Resolving conflict in high-performing teams

If you are leading a team of high-performing individuals, your team is in the company of those that grace the pages of Harvard Business Review as the epitome of recruiting success. These high-functioning, high-achieving teams drive organizations’ innovation and success. 

On a team of high performers passionate about achieving goals, there are often strong opinions that differ on how to get there. Adding to the challenge, balancing team needs with high-performing team members’ drives for success can be particularly delicate. This is the nature of a high-performance team. 

Conflict is leadership’s signal towards areas of team optimization. Leaders should expect, manage, and consider conflict as an integral part of team management and growth. When proactively addressed, conflict resolution can be an opportunity to forge deeper relationships and greater success within a high-performance team. 

Let’s look at the nature of conflict, some strategies for working through conflict with a high-performing team, and the one thing your team should never do when faced with team disagreements.

How conflict occurs

In the Journal of Applied Psychology, De Dreu and Weingart (2003) defined two sources of conflict in teams: 

• Task-related disputes. Centered around the distribution of resources, procedures, policies, and interpretation of facts related to projects at hand, task-related disputes are easily leveraged by leaders to grow team cohesion.
• Relationship or interpersonal differences. Relationship conflict tends to harm team member satisfaction and overall performance and can sometimes be more challenging to manage. 

Conflict can arise from real differences or perceived differences; sometimes conflict arises in teams based on perceptions not even based on reality.  

Cultivating healthy conflict

Conflict doesn’t have to be detrimental. In teams where communication is proactively managed, conflict can be healthy. There are some keys for leaders managing highly performant teams including: 

• Establish effective communication before conflict arises. Conflict and differing opinions can often challenge high performers to see problems with fresh perspectives, but those communication lines need to be open, sacred, and protected. 
• Protect individual communication channels. Ensure that team members will not experience negative consequences for expressing dissent. 
• Assure meaningful feedback. Make sure team members can speak with confidence knowing their viewpoints have meaning to the overall goals of the team and organization.

When leaders protect team member communication, conflict is a healthy part of team dynamics. As team members resolve conflict, they can feel that their contribution is valued, and team cohesiveness thrives. 

Proactive leaders create resilient teams

On teams where conflict is proactively managed, a baseline resiliency develops. This environment leads to productive teams where:

• Grievances clear quickly. When teams expect and plan for conflict resolution, grievances can be addressed and cleared before they escalate.  
• Greater transparency. A conflict-positive culture where members feel safe to take risks and voice their opinions without fear of negative consequences. Team members learn through experience that it’s okay to be wrong as long as leadership and co-workers respect their motivations for project success.
• Conflicts become less threatening. Healthy discussions become more of a pathway to collective improvement. The more a team creates a history of conflict resolution, future conflicts are not feared and avoided. 
• Conflict becomes an opportunity for growth and learning. Teams can consider new perspectives when conflict is proactively managed. 
• Greater trust and security on teams. Trust in other team members as well as leadership grows when there are open lines of communication. 
• Clearer communication. Greater trust, transparency, and support lead to clearer communication as team members no longer fear reprisals for speaking up about disagreements or differing opinions. 
• Better problem solving. When problems arise, fresh perspectives are the key to innovative solutions. Solutions to complex problems become clearer when communication is open and conflict isn’t feared. 
• Greater innovation. When team members feel comfortable communicating openly, they are more likely to collaborate, leading to better brainstorming and fresh ideas. 
• Better engagement. Teams that openly communicate tend to have higher levels of engagement and motivation. When team members feel heard and valued, they’re more inclined to contribute actively and think creatively.

As Bass (1990) highlights in his work on transformational leadership, leaders who are deeply connected with their teams can effectively engage in open dialogues, encouraging team members to constructively voice concerns or disagreements. This proactive approach not only prevents conflicts from escalating but also fosters a culture of transparency and trust, which is essential for the long-term health and success of the team.

The risks of unmanaged conflict

When high-performing teams do not address conflict, minor disagreements can grow to pose serious problems. Unmanaged conflict can lead to:

• Personal animosity. Conflict moves from professional disagreement to personal antagonism that can derail an entire team. 
• Undermined team cohesion. Team members experiencing conflict or fearing the experience of conflict may avoid communicating with others or contributing ideas. 
• Lack of trust. When team members do not manage conflict, trust between them erodes. When conflict is not proactively addressed by leadership, team members might lose trust that leadership values the team’s success.
• Destroyed morale. A work environment underscored by conflict makes the environment toxic, stifling creativity to avoid further conflict.  
• Decreased productivity. Conflict reduces inspired action and creativity, lessening team productivity across the board. 
• Project delays or failures. Distracted team members hurt the team’s mission by delaying timelines.
• Groupthink.  Fear of speaking up can create groupthink, where team members conform to a majority opinion to avoid conflict and maintain peace rather than move forward. 

