Useful techniques for dealing with conflicting employees

The first thing the manager should ask himself is whether it is he who causes the conflict. This requires a reflective and mature attitude in order to see the situation as objectively as possible. In these cases, the change in the manager's attitude could have the same effect on the collaborator,"explains Tomás Álvarez, director of the Instituto de Psicología Empresarial (Institute of Business Psychology). And it is because, Herrero remembers,"the manager can cause the situation of disagreement due to prejudice, resistance to change or lack of global vision". Assuming it is an objective fact, we propose this action plan:

Face it as soon as possible
Many times the conflictive ones are because they can afford it. In other words, there is disdain on the part of managers when it comes to dealing with this type of situation because the conflicting professional achieves the results. However, it is important "to act and do it quickly, because silence is tantamount to implying that nothing happens," says expert Ovidio Peñalver. And for the rest of the team, the message is helpless.

From the hard facts
Collect all objective data so that you can provide real information and not personal appraisals or assessments: give facts, not opinions. And explain the effect your attitudes or actions have on your peers. You can use performance evaluations to do this.

With a good face-to-face conversation
In which you give the utmost confidentiality. Very often, the conflicting one does not know what it is and it is important to explain it to him, but always in private and in a respectful way.

Trying to discover the causes
When it's a social skills problem, the solution is to train them. When it's a problem of demotivation, you have to allow the person to constructively ventilate what happens to them,"recommends Peñalver.

With deadlines for change
It is important to establish options for improvement, how we want them to do it and set short goals ("let's see for a month how well you are doing with this"...) and to follow up intensively.

And when none of that works, you can opt for stronger measures:

Training and mentoring
Whether it's a lack of social skills or incompetence, we can opt for personalized training and mentoring.

Rotation of posts
When they have been in the same position for a long time, they don't always develop the right attitudes to take the business forward,"says expert Carlos Pérez, making it a good option, especially in the face of demotivation.

Variable remuneration based on results
It's a little bit about rewarding in a positive way, publicly recognising good behaviour, creating incentives that reward in a different way the contribution and effort. One mistake is to give everyone the same variables,"says Peñalver. Something on which Tomás Álvarez agrees:"The boss must focus on the productive collaborators".

Warning
It's something that has no monetary implication, but it does in its file and is known to the rest of the team, so it transmits that something is being done to solve the problem,"advises Peñalver. These behaviors offer an image of fairness and justice, making the team feel more motivated and committed,"explains Lourdes López, director and founder of Inicia RRHH.

Dismissal
It is always the last step and, in a way, it means a failure of the management because it has not been able to redirect the situation. In any case, it is preferable to dispense with this employee, even if there is no change in behaviour after several warnings.