Resolving Team Conflict: A Leader's Guide
What should leaders do when conflict arises between team members? In this episode, learn practical strategies for addressing conflict head-on, including setting clear expectations, facilitating open communication, and mediating disagreements.
Andrea and Michelle explore the importance of fostering a culture of peer-to-peer accountability and trust. Providing practical strategies for leaders to intervene effectively, including setting expectations, facilitating open communication, and addressing misunderstandings.
Don't miss this valuable episode for any leader seeking to promote collaboration and resolve conflict effectively.
Takeaways
Leaders must intervene when conflicts arise among employees.
Peer accountability is essential for a healthy organizational culture.
Trust is the foundation of effective teamwork.
Setting clear expectations can prevent misunderstandings.
Difficult conversations are necessary for resolving conflicts.
Listening to understand is crucial in communication.
Leaders should model the behavior they want to see.
LISTEN TO THE EPISODE
Expand Your Leadership Skills.
A Leader's Guide to Resolving Senior Team Conflict
When Leaders Must Step In: Addressing Senior Team Conflict
Senior team conflict rarely starts with dramatic showdowns it usually begins with subtle signs that something isn't right.
A department head stops sharing critical information, meetings become increasingly tense, and suddenly teams that should be collaborating are competing instead.
In a recent episode of The Leadership Hustle podcast, hosts Andrea Fredrickson and Michelle Hill discussed tackling a pressing leadership challenge after receiving an urgent call from a CEO. Two of his senior leaders weren't just failing to work together, they were actively pitting their departments against each other.
The ripple effects of this conflict was threatening to derail the entire organization.
It's a scenario that plays out in companies every day, leaving CEOs and organizational leaders wondering: when do you step in, and how do you fix it?
The Ripple Effect: Why Leadership Conflict Resolution Can't Wait
When senior leaders are at odds, their teams quickly pick up on the tension, creating invisible barriers between departments. Their behaviors and attitudes cascade down through the organization, making collaboration nearly impossible.
Ignoring conflicts at the leadership level sends a dangerous message about company values. Teams begin to mirror their leaders' behaviors, leading to widespread dysfunction and deteriorating trust.
The ripple effect creates waves that can sink productivity, lower morale, and derail strategic initiatives.
How Conflict Spreads Through Organizations
Leadership disputes poison organizational culture in predictable patterns that worsen over time.
What starts as tension between two leaders can quickly evolve into departmental warfare that affects every level of the company.
Watch for these warning signs:
Teams taking defensive positions and withholding information
Increased blame-shifting between departments
Rising tension in cross-functional meetings
Delayed project completions due to poor collaboration
Declining employee engagement scores
Informal alliances forming between departments
Signs Your Senior Team Needs Intervention
Many leaders mistakenly believe senior teams should resolve their own conflicts. The reality is that high-level disputes rarely improve without direct intervention.
Watch for situations where department heads consistently make excuses or redirect conversations to avoid tough questions. This avoidance behavior often masks deeper trust issues that are eroding team effectiveness.
These patterns indicate it's time for leadership to step in and address the underlying conflict.
Red Flags That Demand Action
Recognizing the difference between normal workplace tension and destructive conflict requires attention to specific behavioral patterns. Senior leaders often display subtle but telling signs that their relationships have deteriorated beyond their ability to repair independently.
Watch for these critical warning signs:
Side conversations and informal alliances forming
Withholding or manipulating information sharing
Departments competing rather than collaborating
Passive-aggressive communications in meetings
Teams mirroring their leaders' adversarial behavior
Projects stalling due to lack of cross-department cooperation
Why Leaders Avoid Addressing Team Conflict
Many CEOs fall into the trap of thinking senior leaders should handle their own disputes. This hands-off approach often stems from discomfort with confrontation and fear of making situations worse.
Leadership teams frequently lack the tools for effective conflict resolution, despite their high-level positions. What appears as simple avoidance actually masks deeper organizational challenges that require skilled intervention.
Experience shows that hoping senior teams will "work it out themselves" only allows toxic patterns to become more entrenched.
Breaking Through Avoidance Patterns
Understanding why leaders hesitate to address conflict is the first step toward creating effective solutions. Successful intervention requires acknowledging both the emotional and practical barriers that keep conflicts unresolved.
Key patterns to address:
Fear of damaging existing relationships
Uncertainty about appropriate intervention methods
Concerns about appearing to take sides
Discomfort with emotional conversations
Worry about making the situation worse
Lack of confidence in conflict resolution skills
The True Cost of Unresolved Senior Conflict
Unresolved conflict between senior leaders creates costs far beyond interpersonal tension. When departments operate in silos due to leadership disputes, strategic initiatives often stall and innovation suffers.
Team members lose respect not just for the conflicting leaders, but for the organization itself. The financial impact shows up in missed deadlines, duplicated efforts, and wasted resources as departments compete rather than collaborate.
A toxic leadership dynamic will eventually drive away top talent and damage the company's reputation.
Creating a Safe Space for Difficult Conversations
Successful conflict resolution starts with bringing conflicting parties together in a controlled environment. The key is establishing clear ground rules that prevent defensive reactions and encourage honest dialogue.