This breakdown in interpersonal relationships is particularly detrimental in high-performing teams where collaboration and synergy are essential. As Jehn (1995) observed, relationship conflicts negatively impact teams, leading to a toxic work environment that stifles creativity and hinders effective communication.

Understanding your people

The ability of leaders to manage conflict within their teams depends on understanding each team member’s personality, motivations, and work style. This depth of knowledge is crucial because conflict management is rarely a one-size-fits-all scenario. It requires a nuanced approach tailored to the unique dynamics of the team. 

The Motivation Code assessment is an invaluable tool to better understand team members and team dynamics. The more leaders know their teams, the more likely they are to resolve conflict. 

Using assessment results in planning for conflict management is particularly effective because it acknowledges and respects the diverse perspectives and needs within a team. 

When leaders are familiar with their team members, they can better identify the root causes of conflicts. By recognizing these underlying factors, leaders can address conflicts more with longer-lasting solutions that bolster team dynamics.

Preventing potential conflict

When you understand your team members’ Motivational Dimensions, resolving conflict is easier, as they can point to areas where conflict is most likely to occur. 

Here are some areas where team members might find conflict: Establishing balance, intentional compromise, cooperation, and focus on the end goal where possible. 

Achiever

Achievers love a bit of healthy competition, but don’t let competition disrupt the team dynamics and thwart overall progress. Compromise to systems, processes, and procedures where needed can help.

Driver

Drivers can often get ahead of others while pushing their high expectations, creating an anxious culture. Adding Driver tasks that encourage the entire team can level the playing field and encourage the entire team to achieve more.

Influencer

Influencers pursue lofty goals, but can often chase their own agendas. Ensuring they are focused on team goals and encouraging everyone to move forward toward objectives can be effective.

Learner

Learners might stay stuck in learning mode, inadvertently frustrating other high performers looking for quick wins. Learners might not get full credit for their contribution which can often be lower profile, yet still impactful.

Optimizer

Optimizers are in it for the long haul and develop high-performance systems to ensure success is repeatable. Others might feel slowed by this long-range thinking when aiming for quick success.

Orchestrator

Orchestrators can create amazing systems, but other team members might feel that their adherence to procedures hinders team objectives.

Relator

Relators are in it for relationships and team fulfillment. They can be a tremendous asset for focused conflict resolution, however. Tasking Relators with ensuring team fulfillment can contribute to that conflict-positive culture and team success.

Visionary

Without some discipline, Visionaries can chase lots of possibilities, maybe too many. Allow Visionaries to bring their imaginative, creative, inspirational, and innovative work and balance with others’ practical ideas on how to achieve these big goals.

If you’re dealing with conflict now

It’s never too late to establish a conflict-positive environment for your team. Start with the following steps:

1. Get to know your team. Establish 1:1 meetings to understand your team members’ perspectives and motivations. Ensure that anything goes in your conversations, and begin to break down the perceived barriers to effective communication. As leaders establish clear lines of communication, trust between leadership and team members grows. 
2. Leverage assessments. Use the Motivation Code assessment to get to know your team members’ motivations. When you understand what drives your team members, you can ensure they feel heard and understood while considering their Motivational Dimensions. 
3. Identify the root causes of conflict. Is the conflict around tasks or interpersonal? Is this conflict recent or indicative of greater discord? 
4. Find win-win solutions for task conflicts. If conflict is task-associated, get input from all team members on their recommended steps toward resolution. Brainstorm effective solutions that work for all team members. If there is still disagreement, where can there be compromise? Where is compromise not possible? Even if there is still a small fraction of unhappy team members, ask what it would take to resolve each. 
5. Ask questions and encourage empathy with interpersonal conflict. There are opportunities for individual and personal growth. Uncover these by asking the right questions. Sometimes, people only need to feel heard. Sometimes coaching on behavioral issues can help. When there is an impasse, more communication can always help. 

The one thing you mustn’t do

There’s one thing leaders must never do when teams experience conflict: ignore it. Conflict avoidance creates further conflict. Stay attuned to your team and look for opportunities to use conflict for greater growth. But never avoid conflict or hope it will resolve itself. 

As a leader, proactively jump in to find resolution, leveraging your team’s strengths and individual team member motivations. Unsure of what those are? Motivation Code assessment can help.