Conflict management in business relationship – Avoid these 5 mistakes!
Klick it under the carpet.
Conflicts are natural elements of every relationship and they are not necessarily negative but can have several positive implications such as triggering innovation and providing valuable ideas for the development of new methods and processes. Several times avoidance is applied as a conflict management strategy with the hope that the issue will vanish by itself. You know what, most often it does not, because conflicts are kind of like rings on water, starting with one issue, which gives rise to other issues if it is not handled in an appropriate way
Compromise it is.
It seems like compromise often is the most common way of conflict management in business. A compromise can be seen as a fast and ugly way of reaching a short-term solution that at least to some extent is negative for all parties involved. Instead, use a collaborative style of conflict management by focusing on finding a new solution that is not anchored in the past and that starts from identifying something that all parties agree on.
Blame it on the past.
It seems difficult to look ahead and apply a future-oriented approach to conflict management. Instead, it is more common to argue based on what has happened in the past. A big mistake is not to throw away all stamps on issues, situations, and individuals. Nothing and nobody will ever have the opportunity to change if you do not look for solutions based on present and future.
Just imagine.
Conflicts in business relationships involve individuals, as businesses cannot solve conflicts, but it is individuals who can. Individuals interpret. The interpretations are based on stimuli and signals from what we perceive. Interpretations are also related to our knowledge and experience. One of the conflict’s worst enemies is false interpretations. Facts should be the basis when findings solutions to conflicts, not blurred feelings, false interpretations or imaginations.
Shoot down ideas of others.
Facts can be identified through the right communication. Communication is the most common cause for conflicts, the topic of conflicts and it is also the absolutely best way of conflict management. In conflicts, you do not agree. It is annoying when somebody or another business do not share the opinion by you or your business, and you easily think about conflicts in win-lose terms and take the position of defending your opinion in order to win. That’s a wrong strategy. You need to listen in order to make the right interpretations, you need to build on each other’s ideas and arguments, be specific and clear and honor differing opinions.
Cause, after all, who is right after all. It takes two to tango.
