Part of my job is to train new hires. two years ago while only being 2
months into being a key training professional (K.T.P.) I had finally met
someone I refused to work with. I have always had the mentality that no
single person works the same, so I do not expect anyone that I train to
work the same way I do, but I at the very least expect to have some
initiative. After 2 weeks of the same routine, I finally sat this individual
down and asked if there was anything I could do or if there was anything I
was doing wrong at that moment, I expressed my wanting her to be
successful with the company and that I was there to help her in her
development. We needed to be able to communicate to continue with her
growth as part of our team. Things changed for all of 3 days, and then the
same patterns started, so I then reached out to the 2nd K.T.P in our district
and asked him for his input on how I should handle the situation. That
conversation confirmed I had already taken the steps necessary, and at that
point, all I could do was get my district manager involved, which is exactly
what I did. When I spoke with my district manager, I expressed my concerns
and frustrations and let him know what I had done before getting involved. I
advised that he schedule this individual at a single staffed property to hold
herself accountable for the things they get done and the things that don't. To
manage the conflict, I observed patterns in behaviors. I asked for another team
member's input, and I also asked directly. I don't think I was successful, but
not due to the strategies I used; there has to be a willingness from both
parties to resolve conflict, and there was no desire from the other party to
do so. I believe the strategies I used are very effective, and I will continue
to use those strategies. I can teach skills, but I can't teach will. A conflict
that i had was with a previous employer. It was a small company and i was
the only employee working in the office. The owners wife also would work
in the office as well. I did have a child so after a while my son started
school i asked if i could come in one hour earlier, so that i would be able
to pick my son up on time after school. I was told that this was something
they couldn't do because the office hours are set.
That was unfortunate, but i had to go with it.
A couple of months later another lady was hired in the office. She was
given the hours that i previously asked for. That didn't set well with me
because i specifically asked for those hours for a very important reason. I
also found out that this woman was a family friend. I brought this to the
owner and his wife attention. They stated she was granted those hours because
she has 2 jobs. I felt underappreciated and as if my time and my concerns
weren't valued. I let them know of this and i was still not granted the
hours. The resolution to me was clear. I was unable to work a job where i
couldn't pick up my son. I did put in my 2 weeks and it was hostile
environment until my final day. Some would say this wasn't a successful
resolution. It was for me because i took it for what it is. I removed myself
from a hostile situation that was going nowhere.
I feel like i did handle the situation to my best and my family will always
come first. I have learned to no let a job or a career control your every
step of your life. You must remain in control and keep moving forward no
matter the no's you will receive. I have since then started working for myself
part time selling online vintage clothes. You never know of the push that you
need to become the person that has always been inside of you. The
experienced conflict I have had in the past with a team member is when I a
suite attendant. My manager and I started off fine then we had to evacuate
because of hurricane Florence when we return there were a lot of tension
between us because I had to start call out because of my child being sick.
Once I was able to make sure my son was healthy I went back to work
but once I got back to work my manager just kept being rude to me and
taking a lot of my dnd room sign off their door and put them back. I
started getting written up because it was taking me more than 45 mins on
room and when I told her these rooms I was cleaning had dnd she started
laughing so I decided to go to general manager of the building but I felt
like she was on her side for everything I told her this isn’t fair because I
really just started working in hotels and still trying to get the hang of things
and I’m still in my 90 day probation and a lot of the assigned room are
really dirty and it felt like nobody was listening to me so I decided to put
my two weeks in and they made sure I was fired before my two weeks are
over. To me yes that was the right decision to make because I can’t work
in a place where no one is hearing my side and no one were actually
following the company rules, they were following there own rules and when I
tried to go to Human Resources they act like they didn’t have any
information or even a handbook where can go over their head to complain
about them not following rules.The strategies I would follow would be go to
the general manager and let them know what conflicts I’m having with a
person without saying their name and get some advice on how deal with the
situation but if my general manger not helping or being rude to me I would
contact the Human Resources line and get some more information or advice
on how to handle the situation. I have experienced conflict within a team
when a team member was not acting as a good team member should. This
was a problem that I had at work. A coworker would frequently put others
down in order to attempt to make themselves look better. This created tension
between the team. This tension created distrust and chaos.My approach to the
situation was to initially just ignore the problem and hope that it went away.
