Conflict is a Good Thing (And Other Tips for HR Professionals)

You want your workplace team to run like a well-oiled machine — but when conflict rears its ugly head, your machine breaks down and your team stops working productively. For managers and HR professionals, then, resolving the conflict and moving back into a collaborative, efficient work environment is essential — but never easy!

I meet a lot of leaders who dread conflict resolution more than any other part of their work. I understand why — but here’s the thing: Conflict is bound to happen when you have passionate people working together under the same roof. And the sooner you come to terms with that, the better you’ll be able to arrive at a peaceful resolution.

What Every Manager Should Know About Conflict

With that said, consider a few basic truths about conflict in the workplace:

Conflict is inevitable. Again: It’s just something that’s going to happen. Don’t beat yourself up about it. Don’t assign blame. Don’t fret that you have a bad work environment. Just understand that conflict happens — and deal with it.

Conflict is unavoidable. Or at least, it should be. You can try to turn a blind eye to conflict in your workspace, but then the underlying issues will fester; morale will plummet; and, most…