish who is right, and in fact it is impossible to distinguish who is who. If it is not, it can be dealt with by hitting [-] big boards each.

Another example is that the handling of certain disturbances is not correct from the perspective of the disturbance itself, but in order to help the stability of the overall situation, after clarifying the reasons, some compromises can be made to their demands without compromising the general principle, so as to Alleviate contradictions.Although this way of handling disputes may seem simple and indiscriminate, it is still a way of resolving conflicts.

696. Using the Coordination Method of “Release Anger”
When a conflict arises between the two parties, everyone should be given the opportunity to vent their anger and not allow the anger to build up.This can reduce the tension of the conflict and open the door to conflict resolution.The "Health Management Office" established by some organizations and units in Japan adopts this method.

For example, there is a hook on the floor and a hook on the roof, and a ball is tightly pulled by a rubber strip in the middle, hanging as high as a person.Let the two parties who have conflicts hit three times hard. Due to the elastic force, the ball bounces back and hits their own foreheads, so as to inspire both parties to understand the relationship between people. It is the same as the action and reaction. If you hurt others, Others will hurt you.

It is not easy to withstand the anger of others, especially when the anger is directed at yourself.In reality, there are leaders like this who use power to bully others.Are you angry?I'm sorry, not only did he not vent his anger on you, but instead he opened his mouth and scolded you, adding fuel to the flames. As a result, the conflicts were intensified, and even vicious accidents were induced, causing big troubles.Therefore, leaders must be magnanimous on this point and be able to endure "unbearable" things.If the leader himself is also a party to the conflict, he must strictly restrain himself, have a "high profile", and don't just confess and defend himself.

[-]. To resolve conflicts, we must pay attention to strategies and skills

697. Only by Seizing the Key Points Can Inferences Be Made
For leaders, dealing with conflicts does not require too many principles, just remember the following two points, all conflicts are not too difficult to deal with.

1. Learn to be grateful
Numerous facts have proved that timely rewarding others' kindness and not being jealous of others' success will not only win necessary and powerful support, but also avoid getting into unnecessary troubles.Jealousy not only makes it difficult for one to "think like others" and be open-minded, but also affects one's mood and external image. More importantly, it will cause oneself to lose allies and potential opportunities, and even make strong enemies ——Because generally speaking, a person who is envied by others should not be a weak person, and with the mentality of "tit for tat", he will not be too polite to you.

2. Focus on the future
Just like girls need to pursue sincerely, leaders also need some patience to deal with conflicts.In this sense, tolerance is patience and giving second chances.Even if there was a betrayal and offense once, as long as it is not a deadly grudge, you must have a mentality focused on the future and give the other party a chance to correct, so as to help re-cooperate.

698. Learn More About Those "Troublesome" Characters

To manage conflict well, you must first understand the thorns in your company.Such people are the source of conflicts, and only by fully understanding them can we better resolve conflicts.These more typical "difficult" characters can be divided into the following three categories:
1. Background employees

The background of these employees is a real threat to managers. "Background" is his resource, which may be a government official, a company leader, or an important partner in your work.

2. Advantageous employees
These people are often those with higher education, stronger ability, more unique skills, and more experience.It is precisely because they have some advantages that other employees cannot match, they are able to perform well at work, and their sense of superiority is further demonstrated.

3. Employees who want to change jobs
They are obviously some restless elements who "are in Cao Ying and their hearts are in Han". These people are often very realistic guys, and most of them will choose to "go to high places".If that's all, that's all, but some people feel that they are going to leave anyway, and they are not afraid of what the company will do to me, so they simply put on a posture of "a dead pig is not afraid of boiling water", and do not take the company's system and Management norms are in the eyes, negative work, bad attitude, and even deliberately provoke organizational conflicts against some leaders and colleagues because of the grievances in the previous work. In the end, although the person is gone, the negative impact left behind is very long Time cannot be erased.

699. You Cannot Fire All the "Sticks"

To manage conflict well, you must first understand the thorns in your company.Such people are the source of conflicts, and only by fully understanding them can we better resolve conflicts.In the face of employees with background, advantages or who want to change jobs, we must not take rash measures to fire all the three types of employees in order to maintain the purity of the organization.Because the result of this is definitely that what you get is a very obedient but mediocre team-it is impossible to create higher management performance.