This avoidance strategy did not resolve situation. It just made it worse
because they did not know how I felt about the situation. So the problem
continued. Eventually the conflict created a divide among the team and we
just had to all come out and voice our concerns.The strategy that we should
have used from the beginning was the competing strategy. This would have
been best to show the team member how their actions were unacceptable. It
would also show how the others in the group felt, and how it effected them.
Instead of ignoring the problem, this strategy would solve the problem. I
explained conflict with a coworker at work one time when they had a bad
attitude with another co worker, The strategies I used was Avoiding. mostly
tries to ignore or sidestep the conflict, hoping it will resolve itself or
dissipate self or dissipate. Yes because they changed their attitude around ,
and acted so much differently. They understood you can’t always be rude
toward other people just because your having a bad day. You can’t take your
anger out on other people. Like all of you, I have experienced conflict in a
team setting before. At the time I was the crew leader of a small
construction crew with two helpers. We all agreed that on our own crew we
should each carry a fair load and divide up work, as evenly as possible, not
worrying about title or position. The problem came when we compared
ourselves to the other two crews. We all were assigned regular work. This
was done as evenly as possible. The challenge came when emergency work
orders popped up. We each had served on the other crews and we knew the
leaders would, at times, make up reasons why they couldn't stop what they
were doing and take care of the emergency work. However, when I was
called, I would accept the emergency work without trying to get out of it.
This gave our crew extra work. In the minds of my helpers this was not
fair to them. Voting would not be appropriate what to address the conflict
and I did not want to include higher ups. So we had a heart to heart
meeting and aired our grievances openly and honestly. I explained that I
wanted more for us than what the other crews had, so I would not imitate
their work habits. Ultimately, they understood that we may work harder on
occasion, but that we were rewarded for it. We settled on a compromise that
I would respond to emergency calls, but I would also buy lunch weekly and
give them additional breaks when I could. In the end, the honest
communication brought us closer together as a crew. With the job I am
currently at I have a co-worker that shows an attitude towards a few
individuals including me. I am a cashier, and this person I will name Amy
is a cashier as well. However she has a tendency to boss others around, and
she can be very rude. I was helping another co-worker with a question she
had and Amy came over and yelled at me about getting back on the register.
I informed Amy that I was helping someone with a question they had, and
she she said I don't care get back on your register. I let that go, and got
back on the register, however later on I paged for a supervisor but ended up
resolving the issue and asked Amy to cancel the help I needed since some
of us have radios. When I asked her to please cancel the page she put her
hands up in the air and said in a nasty voice how am I supposed to do
that? I thought about going to management about these issues, but I decided
the best way for me to handle it is to not talk to her unless it is needed.
I will work with Amy, and if she were to speak to me I would be friendly
and respectful. After taking this class I realize that I should have spoken to
management about this because I may not be the only one that feels this
way about Amy. I don't wish for Amy to be fired or punished, but I feel
that everyone at our job should respect each other even if we don't agree
with our views, or beliefs. This week at work I experienced conflict for the
first time between two of my associates in the call center. On a daily basis
these two ladies work extremely well together and are normally my best and
most productive associates. This week was much different as Gina became a
lead (supervisor) while Fatuma is still just a call center representative. On the
second day of them working together with Gina as the lead of the call
center I started to see some conflict rising between the two ladies. At first I
just let it slide and kept watching them closely to see what the actual
specific reason was behind the girls issue. Well the other day it got so bad
I had to pull them aside separately and investigate on what the problem was.
