Management of Competition in the Workplace | Psychology Today

On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln became the 16th President of the United States. Lincoln may have appointed partisans to lead the country during the impending crisis. Instead, he created a cabinet consisting of highly voiced, stubborn, and influential leaders.

Lincoln chose his former Republican rival for the three most important cabinet positions. He appointed Democrats to build bipartisan support. All six secretaries were educated and well-known, and had more government experience than Lincoln (Chervinsky, 2020; Goodwin, 2006).

In other words, President Lincoln made up him. leadership A team that creates conflict. In this post, we will explain why leaders constitute productive conflicts and how to do it well.

Boat Locker and Boot Ricker

Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist at Wharton School; Think again: the power to know what you don’t know (2021). He writes: “I have seen too many leaders protect themselves from conflicts of tasks, they coordinate boat lockers and listen to bootlickers. Fits You’ll become overconfident. They are stuck with existing strategic plans, which set them on a failed conflict course. ”

Many Today’s Psychology Readers are uncomfortable about emotional conflicts. They often call themselves “pleasing people.” They hate being around critical, skeptical, and challenging colleagues.

Professor Grant suggests that leaders set productive tones of conflict by distinguishing between intellectual and emotional disagreements. People can “please people” who want to avoid negative emotions while welcoming intense intellectual debates over ideas that benefit stakeholders.

Focus on “North Star”

When managing people in conflict in the workplace, remind participants to focus their discussion on what they call “North Stars.” Northstar is the organization’s mission in the case of nonprofits. In for-profit companies, Northstar is a strategy approved by the board of directors.

For example, B suggests new ways to deal with customer complaints. A runs a call center and opposes the idea by saying, “Why am I fix something when it’s not broken?” It’s natural for team members to focus on how ideas affect their work and teams in conflict. The role of a leader is to drive discussions around North Star. For example, “The board has made customer retention a strategic priority. Focus on how B’s ideas increase or decrease customer retention.”

Participants insist on structuring arguments in order terms

Contradictory perspectives are often surrounded by binary languages. The binary framework is black/white. For example, “Why are you trying to fix something that’s not broken?” It’s either something is broken or not. Framing responses in binary terms tends to polarize arguments.

Leaders can reduce polarization by requiring participants to assess their level of agreement on a scale of 0-10. “A, you say that B’s idea will solve problems that don’t exist in your opinion. Our North Star is increasing customer satisfaction. A.

“B, would you assign a number on how useful this idea can be to increase customer satisfaction on the same scale?”

How to pair and why

Professor Grant said one way to reduce emotional conflict during discussions is to ask leaders to focus on the “method.”

“When social scientists ask people why they support certain policies on tax, healthcare, or nuclear sanctions,[people]often doubled their convictions. Asking them to explain how these policies actually work will stimulate the rethinking cycle.”

For example, in the conflict between B and A, one focuses on why new ideas are important, while the other focuses on why new ideas are irrelevant. Instead of focusing on “why,” the leader can ask A. “If you have a customer satisfaction level of 7 and want to be 8, how will B’s idea achieve this goal and not be able to achieve it?”

Another option: “A, I say that customer retention is 7. How would you suggest getting the information you present to the board? Which other companies can you use as a reference point to measure customer retention? How can you get that information?”

Summary and conclusion

During the crisis, Abraham Lincoln formed the Cabinet for conflict rather than consensus. This is an important lesson for leaders as they build teams and boards.

The team is a forum where they discuss ideas to advance Northstar. Leaders should encourage participants to frame their opinions in order terms rather than binary. “Why” responses need to be discouraged, and “how” responses need to be encouraged.