Having a neutral third party present helps referee emotions and ensure productive discussion. This approach helps leaders move past proving who's right and focus instead on understanding each other's perspectives.
Creating psychological safety allows senior leaders to express concerns without fear of judgment or retaliation, opening the door to real solutions.
The Role of Mediation in Senior Team Disputes
A skilled mediator can transform hostile leadership dynamics into productive dialogue. Having an objective third party prevents either leader from feeling targeted or unfairly judged. Mediation works best when the facilitator understands organizational dynamics and can help identify underlying issues driving the conflict. Experience shows that neutral facilitation helps senior leaders discover solutions they couldn't see on their own.
Building Bridges Between Departments
Meaningful change begins with clear, measurable action steps that all parties commit to following.
Transforming conflict into collaboration requires specific, actionable steps from all parties involved. Leaders must commit to regular check-ins, open communication channels, and measurable goals for improvement.
Creating shared objectives helps conflicting departments find common ground and build lasting partnerships.
From Conflict to Collaboration: Action Steps
Meaningful change begins with clear, measurable action steps that all parties commit to following.
Transforming conflict into collaboration requires specific, actionable steps from all parties involved.
Leaders must commit to regular check-ins, open communication channels, and measurable goals for improvement.
Creating shared objectives helps conflicting departments find common ground and build lasting partnerships.
Preventing Future Leadership Team Conflicts
Prevention requires building new organizational muscles around communication and trust. Senior leaders need ongoing development in emotional intelligence and conflict management skills.
Creating systems for regular feedback and open dialogue helps catch tensions before they escalate. Teams that practice healthy conflict resolution in small matters are better equipped to handle larger challenges. Prevention starts with understanding that conflict is natural but dysfunction isn't inevitable.
Keys to Successful Conflict Resolution
Successful resolution demands more than just getting people to play nice. Lasting change comes from establishing clear expectations, maintaining accountability, and fostering genuine understanding between parties.
Building trust takes time and intentional effort from everyone involved. Leaders must be willing to examine their own behaviors and biases as part of the resolution process.
Each small success in conflict resolution strengthens the foundation for future collaboration.
Transform Your Leadership Dynamic
Leadership conflict doesn't have to derail your organization's success. With the right approach, even deep-seated conflicts can become opportunities for growth and positive change.
Senior leaders who commit to addressing conflict head-on create stronger, more resilient organizations. The investment in resolving leadership team conflicts pays dividends in improved performance, enhanced collaboration, and sustained growth.
Your leadership team has the potential to become a powerful force for positive change.
Partner with Revela for Breakthrough Leadership Solutions
Don't let senior team conflict hold your organization back from reaching its full potential. Revela's expert coaches understand the unique challenges of leadership team dynamics and can help you build stronger, more collaborative relationships.
Our proven approach has helped countless organizations transform leadership team conflicts into catalysts for positive change. With decades of experience guiding senior teams through complex challenges, we provide practical solutions that create lasting results.
Contact Revela today to begin your leadership transformation journey.
The Leadership Hustle podcast is produced by Two Brothers Creative.
About the Hosts
Andrea Fredrickson
Andrea Fredrickson is a thought leader and consultant at Revela, an organization based in Omaha, Nebraska specializing in the development of leaders, culture alignment, and business strategy for private and family businesses of all sizes. Revela is one of the region's most experienced thought challengers, helping individuals and companies find their greatness. Andrea has built an amazing team by believing that fundamentally people want to be successful and become better versions of themselves.
-
Andrea has degrees in education, management, and business. She is the author of Insight Unseen; How to lead with 20/20 business vision. She helps people see things differently, self-reflect, and never stop looking for ways to improve themselves on a personal and professional level. Andrea has spent more than 30 years researching and developing methods to help people communicate and lead more effectively.
When Andrea isn’t working with clients, you’ll find her spending time with her family & friends and making memories by exploring new cities.
Michelle Hill
Michelle Hill is a master facilitator and coach at Revela, an organization specializing in the development of leaders and aligning the culture of privately held and family businesses of all sizes. Revela is one of the region's most experienced thought challengers, helping individuals and companies find their greatness.
-
An ambitious leader, Michelle has the natural ability to create forward momentum to build teams and get results. She inspires others to look within themselves and to challenge the status quo. She helps create high-performing environments. Michelle brings a diverse background: operations, employee development, and sales in the steel, hospitality, and consulting industries.
Outside of work, you will see her competitive side engaged in her daughter’s sports and ISU athletics. She loves life, her four-legged companions, and captures all the moments through her camera’s lens.
TRANSCRIPT
Andrea Fredrickson: On this episode of The Leadership Hustle, we're going to discuss what to do as a leader when employees are not seeing eye to eye. Hello and welcome to the Leadership Hustle. For executives whose companies are growing fast and need leaders who are ready. Hey, welcome back to this episode of The Leadership Hustle. I'm Andrea Fredrickson. I'm Michelle Hill, and today we are going to tackle the topic of when do leaders need to get involved with the people they lead when there's conflict between the two? Yeah. And so, um, this topic came up because recently there was a gentleman that that reached out and said, okay, um, I need help. I've got a couple of folks who are leading different parts of the company, and they, they they are not, not not just getting along, but it seems as though they are pitting their departments against each other a little bit and it's like, oh, what do I do?