After speaking to both girls alone I then brought them in the room together
and let them discuss it aloud with each other, while I was being the
mediator. Choosing this tactic for this particular situation worked wonderfully
and was very effective for the girls specifically because it allowed them to
understand each others points of view. Using this method for them also
allowed them to brainstorm together on what the best resolution would be that
could not only benefit them but the company. After listening to their ideas of
a resolution I chimed in on my idea as well, so they could see another
option as what to do. After having this thorough conversation with the girls
we all came to a conclusion on how to resolve the issue. A time I've
experience conflict within a team was in a work environment. I had a
disagreement with a coworker because they always had others picking up their
slack. We would be working and they would either be constantly bathroom
breaking or distracting others. At first it was a problem that was only spoke
about among the workers. The strategies that we used to resolve the conflict
was informing the lead about our concerns. The lead then immediately had a
meeting with the employee. I could tell it cause some tension between that
employee and the others but everyone was pulling their weight. The work was
getting completed in a timely manner. I would say speaking to a higher up
is usually a successful strategy because it's easier to take constructive criticism
from someone in a higher position than a peer. Most people have a mentally
like you are just like me so why should I listen to you. Being informative,
clear on expectations, and communication are strategies that I normally see
within a workplace. When I first started with the company that I am
currently working for, I worked in a referral/insurance verification department
for the Neurology wing. In this department we were a team of 5 people our
lead, and four other people. I started around the same time as two of the
members in my department, we were all around the same age at the time.
The other two members (the lead and her friend) were older and had more
experience, so they believed they had "put in their hours" of working and
literally did nothing all day, while the three of us were constantly scrambling
to pick up the slack, while we were still trying to learn how to do our
jobs. It was ridiculous. Finally one of us went to the office manager and we
all had a sit down meeting. Tensions rose high, and it led to the firing of
the two workers, but eventually things ended up resolving. The office manager
then decided to have each department come together for about 20-30 min
every Friday for a pow wow. Each department sits down with their own
teams and talks amongst themselves about positives of the week, grievances of
the week, and things to work on. Honestly, this has been one of the best
things for the company. Work has gone up in quality and productivity, and
honestly, the people are happier because they feel as though they have been
heard. A time where I experienced conflict a lot would be working in the
nursing home there is many times everyone does not agree with working
together or everyone has different opinions. We normally all voted on and
idea and which ever had the most votes is how we done each task to get it
done and meat our goals. Yes, this strategy was successful because it gave
the team a since of being able to have and equal role in the team where
everyone’s opinion was used. The way I could use this strategy in the present
week would be in my home life. Its hard when you have an extra person
living with you when there is conflict every day and I try to get everyone’s
opinion and then figure out which one is best seems to work out most of
the time not always. I am part of a team at work that is now virtual.
When Covid-19 first hit, my company decided working remotely would be for
the best. It changed the whole dynamic of the team. We had to relearn how
to work with each other since we were all in different spaces. After a few
weeks it was noticed that a few members were not completing their reports
on time and being lax with other responsibilities, since we were all left to
our own devices. It quickly began to effect other members. Tensions slowly
started to rise and working together was no longer a fun experience. Our
leader decided we needed to call a special meeting to see if we could
resolve the issues we were having with each other. At first the meeting did
not feel productive. There was a lot of finger pointing and talking over each
other. Finally, my leader had to tighten the reigns a bit and get us refocused.
She had each of us take turns explaining our grievances and any solutions we
had. While someone was talking no one was allowed to speak unless asked
to. By the end of the meeting everyone felt that they had been heard, and
from there we were able to establish better goals for ourselves and the team.