For those employees with background, in terms of work ability, these people are not necessarily better than other colleagues, but their psychological state is generally better than others, and they are more confident in their behavior and work. Coupled with their background advantages, they can better play out level.

The best way to deal with this kind of person is to keep a certain distance.If you have a good performance at work, you can properly reward them, but you must pay attention to the scale, otherwise, these people will easily become arrogant and arrogant.

For those employees with advantages, they are not afraid of higher goals, larger work scope, and more difficult tasks. They often hope to show their superior ability and incomparable in the company through these challenges. Alternate status in order to earn more respect for yourself.

Therefore, you can try to talk to them and do ideological work.If managers are not good at words, then they must pay attention to actions.Actions speak louder than words, and when you use your power capital wisely, set an example for these haughty guys how a man of authority handles problems and achieves team goals.

For those employees who want to change jobs, opportunity, power and money are the main motivations for their work.Therefore, in the process of managing these employees, we must pay attention to the following principles: First, do not easily make promises that are difficult to achieve in order to retain some people. They speak positively.Don't be dishonest in front of employees, that will only plant hidden dangers for future turmoil; second, timely discover the emotional fluctuations of employees, especially those of the backbone of the business, and must do the work of appeasing the hearts of the people first.

700. Resolving Conflicts by Using Skills Properly

In the process of dealing with conflicts and resolving conflicts, pay attention to the following skills:
1. secretly resolve conflicts
Because people all have the psychology of saving face, solving it in private is to save face for both parties in the conflict.Therefore, conflicts should be resolved secretly as much as possible and not made public.But for those who do not hurt face and have general educational significance, they can be disclosed to the public to serve the purpose of educating other subordinates.

2. Combining principle and flexibility
The principle is not to infringe on the interests of the organization, and flexibility is the way to solve conflicts. Don't be stereotyped, and don't solve problems dogmatically.Some contradictions need to be prevented before they happen, some contradictions can be controlled and resolved in the middle of the matter, and some contradictions can be resolved when the quantity changes to a certain extent and a qualitative change occurs.

3. Some conflicts are better left unresolved than resolved

There is a widely circulated historical story: when the king of Chu held a dinner party for his ministers, when the lights suddenly went out, the beloved concubine of the king of Chu was molested!Faced with this situation, what should we do?This wise king took the method of not resolving the contradiction, and everyone knows the final result. The general who molested the princess made great military exploits for the country.The king of Chu adopted a method of not resolving the contradictions, which produced positive results.In fact, from a certain point of view, not solving it is also a solution.

4. It’s not a work conflict, so don’t intervene easily

In reality, some conflicts between subordinates are not work conflicts, such as conflicts between lovers, so don't intervene easily.Once involved, it is very likely that you will be trapped or even locked up, because it is difficult for an upright official to break up housework.Of course, these non-work-related conflicts between subordinates do sometimes have a negative impact on work, so as a manager, you should do your ideological work from the perspective of affecting work, and make kind reminders when necessary.

5. Never show mercy to those who maliciously create contradictions
Those who maliciously spread gossip, those who deliberately create troubles, those who are afraid of peace in the world, and those who even collude with the outside world and seek trouble for internal employees must be resolved decisively and resolutely dismissed, no matter how talented they are.

701. The main method of dealing with contradictions

In an enterprise, due to the differences in various aspects between employees and leaders, it is difficult to coordinate with each other, which often easily causes conflicts at work.For leaders, they must have the ability to deal with conflicts and the tolerance to handle conflicts correctly, which is also an important aspect of the commander's bearing.In the process of dealing with conflicts, leaders must start from the desire for unity, be kind to others, and convince them with reason.The main methods of dealing with conflicts are:
1. Conflicts do not accumulate and are resolved in a timely manner
It is necessary to resolve internal conflicts in a timely manner, instead of waiting for problems to pile up before starting to resolve them.If many contradictions accumulate, many problems are intertwined and restrain each other, which will complicate simple contradictions, expand single contradictions, and increase the difficulty of resolving contradictions.Enterprises have conflicts that cannot be accumulated, and timely resolution often requires little effort and can achieve twice the result with half the effort.

