The Keys To Handling Team Conflict

It is a fundamental concept to be capable of working in a team. That means, however, that everyone in a team needs to get along. Whether or not team members like each other or agree, handling team conflict can be very difficult. An effective team can work together and overcome any conflict, no matter how difficult. There are four different key concepts of teams and handling team conflict, which include the importance of teams, types of conflict, why conflict happens, and what can be done to resolve it.

Teams represent a powerful force in an organization and are assembled to sort out complex and strategic issues. When working in a team, conflict is inevitable. This, however, is not necessarily a bad thing. Constructive conflict is a component of high functioning teams which arises from differences of ideas, principles or processes. The key idea to conflict resolution is how the leader handles the conflict. Team members must prepare to deal with differences and not let them escalate into disputes, which might lead to a team's demise. A destructive conflict for a team is an affective conflict which is aimed at emotions or values.

In order to avoid conflict, the team must hold frequent meetings to review the project status, increase communication, and reduce misunderstandings of project goals and priorities. In any type of conflict, trust is essential in a team. It is the team leader's responsibility to develop a strong trust level between the team members. If conflict should emerge, however, it is best to resolve it directly, which clarifies many problems. There are many ways to solve a conflict but there are more effective ways than others, which include:

* Listen to what the person is trying to say. Words and non-verbal signals from gestures and body language are important to notice.

* Acknowledge what a colleague is saying without