I think this method was very effective as it raised the team morale and
allowed us to enjoy working together again. I took a public speaking course
once and in it we had a group project. We could choose our topic for the
speech but we were assigned team members. We ended up with a good grade
and overall there was no major conflict. No one stepped up to the plate so
I inadvertently became the team captain so to speak. One of the problems we
encountered was people didn't show up during the development stage when
they said they would. The other was that one person didn't show on the day
of the speech and the other person got cold feet and sat out. Part of the
issue was that it was a very short-term commitment we had about 5 days
total together to work as a team, more individually .I think if we had
deployed more of a team building strategy. One committing verbally or in
written form and setting small time tables for completion of steps, people who
needed more structure and commitment strategy would have had it. When you
have a mixed team of strong sense of commitment and weak sense of
commitment, some given any opportunity will bow out (not so gracefully).
Otherwise everything went really well, the people who were strongly committed
picked up where others failed. One time I remember having to deal with a
conflict in a team was when I was working at the hospital. We were short
handed on our team and there was a lot of surgeries that day. We were all
getting stressed out because we felt that we were being overloaded with work
that day. What we ended up doing was making a game out of it. We would
time our selves to see how long it would take us to clean the room and
then on the next room we would try to beat the time. Then we would each
rotate in taking a short break to see if we could beat each other’s individual
time. We knew that the line of work we were in involved high stress, but
we were a strong team. Even when we were short a team member, we
would do our best to continue because we knew what we had to do.
Sometimes our job would keep us away from home for long hours, but it
was well worth it. Knowing that because doing our job effectively meant the
doctors could do their jobs properly was what kept us head strong in our
field. The time I experienced a conflict within a team when our traveling
assistants were packing instruments and aligners for the afternoon office,
someone had to check off on the schedule of all the aligners of the patients
we were seeing that day. One patient was overlooked and the aligner never
got packed in the travel bag. The only thing we were able to do as a team
was to have someone travel to Newport Beach and drop off the aligner at
the traveling office. It took 2 hours for the delay, but luckily the patient was
understanding and wanted us to call them when the product was available
upon arrival. The strategy after this situation was to have someone double-
check the packing before it left the building and that was a success.
However, there is always a conflict wherever you work it may be minor or
major it’s just how you handle it. I often found conflict amongst team
members when I was a correctional officer. In that scenario, coercion amongst
our team was necessary for simple safety reasons. Often times, our team
would be given a general task that was left open to how we would like to
safely accomplish it. As you can imagine, team members would have a
particular way in mind that they would want to accomplish a task. It very
often did not line up with everyone else's idea of correctly getting the job
done. There were quite a few times where as a team we would simply agree
to disagree and a resolution to conflict could not be reached. It was very
apparent that ground would not be freely given in order to achieve
compromise. However, the minute that our team was required to jump to
action so to speak, we immediately joined with a common goal. From there
conflict resolution was easy because we had an immediate task ahead of us
and with room for error being so low, everyone would put their own ideas
aside as we would settle on what would get the job done while keeping
everyone involved safe. One thing is for certain, no matter the job or
company, conflicts will arise. Rather the conflict is within your team or other
coworkers that you may not work with at all. I do recall one conflict with
my part-time job at Walmart after a year of being there. A new employee
was hired as a cashier and she was a fairly young individual. While
everything had looked good on her application, she could not count money.
We did not know this until after three days of her working. Our team of
team of Team Lead got together to have a meeting to decide on what was
the best option to do; either fire her or train her again for the position. That
was our team leader wanted us to decide on but I had felt like neither
firing her or training her again for cashiering was a good idea. I felt giving
her a second chance at another position that would benefit her and us. To
me retraining her as a cashier when she did not how how to count money
would only create another issue because is something that has to be learn
over a given period of time. But our team leader was set on he's the leader
and he had already given us a choice to choose from. This created another
problem because some agreed with him while other agreed with me. After a
week past the team decided without me and went the team leader's decision.
