Conducive conflict is vital for enabling innovative teams

There might be a misconception that innovative teams do not argue and think alike. In reality, innovative and disruptive teams debate about many aspects. This article will explore why conducive conflict is vital to enable disruptive and creative thinking in a team. 

 

What is conducive conflict? 

In normal day-to-day operations, being on the same page and working upon established ideas is sufficient to produce results. However, some problems require a team to come together, think laterally, and debate with one another until they come to a well-considered conclusion. In order for a team to find innovative solutions, they need to explore various perspectives and consider different points of view. An effective leader recognizes this, and instead of attempting to immediately reduce the conflict, they let it happen. They conduct the discussion in an open and mutually respectful manner to bring it to the most optimal outcomes. If done correctly, this type of conflict can spring up ideas and solutions that would otherwise take too much time and effort in the normal course and flow of work. Therefore, even though nobody likes the term ‘conflict’, it can be a valuable tool for creative thinking.  

 

Enabling diversity in teams  

Whether or not a conducive conflict will be successful largely depends on how well your team is composed. A diverse team dedicated to problem-solving gains a lot from conducive conflict. Whereas a narrow-minded & single viewpoint team that presents the same ideas over and over again stands to be frustrated from such an experience of conflicting ideas and points of view. So, the first step is ensuring that you have smart people on your team. Team members with a narrow mindset, will not bring much value to this type of discussion. You need to have people on your team who think differently and are open to exploring differing POVs and opinions. 

 

Set the stage for conducive conflict  

Explain the goal of the discussion, help them welcome the conflict, and make sure that they understand what it will be like. It is paramount that your team does not take criticism personally and team members don’t grow spiteful towards their co-workers. The key point is to exchange ideas and explore different approaches and viewpoints. Any conflict that arises from that must be with the sole intention to spur further development. Make sure that they understand this and that the dispute that occurs in the meeting room stays in the meeting room. Gradually as your team members start exchanging ideas, some form of disputes and debates will get sparked. As a leader, your job is to conduct the conflict in a constructive manner without insults or insinuating comments.  

 

Maintain the right environment 

During the meeting, you want people to be energetic and to push their ideas forward. If some members are less willing to present their views, encourage them. Similarly, if some are unwilling to give their opinion about others’ ideas, ensure that they do. Make sure everyone gets in the appropriate frame of mind to share ideas and be open to taking some divergent thoughts about their ideas. You don't want people to either agree blindly or stay silent. 

 

Understand where the conflict stems from 

Sometimes people will argue not because they don't agree with an idea but because they don't agree with the person presenting it. If this is the case, you need to spot this contradiction and prevent them from going overboard and causing the meeting to go out of hand. This will require a lot of emotional intelligence. If you do not control it, it will cause a rift between your team members. So, while conductive conflict is vital for a disruptive-thinking team, it is mandatory for the leader to conduct it appropriately. 

 

Debriefing  

Once the meeting is over, ensure that you go over what has been discussed and explored. Doing so puts things into perspective and allows everyone to gather the key takeaways. As you facilitate more such sessions, your team members start becoming accustomed to this approach. You need to ensure that your team members stick with what has been agreed upon and not slack off the decision in case it’s not as per their expectations. 

 

Concluding thoughts  

Conflicts can be a powerful tool that can stimulate the energy needed to outline critical issues and challenges in order to find the best matching solutions in an effective manner.

What does your LEADERSHIP TENT comprise of?

What makes a good leader? This seemingly simple question has baffled people for a long time. Generally, we all have an archetype of a wise leader in our mind who knows what to say and when to say it. On the other hand, it can be challenging to outline all the traits that constitute a good leader, even more so if you try to organize those traits into a hierarchy. Let’s attempt to list out these traits by visualizing a leadership tent and then elaborating on the elements of this tent.

 

Conceptualization of a leadership tent

The leadership tent is a visual representation of the traits and their relative importance. The two main poles that hold up a tent represent traits that every leader needs to have. Just like a tent would collapse without the main poles, so would a leader fail without these traits. The supporting poles come subsequently as they help the tent stand firm and expansive. These supporting poles are relevant as they help increase the efficacy of the leader. The leader can work on these supporting poles after establishing the key traits viz. the central poles.

 

Main/Central poles

While there are many choices for the main/ central poles of the leadership tent, we firmly believe that the most appropriate ones are Trust and Empathy. It doesn’t mean a blind type of trust. It is an inclusive type of trust like having a firm belief in the potential and capabilities of your employees and exhibiting your empathy for their struggles and challenges.

 

Trust

While modern tools allow you to keep track of your employee’s performance, it is worth noting that without trust these monitoring tools are not that effective. If you can’t put faith in your subordinates to do what they are supposed to do, no amount of monitoring tools will make your job easier. Hence, you need to innately believe that your employees want to contribute to your company and team’s success and growth. And you need to gain your employee’s trust that you won't exploit them. If you take trust away, then your leadership tent would eventually fall flat.

 

Empathy

People often undervalue the importance of empathy as a key leadership trait and therefore do not consider it as one of the main poles of a leadership tent. Empathy doesn't mean that you appreciate every sob story that your employee brings up or that you accept their illogical excuse for their lack of performance. Empathy doesn’t mean that you become agreeable to a lower standard or quality of deliverables due to their excuses or challenges.

 

Empathy means that you can put yourself in the other person's shoes and perceive from their point of view. To be an effective leader, you need to understand what your employees are going through. Being an empathetic leader will enable you to make prudent and appropriate decisions.

 

Side poles

The side poles will help to enlarge your tent and allow it to stand firm. The bigger your leadership tent, the easier it will be to house a considerable number of people with different behaviors and competencies. Let’s review some of these side poles.

 

Relationship with employees

Employees frequently look up to their leader for motivation, guidance, help, and support. If you lean too far in one direction, then you become too soft-hearted for your employees to take undue advantage of you OR you become a brutal-hearted tyrant with no consideration for your employee’s state of well-being. Both extremes lead to an unproductive work environment and therefore you need to be self-aware and realize what kind of a relationship you are building with your employees. You'll be able to lead your employees and help them be the best versions of themselves if you can focus on these side poles:

 

• Empowerment
• Emotional regulation
• Mentoring
• Growth mindset
• Accountability

 

Relationships between employees

A good leader helps their employees to align, reduce friction, and work together as a team. This ability to foster collaboration is a crucial trait for all effective leaders. This comprises various side poles such as:

 

• Encouraging participation
• Recognition
• Emotional agility
• Delegation
• Mediation

It is critical to acknowledge the importance of tackling intrapersonal issues that your employees may be experiencing.

 

While modern tools can help you understand your customers, you need to get a feel for your employees in order to enable team cohesion.

 

How to build a solid tent

No leadership tent can stand if it doesn't have sturdy main poles. Once you have stability with the main poles, choose a few side poles that you find relatively easier to build upon and further improve. Effective leaders recognize and choose those side poles that they have a stronger grip on and those that could be further fortified. In turn, this helps them find employees that can assist with fortifying the side poles and provide complementary strengths to their own natural leadership traits.

 

Culture is the fabric

Finally, you wrap a strong cover fabric over these poles. This is your overarching culture that covers and protects the well-being of your people. It provides the safety net and the space for your team members to function and thrive in their roles.