Managing Conflicts & Difficult Situations

Introduction

The management of conflicts and difficulties is one of the most misunderstood, time-consuming and poorly handled of leadership responsibilities. Most leaders, managers and supervisors regard ‘conflict’ as something negative. However, if it is used and managed well and occurs in high-trust cultures, conflict can be a powerful source of sustainable competitive advantage.

This Conflict Management training course entitled Managing Conflicts & Difficult Situations has been specifically designed to help leaders and managers to control and reduce negative conflict, build high-trust organizational cultures and deal proactively with difficult situations using highly effective techniques. The training course incorporates the latest research regarding Emotional Intelligence (EI), neuro-science, psychology, personality research and cutting-edge communication and influencing techniques.

This GLOMACS training course will highlight:

• Your natural personality preferences for thinking, feeling, speaking and behaving that may trigger conflict – or help to manage it
• The default conflict-management strategies people use – both helpful and unhelpful
• The nature, types and causes of conflict and difficulty – inter-personal and strategic
• Highly effective strategic and verbal techniques to address conflict and difficulties at both the individual and organizational level
• How to structure your meetings, presentations and communications to reduce negative conflict and encourage healthy debate

Objectives

This training course is designed to help you to:

• Identify the common types and sources of conflict in your workplace
• Appreciate your own and other’s personality profiles and preferred conflict approaches
• Understand the predictable emotional triggers and responses to conflict
• Differentiate between assertive, passive and aggressive behaviours
• Deal with difficult people and situations using a large range of powerful techniques

Methodology

This highly interactive and engaging Conflict Management training course will use a range of approaches to learning, including experiential group activities, individual exercises, mini-case studies, role plays, targeted videos and relevant discussions. A key part of the learning process is the sharing of different experiences as well as experimenting with novel – and sometimes challenging – practical techniques. A Personality / Social Styles profile will be used to give you an insight into how your own, and others, personality can contribute to creating or resolving conflicts. In addition, a Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode type profile will reveal your own default conflict-management strategy and how you can utilize this self-knowledge to your advantage.

Organisational Impact

By attending this training course and applying the insights, your organization will benefit from:

• Having a high-trust culture of openness, integrity and certainty
• Stronger working relationships, greater collaboration and discretionary effort
• Enhanced ability of employees to resolve their own problems and difficulties so avoiding extended disruptions
• Reduced workplace stress and tension that results in improved morale
• Constructive resolution of conflicts and challenges
• Higher levels of organizational productivity

Personal Impact

An AMA survey by Thomas & Schmidt found that managers spend between 18–26% of their time dealing with conflicts, that can amount to 10 hours of your valuable time per week! As a leader, manager or supervisor, this training course will help you to:

• Recognize the warning signs of conflict early on
• Address the issues quickly and effectively
• Increase the overall productivity of your team or department
• Focus on more important strategic and operational matters
• Master a skill set that’s essential in more senior roles
• Gain credibility in the eyes of senior management