2. Face up to contradictions, do not avoid them
Avoiding contradictions will not only fail to solve the problem, but will complicate the problem and cause endless troubles.To truly face up to contradictions and not avoid them, we must take up the weapon of criticism and self-criticism, and boldly resolve all kinds of contradictions that exist.When leaders deal with conflicts, they must overcome the tendency to take care of face, be reluctant to criticize, fear of hurting their peace, and dare not criticize.When criticizing, we must persist in seeking truth from facts, be open and honest, and be justified.

3. Do not expand a single contradiction, pay attention to individual solutions
One of the contradictions within the enterprise is one, and the other is two.If it is a matter between individuals or a problem that belongs to one person, it should be resolved individually. For such conflicts, do not expand the scope. The leader should do a good job in time so that the conflicts can be resolved quickly without affecting the collective.

4. Don't deal with complex conflicts hastily

Sometimes conflicts within the enterprise are very complicated.One is because there are many people involved, and the other is that various contradictions are intertwined to widen the gap in understanding and it is difficult to unify.In response to this contradiction, leaders must be good at waiting for the opportunity.Only when the opportunity is correctly grasped can we actively create conditions, seize the time, conduct further investigation and analysis, take practical steps, simplify complex contradictions, wait for the right time, and proceed to resolve them.

702. When dealing with conflicts, you need to think carefully

Leaders must be thoughtful when dealing with employee conflicts.For leaders, there are three basic principles that must be adhered to when dealing with conflicts:

1. Solve conflicts by yourself

Generally, conflicts should be resolved through one's own ability, and sometimes the meddling from above is not conducive to problem solving.Of course, for some principled contradictions or contradictions that are difficult to resolve by oneself, you can appropriately turn to your superiors for help.Based on self-solution, the key is to enhance one's ability to solve problems and contradictions.A tolerant leader must have the ability to resolve conflicts independently.

2. Don't be deadlocked, don't forcefully resolve conflicts

Some contradictions in management are in a state of stalemate. According to the conventional method, one or two mediations are difficult to be effective, and there is even a tendency to intensify, becoming a thorny problem.At this time, the leader should look for a third channel and take a roundabout way to solve it.For leaders, it is necessary not only to grasp the goal of resolving conflicts, but also to be honest with each other, analyze the reasons, grasp the key points, choose a breakthrough, and resolve conflicts quickly.

3. Composure
Leaders should try their best to have a thorough understanding of the matter they are deciding on, and consider the pros and cons clearly and carefully before making a decision.The fundamental sign of deliberation is to see whether you have grasped the root of the problem, whether you have grasped the essence and laws of things.

703. The art of mediating departmental conflict

We already know that an organization is made up of several departments or groups.In organizations, conflicts often occur between departments, between groups, between departments, groups and organizations due to various reasons.According to organizational theory, conflicts between groups in an organization generally have the following causes:

1. Differences in goals between groups

Due to the division of labor, the organization is divided into various departments and units with different functions. The goals of each department and unit have been determined during the organizational design, and the combination of various goals constitutes the overall goal of the organization.However, in the process of implementation, the work behavior of each department and unit is often centered on the interests of the unit, and may ignore the coordination of the organization's major goals and other departments and units, so that various departments and units are isolated from each other, resulting in conflicts.

2. Differences in perception among groups

For example, the leader of unit A thinks that it is best to implement plan A, while the leader of unit B thinks that it is best to implement plan B. Due to the difference in mutual understanding, it is difficult for the two units to coordinate their opinions for a while, which may cause conflicts between departments.

3. The division of responsibilities and authorities among various groups is not clear
Such as overlapping of powers or lack of responsibilities.

4. The interests and needs of various groups have not been met

Departments or units in an organization always need a certain amount of funds, raw materials or manpower in order to complete their respective tasks.However, organizational leaders generally have to consider the overall situation and allocate resources according to the contribution of the department or unit to the entire organization. This will inevitably cause some departments to fail to obtain the satisfaction of interests, which may lead to accusations, quarrels and even conflicts among departments or units. attack.

5. Unhealthy ideology or bad group style
The conflicts caused by the above reasons will not only cause uncoordinated relations among various departments, but also have a negative impact on the work of the entire organizational system.Therefore, it is of great significance to properly handle the relationship between various departments within the organization to form the synergy of the organization system and to exert the overall effect of the organization system.

704. Treat “Difficult Subordinates” Correctly

(End of this chapter)