Within a day, we had to take her back off the register because she freaked
out when a customer handed her a $100 bill. It was only then we sat down
with her to discuss what could we do for her. It was decided that both
option would be best for her. Retrain her for a month and found a position
as a cashier for her without her having to deal with money.We could apply
the strategies better explore why the reasons for disagreement and not criticize
each other perceptions.Being in operations for the last 20 years, I have dealt
with my fair share of conflicts. Most of the time, it is dealing with people's
egos and lack of communication. Sometimes my clerks would have professional
and personal disagreements and not talk due to lack of communication skills
and not working together. They would feel like everyone was not doing the
same amount of work and start complaining.I would use conflict resolution
with them to solve their issues. I would hold meetings and listen to all sides'
problems and complaints. Then I would ask them how we could resolve these
issues and get everyone on the same page. My team was reliable, so we
would work to get things right.
I would use different strategies in different situations. Not all tactics work well
with everyone. With my clerks, leads, and some operators, conflict resolution
works fine. With others, I would have to hold one on one meetings and hear
them out and talk to them on their level. To get them to understand why I
needed to do things a certain way. I remember when I was in high school,
many years ago, we had a team project in Biology. I was not the strongest
student, especially in any type of science class, but I always understood the
importance of teamwork. I knew I had to work even harder within a team as
opposed to working alone because my efforts affected others. I remember team
members refusing to do certain parts of the project because it was something
they were not "good". They would say things like "you do not want me
handling that part, I'm terrible at ... " whatever. I understand using each others
strengths but this was obvious that they just did not want to put in the work.
So, I remember myself and a few others picking up their slack and just doing
the work ourselves. All this did was create resentment within the team and
overwork us that ended up doing the majority of the project. So we used no
strategies to handle that situation. I would apply assertive communication and
confront these folks head on today. I would explain the importance of everyone's
input and set clear expectations for all the team members and set individual
goals as well as team goals. Conflicts happen so often in a team and you can
almost always see them coming. Before joining the military, I worked in the
medical field – specialty field. Part of being in this practice included some
marketing. We were a team of six that could not come to terms with a proper
marketing strategy. Some of the team members ideas were gimmicky while
others were straight forward. Those who thought the same sticked to their ways
and vice versa. Therefore, I suggested that we break up into three teams of
three. Given that the teams were smaller those that were paired could bond
better. I thought that if they got along before being sent on a marketing trip,
then the objective would be met easier and successfully. At the end of the
given time, we all regrouped and found working in groups of two worked
better. We actually bought in new patient flow – more than we expected. We
kept this success in mind and used it every time we had a marketing event
coming up. I keep in touch with the doctors until now, and they continue to
use that and are doing great. Working as a shift supervisor for Costco is a
stressful job and one of the main conflicts that I had to deal with was my
other supervisor's team members not helping when it is busy. So of course I
had to address the issue with my co-workers first by communicating my
frustration and how working together as a team would help smooth the process
of sales. Not only that it would lead a good example for the upcoming
employees that are considering the position in the future that teamwork and
being able to communicate with each other is the key. So of course when
communicating with my team of supervisors the topic of seniority gets thrown
in the conversation and I felt that I was not getting my point across. So I
followed up with the manager and explained my frustration which leads to an
immediate meeting. I felt that the approach I took was effective because I was
communicating and also i took the steps that needed to be taken once the first
one did not work. The time I experienced a conflict within a team would be
when I had a work injury. I had a consumer have a mental break down and
he ripped the cabinet door off the hinges and full force chucked it at my
knee. He ended up splitting my knee. I ended up having to go to the ER by
squad and getting stitches. My work tried to have me pay the ambulance bill
and then they did not compensate me at all and I was off work and on
crutches for two weeks. The strategies I used is I talked with the head of the
team and things never got resolved. So I held out at the job until I could
not take it any more. Yes and no the strategies were and were not successful.
