Conflicts can arise in your personal or professional life due to various reasons and remain unresolved because of poor communication and wrong attitude. Use these simple tactics mentioned below to deal with conflicts at home or at work.
Improve your communication skills
To resolve a conflict effectively, you need to sharpen your communication skills. In most cases, conflicts remain unresolved only because of lack of proper communication between the two parties. Improving your communication skills begins with genuinely trying to understand the other personâs point of view. Give the other person a chance to put across his own opinions and ideas. Donât assume that you are fully aware of the other personâs problem and refrain from jumping to any conclusions. Listen to him patiently, attentively and calmly until he has finished speaking and try to understand his problem, rather than spending time thinking what your response should be. Ask questions that give you a detailed overview of the problem. Also, pay attention to the speakerâs body language, his facial expression and the tone of his voice as this will give you an indication of his emotional state and attitude.
Analyze the situation
Most of the times, a conflict arises because there are some unfulfilled expectations on either one or both sides involved in the conflict. If one of the parties did not get what they expected, a conflict situation is likely to arise. Take a step back and analyze the expectations of the other party and try to find out why the expectations were not met. Sometimes, conflicts arise because of differences in opinion or because people have different perspectives and they see or do things differently. This happens mostly if the two parties are from different backgrounds, companies and cultures. Here too, everyoneâs perception must be taken into account before dealing with the conflict.
Identifying and accepting mistakes
Now that you have analyzed the situation and taken into account the different expectations and perceptions of all parties involved, the next step is to identify the mistake which has given rise to the conflict. Once you pinpoint the cause of conflict, it becomes easier to rectify the situation. Donât be shy to admit your mistake. If you are wrong, admit it. Refusing to admit your mistake just because you donât want to admit failure will not help improve the situation; rather you will end up wasting everyoneâs time and may also contribute to escalating the conflict. Accepting that you made a mistake and that you were wrong takes a lot of courage and integrity. Moreover, once you accept your mistake, you will find it easier to resolve the conflict too.
Avoid, accommodate and compromise
You can choose to avoid a conflict situation altogether. Some people cannot stand confrontations and hate being in the midst of angry, frustrated people. Rather than face the situation, some people like to withdraw from the conflict. Another option is to be accommodating while resolving a conflict. Suppressing your own ideas, opinions and interests can also help you to resolve a conflict quickly. However, this is only for those people who have a âpeace at any priceâ attitude. Lastly, you can also resolve a conflict by reaching a compromise. Both parties can agree to give up some of their opinions and reach the best solution possible. However, in this case, both parties can be left feeling dissatisfied as both have to give up something in order to reach a solution.
Problem solving approach
This is the ideal way to end a conflict and is a win-win situation for both the parties involved in the conflict. By respecting everyoneâs values and needs, you will also be able to maintain and enhance your relationships. Through a problem solving approach, you are sure to reach a conclusion which is agreeable and fair to all. It involves acknowledging the problem first by scheduling a meeting between the conflicting parties and discussing the problem at hand. Next, everyoneâs point of view needs to be taken into account and different ideas and solutions need to be discussed thoroughly before agreeing on a solution. Through this strategy, both parties emerge as winners. Moreover, using the problem solving approach also means that you have adopted a healthy and positive way to deal with the conflict.
