Is your team good at conflict? | Issue #161
How Your Teams Need To Get Good At Conflict
Here’s an interesting scenario for you. You’re holding an executive team meeting. Two of the members start to argue. They’ve got completely different views on how something should be handled. What do you and the rest of the team do?
Does someone crack a joke to try and diffuse the tension? Or does the whole room go silent as everyone looks at their shuffling feet? Maybe you, as CEO, jump in to try and mediate? All of these reactions are unhelpful. If you’re wanting to build a high functioning, cohesive team, you need to allow conflict. More, you need to mine for it.
The genesis of this comes from Patrick Lencioni’s brilliant work on ‘The Five Dysfunctions of a Team’. He showed how fear of conflict was built on an absence of vulnerability-based trust. And without conflict, you get fake harmony, lack of commitment and avoidance of accountability.
We’ve written many times before on how to build psychological safety in an organisation and this is fundamental to trust. It’s important to remember that we’ve been trained through school and most work environments to avoid conflict. So teams need to work on it – getting themselves to a point where they can disagree and commit. The only way they’ll do this is through deliberate practice.
Finding Your Super North Star with Floyd Woodrow
If you’re looking for some inspiration to help you find your Super North Star, let Floyd Woodrow DCM MBE be your guide. Floyd is Managing Director and founder of Chrysalis Worldwide, a world-leading values-based organisation and owner of Quantum group. But as you may have guessed from his post-nominal letters he hasn’t always been a businessman.
Floyd spent his formative years first in the Parachute Regiment before joining the Special Air Service at the age of 22, where he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his work in Iraq and an MBE for his work in Afghanistan.
While he was serving, Floyd realised the importance of continual learning and wanted to continue down this path of pursuing excellence when he left the military. And that’s precisely what he’s done.
He’s also written several books including Learning to Learn, and more recently, The Warrior, The Strategist and You in which he outlines the “Compass for Life model for leadership and life”.
In today’s episode Floyd discusses the idea of having a Super North Star and how a compass provides the framework you need to achieve balance and point toward your Super North Star. He also talks about the importance of mindset, and he succinctly sums up, in 30 seconds, what it takes to be an amazing salesperson.
This is a fantastic conversation with Floyd, we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
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Recommended Reads
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MEANINGFUL ACTION FOR MONDAY
Be aware of ‘fundamental attribution errors’ in feedback
Make sure everyone in your organisation is aware that people will always judge themselves by their intent and others by their actions. So when giving and receiving feedback, it’s important to tell people how their actions made you feel so that you can see your way through the filters you have on the world.
Here’s an example. If I’m late for a meeting, it’s because the dog was sick, the children were fighting and there was traffic. If you’re late, I think you didn’t get out of bed early enough. I’ll sit there and have in my head the movie that you’re lazy and that perception never goes away. It’s something I believe to be true. I might say, jokingly, ‘So overslept again?’ This gives you the opportunity to say, ‘No you cheeky bugger’ and then explain. If I didn’t confront it there and then, it perpetuates the filter through which I see everything that you do.
This is at the heart of giving and receiving feedback. Make sure your intent and your actions line up in the eyes of other people.
Upcoming Events
Scaling Up Made Simple Workshop, New Forest – 18th November
Conducted in The New Forest, away from the uproar of the everyday commercial world, the Scaling Up Made Simple Workshop is presented by Scaling Up Coach, Dominic Monkhouse to allow you the mental space to look at your business afresh – to recognise your strengths, your weaknesses and your opportunities. The workshop is your first step in the process of identifying and addressing the real challenges confronting your business. You will receive practical guidance in the essential skills that underpin manageable growth.
The Melting Pot Live Webinar with Bryony Thomas – 22nd November
Join Dominic Monkhouse and Bryony Thomas for a Live Webinar to dive into her book Watertight Marketing. They will be talking about all things business and marketing to give you the insight, energy, and passion you need for the rest of the year and next quarter.
Quote of the week
“In high performing teams, the cost of speaking out is lowered, the cost of silence is raised”
Nick Pope
Dominic Monkhouse
Dominic offers business coaching and management development, strategy planning and organisational change, using tried and tested methods to launch your organisation onto an unparalleled growth trajectory. His programme is a function of his broad experience, his deep expertise and a proven process used by over 2,700 firms worldwide.