The hidden colours of team conflict
I always start coaching troubled teams by dispelling a myth regarding the root causes of conflict: teams are supposed to have some disagreement and emotional strife to stay functional. A good illustration was a Board I advised years ago, where the personality profiles of the members were near carbon copies. They had the great morale and poor productivity of a picnic club. Other good examples include the countless teams I met along my 16 years in East Asia, where members are only indirectly connected through a sort of corporate puppet theatre where one hand of the boss fights the other. Without conflicting ideas, productivity, progress and the team itself is an illusion.
The secret to your team’s success is not avoiding conflict, but finding the right amount, says among others bestselling author Patrick Lencioni. If people swing to the other extreme and resort to politics and punches, the reason is usually the flawed definition of goals, roles, processes or performance evaluation. Here, the diversity of members is secondary: a careless leader can squander even the best human resources. In such cases, bosses often ask consultants like me to ‘fix my people’ , while the problem is that people actually follow contradicting instructions, constantly stepping on each other’s toes and painfully hissing in the process. Quick-fixes like one-day conflict management trainings will not fix anything alone.
The good news is that the same forces that set people against each other can also help, if properly understood. For that, leaders first need to build awareness about our human instinct to blame personal conflict on the most visible traits of diversity. When people have open or hidden grudges, they prefer to blame the age, gender or profession of problematic colleagues rather than face the real issues and take some responsibility for improvement. The more diverse the team, the easier to it is to find such fig leafs. If multiple nationalities are represented, tribal warfare is almost inevitable under pressure.
But something about conflict presents leaders with an opportunity: it reveals people’s true nature. And that is a great start to untangle and solve team conflict. When things get tough, people experience resource shortage. When that happens, they set priorities. Individual differences in doing so can be infuriating, but also eloquent. Why do some people add pressure when the team is already stressed? Why do others fall silent when it is time to cooperate? Why do some become stubborn under time pressure? Such differences are brilliant clues to why conflict occurs, and how teams can leverage their diverse talents to turn strife into performance.
Start by observing where conflict usually erupts, and how it typically plays out. Each team has a number of ‘firestarters’ who explode quickly but move on after they get what they want, and those who bottle up first and take longer to calm down. When you look at resolutions, some are tangible solutions and others are social compromises, depending on the central characters of the story. These are clues to the ‘true colours’ of your people, as described in personality theories and assessment systems. Becoming aware of them allows customised conflict management solutions both on the individual and team level.
Assertive team members are the likeliest become the eye of a hurricane. Red-driven personalities believe in competition and will push until they get what they want. They also thrive in conflict and perform well under pressure. Don’t challenge such people head-on, first because you will lose, and second because they usually point at genuine shortcomings. Instead, aim at creating the right balance of forces. You can put them in charge, but make it clear that they must perform without breaking the furniture and alienating others. If properly channelled, ‘red’ personality energy becomes a turbo-charged engine for team performance.
Observe the difference between such task-driven energy and the ‘yellow’ people power. Both personality colours make people conflict-prone, but ‘yellow’ craves attention to ideas rather than commitment to results. Don’t silence such people, because with their attention-seeking talent for networking, they can start a mutiny behind your back. There are two constructive strategies available, depending on the value of the solutions they try to push through. You can acknowledge their effort and wait until the storm passes, as this trait usually comes with short attention span. Or you may assign such colleagues as idea leaders, motivators or innovators, roles they play well.
If these two colours are potential hand grenades, the other two are quietly ticking time bombs. ‘Green’ represents empathy and support, but when they witness unfair treatment, members driven by this factor can become resentful and turn into formidable advocates for justice. You cannot change or calm them with incentives, but you can invite them to make a difference. ‘Green’ dominated people excel in leading from behind and making others feel important, and do not crave credit. Often ignored, such members are the secret ingredient behind many outstanding teams.
‘Green’ is the least conflict-prone colour, while ‘blue’ is the trickiest. People driven by ‘blue’ have no idea how confrontational they can be, claiming that they only follow the rules. Consistent to the point of stubbornness, such team members can say ‘no’ with a grin of satisfaction. Like ‘red’, it’s a task-focused personality element, which is the key to managing related conflict. Combine such colleagues with goal-setting ‘red’ or visionary ‘yellow’, and provide them with clear criteria, and they will take their foot off the break. Once re-engaged, ‘blue’ talent can result in a team that excels in solving problem.
Leaders must understand and communicate that personality factors are much more likely to become the root of conflict than gender, age, nationality or position. Of course, the ability to do that depends on the leader’s character, and there are leadership styles for each colour and their combinations. When in doubt about your own personality, ask someone whose opinion you trust, even though you might not like what you hear. A graphic analysis of your team’s colours, or taking and discussing assessment, helps you turn awareness and skills into productive new habits.
I have witnessed mad conflict situations during the past two decades, including a manager giving a “him or me” ultimatum to his firm, another running a populous Twitter group dedicated to rubbishing his boss, and several where key members stopped talking to each other. Even a brief introduction to the four “NeuroColors”, in brain scientist Dr. Helen Fisher’s words, enables you to label such feuds with one of the four elements. Remember that talent diversity and healthy conflict are both conditions of excellent cooperation, but that leaders are responsible to channel the team’s energy in the right direction. Sadly, the more problems you solve, the less opportunity you will have to witness the ‘true colours’ of conflict — but you can always find another team in trouble.
Originally published at holch.biz
