How Do You Deal With Conflict In A Team?​

In this blog, we’re going to cover how to deal with conflict in a team. Do you want to enjoy working with your team? Do you just hate conflict? If so, this blog is for you—stick with us. So, what is conflict? Why do we have it? Can it be good, or should it be avoided? And if it happens, how can you navigate it? We’re going to cover all of this right now.

What Is Conflict?

First, let’s start with the definition of conflict. According to a quick Google search, conflict is “a clashing or sharp disagreement.” Now, let’s distinguish between regular conflict and healthy conflict. Healthy conflict allows for treating people with respect, listening to others’ ideas, and considering those ideas during collaborative, iterative, and agile processes. Maintaining a sense of diversity and inclusion is crucial during this.

5 Key Things Leaders Do

Conflict is inevitable in a team, and as a leader, it’s your job to handle it. Leaders are responsible for building the team, having difficult conversations, managing or mentoring direct reports, and holding effective meetings—all of which may involve handling conflict. Scaling clarity and communication is another important aspect of leadership. These are the five key things leaders do, and conflict resolution plays a vital role in all of them. One of the worst things you can do is assume your team will never experience conflict. Ignoring it means avoiding real problems. Conflict can be a positive force, as long as it’s addressed in a healthy manner.

Importance of Conflict in Team Building

Every team goes through four key phases: the forming phase (where everyone comes together), the storming phase (where conflict happens as team members step on each other’s toes), the norming phase (where the team rallies behind a common goal), and the performing phase (where the team achieves high performance). Healthy conflict is essential for team growth. If you’re calling your group a “team,” they must hold each other accountable, which includes engaging in healthy conflict. You cannot reach high performance as a team without going through the storming phase.

Movie Recommendation: Remember the Titans

For a powerful example of team-building through conflict, watch the movie Remember the Titans. It shows how a coach leads a team to overcome cultural and personal conflicts by fostering trust, encouraging open communication, and rallying around a shared goal. By getting to know each other and building trust, the team in the movie overcomes hatred and develops healthy conflict resolution, which leads to high performance.

Helpful Exercise to Get to Know Each Other

If you’re not in a natural setting like the football field in Remember the Titans, a useful exercise is the “personal histories” activity. In a team meeting, have each person share something about their history. This helps everyone gain insight into each other’s lives and creates understanding, which is a great foundation for resolving conflict.

How to Resolve Conflict in Your Team

Once you’ve built proximity and trust, finding ways to resolve conflict becomes essential. One approach is to create a “player card” for each team member. This can include personality profiles (e.g., DISC or StrengthsFinder) and personal preferences like communication styles or feedback preferences. Sharing these player cards among the team creates pathways for resolving conflict and building stronger connections.

Increase Proximity in Your Team

Increasing proximity—through meetings or shared workspaces—helps team members rely on each other and build trust. This closeness helps teams grow stronger together and better handle conflict.

Teach Your Team the Feedback Method

Giving and receiving feedback is a critical skill for handling conflict. Rather than criticizing with “you did this,” teach your team to use a feedback method like “I noticed that if you did this, you would get this result.” This approach encourages accountability without triggering defensiveness, helping to maintain healthy conflict within the team.

Practice Discussing Hard Topics

It’s essential to create safe spaces for discussing difficult topics. Encourage open feedback and healthy disagreement in meetings. When someone speaks up with a differing opinion, praise their input to foster a culture of transparency and healthy conflict. It’s all about finding a balance between false harmony and toxic conflict.

5 Different Ways to Resolve Conflict in a Team

1. Put It in the Bowl: Have team members write down concerns anonymously, and then discuss these in a safe environment.
2. Brainstorming Mode: Encourage free discussion without immediate decision-making.
3. Assign a Decision-Maker: When it’s tough to reach consensus, assign one person to make the final call after hearing all input.
4. Get to the Root: Dig deeper to find the underlying cause of conflict, often by asking “why” multiple times.
5. Use a Facilitator: Sometimes outside help, like a coach or facilitator, can help resolve deep-rooted issues.

Final Advice

Remember, you’re not creating a toxic environment by addressing conflict. The goal is to move your team toward healthy conflict resolution. Trust is key—without it, conflict becomes destructive. With healthy conflict, you’ll set goals together, hold each other accountable, and start performing at a high level.