Conflict at work is natural and can be constructive. Change, especially the rapid changes we’ve all experienced in the past few months, makes conflict more likely because people are feeling less secure and more anxious in general.
Even with the best intentions tension and conflict can arise, and working remotely can cause those tensions to fester or get swept under the carpet.
On any team it’s unlikely that everyone will always agree and share the same goals. This is a good thing. Too much agreement and too little argument might mean you’ve got group think, or that your team doesn’t feel comfortable raising issues.
However, too much conflict and disagreement can make the working environment unpleasant and demoralising. As a manager you need to know how to bring tensions and disagreements out in the open in a supportive and constructive way.
What causes conflict in remote teams, and what can managers do about it? Our trainers David Cotton and Emma Walker Cotton have put together this list of tips on how to deal with common causes of conflict at work.
Inadequate Communication – we’re all relying on email and text much more than we would in a normal office environment. A hurriedly typed email may be read as brusque and insensitive and cause damage to working relationships already made fragile by isolation. Make sure you pick up the phone from time to time or schedule online one to ones with your staff regularly to make sure you know how they are really feeling.
Lack of Clarity around roles and reponsibilities - When people are working remotely from home it may not be clear who is doing what and there may be accusations that some are taking an unfair share of the workload and carrying passengers. Constant communication - perhaps slight over-communication - from the manager will help team members to understand how work is allocated.
Feeling isolated and cut off from the the team – feeling like you belong to a team and are doing something purposeful together is extremely important. Often we don’t realise how crucial this intangible sense of being part of something is to us, and it’s essential to maintaining the cooperation required to keep an effective team together. If people feel like they don’t belong any more, they will care less about their work and about helping others to suceed, and this can lead to conflict and resentment. Managers need to get to know their team members as people, invest time in finding out what motivates each one of them, and ensure that you are giving them feedback that validates their contribution to the team.
Lack of Trust – teams where trust is high will be able to weather conflict, because they know there is a fundamental understanding and respect for everyone. Investing time as a team to talk about shared values and building relationships that allow you to give each other frank and open feedback will pay dividends. Teams where people can talk about any frustrations they are having with each other as soon as issues arise will not tackle conflict before it becomes a problem.
Our Managing Remote Teams half day course provides innovative tips on how to build a self-managing high trust team.