They were not successful because the head of the team did nothing but
successful because I quit. In this situation I do not believe that any strategy
used would have been more effective. This case was a bad situation for many
reasons and it was a terrible company to work for. A conflict I experience
was with a specific employee. Working in a call center we are required to
answer phone calls and help participants. Unfortunately, we experienced phone
issues, resulting in calls dropping so this issue was unknown. This employee
was proven to be purposely hanging up on customers or would place them on
hold until they hung up. This effected the whole team because when these
clients called back, they were understandably upset. At first our team was told
to tally every call to see what everyone’s averages were. She also made it
important to document the time of each call in our notes. When she realized
the discrepancy, she sat with the employee to ask how she was doing with the
job and if she had any concerns. To ensure the tasks she had were not too
overwhelming. She ensured that the work was fine. She then sat with each
team member to discuss how they felt the job was going and if we noticed
anything with the employee. (there were a few complaints) After a few other
instances this employee was let go for forging a doctor note for a LOA. I
think my supervisor handled the situation the best way she could have. She
first took a discrete approach without causing much attention to the issue. Once
she could confirm who was causing it, she tried to communicate with the
employee to find if there was a cause for her actions and if there was anyway
she could help. Considering this person had a bad character I don’t think there
was much to approve on. However, if this was the only issue, I think team
building would have been ideal due to the fact that this employee was new.
Maybe she didn’t feel comfortable expressing her concerns to my supervisor and
it’s possible building relationships with other employee could have help her
navigate the new environment in a better way. The time that I experienced a
conflict within a team would have to be when we had a staff meeting. During
this staff meeting everyone was given their roles and duties. There were multiple
coworkers missing from the meeting. So later that week another meeting was
scheduled and a few coworkers had problems with their roles and duties. They
began to ask why did certain people get this role and not them. The lead
allowed the chaos to go on for every bit of 25-35 minutes. Finally those of
us that are transparent decided to switch with those whom wouldn’t let go of
the fact that they didn’t get the roles that they wanted, but also where not
present to switch if wanted to. My coworkers that didn’t agree with their roles
were able to exchange roles with others and we were able to keep the flow
going. This worked for the betterment of the team. People typically do better
work when its something that they enjoy.The strategy wasn’t really put into
place it just happened to be those that are mature and transparent made it easy
for the ones that are not. Now if I was lead the strategy I would have
proposed would have been to either pull names from a hat or stated the
different roles and let them pick in a group setting. If more then one person
chose the same one, I’d make it fun and do a game whoever wins gets the
role. When I worked at Ford Motor Company, We as a department were a
team. We had conflict often because people would slack and not do their job
correctly. This in turn would cause conflict, because the jobs that came after
that job station could not do their job. This would cause the line leader to
get frustrated with everyone. We talked to the worker on that job and discussed
how we could all help him to better efficiently do his job. When this was
discussed among the group, everybody put in an idea, and then the employee
tried each idea till he found one that worked for him and for us. This worked
and made the line run more smoothly and efficiently. Which in turn made the
moral even better, and made us enjoy being at work. We as workers on a
team need to learn to listen to each other and to support each other. If we
can do this then there would be less conflict in the first place. No matter
where you work, there will be some form of conflict. We just need to learn
to be more flexible and supportive of each other. a time I experienced a
conflict while working in a team was when I helped my little sister plan my
niece’s first birthday party. This party was such a big deal to my sister so it
immediately became a big deal to me too. This experience happened to be one
of the most stressful situations I’ve ever been in. My sister and I planned the
entire party with no help, but the day of party, the party planner was super
late with the custom themed tutu’s we were supposed to wear with my niece
at her birthday party, along with matching custom shirts. After clashing about
this sort of situation being that we had planned this party months ahead of
time, spent $1000 on a kids party and didn’t even have the correct themed
outfits for the party, we came up with a solution. The party planner was
supposed to meet us at 8:00 am that morning, we still needed to decorate
around 12 and the party started at 1:00pm. After constantly being stuck in
traffic my sister and I went and met the party planner right off the highway
to grab our party things. The strategies we used were communication & taking
direction to find the exact spot to find this party planner in traffic. Doing so
we still made the party and still was able to decorate before guest showed up.
