Additional Competencies To Manage Team Relationships

Learn to Manage Conflict

The real challenge here lies in managing conflict to the benefit of the team. That means valuing differences; viewing conflict as an opportunity to examine our assumptions, ideas and solutions. However, we should also realise that unresolved conflict can be destructive, eroding trust and confidence. In module 5 we will look at the management of conflict in detail.

Click here to view a video that explains how to understand the sources of conflict.

Communicating Change Effectively

In our age organisational change is the order of the day – changes take place rapidly and regularly. The leader him/herself should be adaptable to change. The leader must realise that change is an ongoing process and not a single even; change must first occur and be accepted by the leader before it can be communicated to the team; all individuals have different reactions to change – the leader must manage this.

Types of changes that could take place and needs to be communicated include:

• New businesses
• New processes
• New structures
• New roles
• New policies and procedures
• New objectives
• New strategies
• New technologies

When you communicate change to your team members, put yourself in their shoes. In your preparation, think of possible questions they might ask. Some universal questions most people ask when change occurs include:

• What’s in it for me?
• Why do we need to change?
• How will it affect my job?
• Why now?
• How will I adapt?
• Will I need new skills?
• How should I behave?
• Will I have new objectives?
• How will I learn the new skills?

Integrating a new team member into a team is one of the most frequent changes a leader will have to facilitate. The leader must realise that every time a new member is introduced into the team, it affects the team dynamics – the team will relive many of the growing pains experienced during the initial forming of the team. Steps to remember when welcoming a new member into the team include:

• Establish effective orientation process sets the foot for long term success,
• Create a checklist of key tasks, policies and practices, and
• Assign team members to work on each item on the checklist with the new team member.

Keeping Your Door Open

Freeing up your time for the facilitative role, does not take away your responsibility to assist in the emotional well being of the team members. In fact, team members might initially need more emotional support than usual. “Keeping your door open” refers to your availability as manager for team members to discuss both work-related and personal problems with you.

• If you want to engage hands, heads and hearts of employees, strong emotional support is essential.
• You need to develop good listening skills in order to understand problems adequately. You need to also decide if it is a problem that can be addressed internally or should it be referred to professional help.
• The most important part of resolving the problem is to empower employees to handle the problems themselves. There is a fine balance between abdicating the problem to the employee, and empowering him to solve the problem himself. Empowering the employee would mean that you will ensure that he/she has all the resources, including knowledge, help from others and physical resources to solve the problem before sending him off to do so. You will also check on a regular basis how he/she is doing, and if more assistance is needed.

Good listening skills include:

Give 100% attention: Prove you care by suspending all other activities.

Respond: Responses can be both verbal and nonverbal (nods, expressing interest) but must prove you received the message, and more importantly, prove it had an impact on you. Speak at approximately the same energy level as the other person... then they’ll know they really got through and don’t have to keep repeating.

Prove understanding: To say "I understand" is not enough. People need some sort of evidence or proof of understanding. Prove your understanding by occasionally restating the gist of their idea or by asking a question which proves you know the main idea. The important point is not to repeat what they’ve said to prove you were listening, but to prove you understand. The difference in these two intentions transmits remarkably different messages when you are communicating.

Prove respect: Prove you take other views seriously. It seldom helps to tell people, "I appreciate your position" or "I know how you feel." You have to prove it by being willing to communicate with others at their level of understanding and attitude. We do this naturally by adjusting our tone of vice, rate of speech and choice of words to show that we are trying to imagine being where they are at the moment.

Listening to and acknowledging other people may seem deceptively simple, but doing it well, particularly when disagreements arise, takes true talent. As with any skill, listening well takes plenty of practice.