Team Conflicts That Cost You Money

Conflict is an expected part of life – after all, we’re all individuals with our own thoughts, trying to understand each other. Conflict in the workplace between teams can quickly escalate into something costly, not only for your team but for your business as a whole.

According to Entrepreneur, the conflict will cost your business in time wastes and productivity loss. It will also cost you in time lost for mental health days and eventually turnover replacement costs if an employee leaves. Learn about the different types of team conflicts, and how you can resolve them before they end up costing you money.

Conflicts Related to Task Completion

Indeed suggests that some conflicts arise from how a team works to complete a task. For example, if someone isn’t pulling their weight or completing their part of a job, it can cause conflict within the entire team. You can mitigate this type of conflict. Set clear guidelines for the roles within your team and the deadlines for tasks.

Have your team take our assessment and get together in a Team Room. Here, you can quickly see how diverse cognitive thinking is within your team, and see if you’re assigning tasks based upon each member’s strengths. Discover what each member of your team is best at, and adjust their tasks accordingly. You can also utilize our compatibility report to learn new ways to communicate with an individual member of your team. You can understand them from their perspective – making sure that there are no misunderstandings going forward.

Conflicts Related to Power Struggles and Leadership

In any team, there can be conflicts that develop over time regarding the way that a leader is leading, or a power struggle may develop within the ranks of the team. Leaderchat suggests that leaders need to be aware of potential power struggles so that you can be proactive and maintain peace within the group. If you notice that individuals are asserting more power against others, you may need to assign them tasks that don’t involve their interaction and monitor how the power struggle resolves. It is also useful to build trust in your team so that your team trusts you as a leader.

With our Team Room, you can learn about the inner workings of your team and gain a greater understanding of each member within your team. When you understand the different perspectives of your team members, you’ll get an understanding of who is motivated to lead. Then, you can provide those individuals with leadership opportunities in a way that circumvents a power struggle within the team. Understanding the individuals that make up your team, and your team cognition as a whole is the key to managing conflicts.

Personality Clashes

We all have different ways of perceiving the world. We sometimes have a difficult time understanding why someone doesn’t see things the way that we do. When this happens in the workplace, that tension can build and cause ongoing conflict due to different personalities. Indeed believes that this type of conflict is the most common type in the workplace.

When two people have vastly different personalities or work styles, they need to relate to each other and understand each other at a deeper level. Utilize our compatibility report to learn more about each other’s perspectives. You’ll gain insight into how to relate to each other going forward.

With any workplace conflict, try to mitigate it by being clear and communicative. Harvard Business Review suggests meeting with the team members involved both jointly and individually to resolve the conflict productively.