These strategies we’re definitely successful. Communication was definitely a huge
key in this type of situation & also trusting that all of our planning would
successful work out. Also listening to one another even when we started to get
frustrated a lot helped in this situation too. A time I can remember where there
was conflict within a team is when my cousin was getting married and one of
the bridesmaids was not happy with the dress selection. The strategies used to
manage and resolve this conflict was listening to the bridesmaids reason for not
liking the dress selection. I also tried to come to a common ground where I
tried seeing if maybe we could have two dress selections or possibly seeing
what could make her change her mind. To reach a more effective outcome I
could continue to communicate and listen. I didn’t think it would be fair to
just switch the dress to what she likes only because there is more then just
her as a bridesmaid so they had to come to a common ground in which they
did! It was such a relief too. Conflict arises in teams especially when there is
lack of trust. I feel like everyone has some sort of conflict within a team
majority of the time. Even when it comes down to someone trying to take
total charge. While I worked at FedEx, I would often experience team conflict.
I worked as a loader, so I was loading up the trucks with packages. Often
times, I was put in charge of five different dock doors, so most of the
responsibility fell on me. I would have issues with other workers not helping
or walking off to go talk to or help their friends in other trucks. This was
an issue for me, because it usually left me doing most of the work and taking
most of the fall if things weren't done correctly. At first, I brought the issue
to them and explained that I needed more help. Some listened, however, there
were a few that still didn't listen. I eventually had to bring this to my manager
who either spoke to them or changed where they worked. For the most part
they were successful but at first they refused to listen to me. I would apply
better communication skills of helping everybody to understand what their role
or task is, so we all can effectively get the job at hand done. One time I
experienced conflict while working at Starbucks in Honolulu. My shift supervisor
was making it hard for everyone to do their closing tasks because she had to
receive and stock a shipment. She unpacked the boxes and left them unbroken
down in the middle of the pathway, which we all needed to use to break
down the bar and take everything to the sanitizer, and then put it all back
together again.
I kept breaking down her boxes for her and putting them where they belonged,
so that the rest of us could perform our closing tasks and get out of there.
She was all like, "Thanks so much!" And I was feeling annoyed with this
much younger woman, my kids' age, who was my boss, who told me she hates
Starbucks, who had been visiting with her boyfriend and his family her entire
shift while the rest of us worked, and was now making it take longer for us
to close. I was feeling shocked at her behavior.We seemed to get out of there
that night without much conflict, but I was feeling terribly upset. I went home
and called the partner counseling hotline and I think I ended up making some
kind of an official report because by leaving empty boxes in our pathway, she
was endangering our safety. This was several years ago, so my memory may
not be that great. I talked with another teammate about it, and we agreed, this
shift supervisor was behaving shockingly bad.I do not think the strategies I used
were successful. The general manager of our store got very stressed out because
upper management began to monitor our store closely. I think it would have
been better if I went to him and/or some other shift supervisors and teammates
within the store, and tried to communicate about it and resolve it more close
to home. On the other hand, with upper management breathing down our necks,
although it stressed the store general manager, it did mostly over-all make the
store a better place to work. By applying strategies I'm learning this week like
communication, understanding the perspectives and needs of fellow teammates,
and addressing conflict head on instead of trying to avoid it, I could perhaps
bring about better solutions and resolutions to conflicts like this one. People
naturally switch into more of a leadership role while leading the group through
the phase of the project that requires that specialty. For example, someone might
emerge as leader during the data collection stage because they have taken
several research and statistics courses. As the project moves into the graphic-
producing stage, the person with the background in graphics or art will take on
more of a leadership role. This revolving leadership happens all of the time
and we’ve all seen it within our own families and groups of friends. We also
experience revolving leaders at work and even in our University groups. There’s
always a way to work out an issue. When neither side is willing to
compromise, then there is an on-going feud. Let’s face it, if higher leadership
wanted to solve a dispute, they could do so, right? This sort of in-fighting is
a way to keep teams arguing instead of cooperating. Keep in mind that teams
can be very powerful. Smart leaders don’t really want powerful teams because
those teams wield a lot of power. Consider if all of those higher level leaders
go along – that might be troublesome for their supervisor, who is likely a VP
or even the CEO. To keep control, one tactic is to keep the teams arguing
with one another so that they never reach agreement. It takes a lot of practice
with a particular group to know how long you must give them to contribute
their own ideas. Let’s face it, some groups are full of a bunch of talkers, but
other groups are full of people who are reluctant to communicate. An effective
leader has to develop skills working with both kinds of groups, which require
completely different skills, right? With the group in which no one will speak
up, the leader has the chore of figuring out a way to get the group to think
and share ideas. This is a perfect example of using pre-work before a team
meeting to get the team members ready to make decisions during the meeting.
