As a high quality manager, there are certain traits and skills you need to show every single day. These aren’t particularly complex things and often come down to basics.
Remember, management is about how you treat people, decisions you make, how you approach problems, and your ability to handle serious issues on the fly. One of those in the moment situations you’re likely to face during your time as a manager is having to help out with an employee conflict.
Conflicts happen all the time and they vary in severity. Most of the time, employees have a fall out or disagreement and they fix it themselves. That’s the best outcome for all. However, sometimes they can’t find the piece of middle ground they need to find and a manager needs to step in as a mediator, or in the end, as someone who makes the final decision over what is going to happen to end the issue.
Office conflicts are damaging for morale and can cause a major problem in the office. For that reason, dealing with them quickly and effectively is key. One skill you’ll need to show and use is impartiality.
Being impartial means that you treat all sides equally and show no bias to either one. One of the man qualities of a good manager is the ability to avoid taking sides, however that’s not the entire list. Check out this video which shows a few other key skills you’ll need to have.
Remaining impartial can be difficult, because it’s human nature to choose which side you feel most aligned with. However, choosing sides alienates the other employee and causes mistrust. You should not have favourites as a manager and even if that’s not the intention, taking sides will create that appearance to your employees.
So how can you stay impartial when a conflict arises?
- Seek out the facts – It’s vital that when dealing with a situation such as this, you focus only on facts. Do not listen to your gut, do not ask how it makes anyone feel, just get the facts of the situation and work with those.
- Focus on being equal with zero bias – Do not show either employee that you favour one side of the conflict over the other. Even if deep down you have a slight leaning, you should not allow this to show and it should not affect your decision making. You must remain balanced and treat both employees equally.
- Encourage employees to solve the problem themselves – You can act as mediator in the first instance and encourage employees to come to a solution between themselves. Acting as mediator means that you can step in if things become heated, but you’re encouraging them to explore the problem themselves.
- Focus on what is best for the entire office – If you have to step in and solve the problem for them, you must focus on the outcome which is best for the entire office and not one employee. The outcome needs to ensure that the problem is completely solved, there is no morale issue left over, and that productivity remains high.
Being impartial means pushing out your own opinions and remaining entirely on the fence. If there is a clear rule broken, of course you can point that out and show what company policy says about it, but in terms of which opinion you agree with – remain impartial!