The thinking should come before the meeting. At the meeting the ideas should
be shared, valued, not shot down, evaluated objectively, and then the best pieces
picked to build the perfect plan. People have different work styles. Some people
would rather write and others would rather talk – an effective leader has
developed the skills to lead both. As small groups grow, there is less and less
responsibility per member – responsibility may be viewed as more of a team
or unit issue. It becomes increasingly more difficult for even effective leaders
to learn the personal needs of additional small group members. Consider
organizing a small event or get together for you and four to five of your
closest friends and/or family. You’ll have to take into consideration the
personalities, interests, and needs of only 4-5 people. Now think about setting
up a similar event or get together for eight to nine of your closest friends
and/or family. The addition of those four to five additional personalities,
interests, and needs makes your task of setting up the event much more
complex, right? The same complexity occurs when small groups of four to five
people grow. Not only the leader, but also every group member has to be
concerned with the additional complexity because that complexity will affect
everyone in the group. Trust has to be built because trust does not just happen.
Unfortunately, due to the underhanded tactics often used in business today, the
leader has to withhold important information from the team and therefore has
more information than others. Withholding information is a form of deceit and
distrust, right? When we study conflict we’ll learn that omission, or leaving out
information, is the number one form of deceit. In fact, people will even argue
that leaving out information is not “lying” or deceit, but it obviously is. The
point is that deceit starts at the top and filters all the way down. It’s
impossible to build trust once deceit is obvious. There are also many times in
our personal lives that involve group dynamics. Friends are another group
dynamic that is hard to breach. We have some friends that are part of a group
of their own friends. When they have parties for a birthday or other such
event, we usually get invited. We do know some others there but we are not
apart of the group dynamic. We go and we end up sitting alone talking until
we are asked a question or talked to by someone else. It is very hard to
come into a group that is already formed. All we can do is try to adapt to
the group and see if we are welcomed into that group. We do not have a
group dynamic with our friends. If we all get together we welcome everyone
at the same time, and everyone gets along and everyone talks to each other. I
guess we do have a group dynamic, but it is an open group. Some people
demand to be disciplined, so it’s good to expect that from teammates. Teaching
teammates to be disciplined takes patience. Anytime we suffer with others we
build a bond. For example, I have taught public speaking face-to-face for many
years. The students are all nervous, they all make stumbles, they all make
mistakes, they all have good and bad days, and by the final couple of speeches
in the class they are more comfortable, in part, because they have suffered
through it together, have learned little personal things about one another through
the speeches and through class conversations, and they have bonded to an
extent. This class isn’t a bona fide team like yours but the idea is still the
same. When you see others working hard and putting in actual effort (which is
absolutely always required to improve) it motivates you to do the same. It
motivates you to become more disciplined. And if people are competitive this
can spur on competition, as well. Other factors like motivation, need, and drive
also play a factor, of course.
