Most conflict goes unrecognised until it starts affecting your staff team and organisation. Here’s how to spot conflict early, and deal with it before it escalates.

Things to look out for:

• Silence from usually vocal staff
• Repeated rota swaps between the same people
• Avoidance behaviours, such as, skipping handovers, dodging conversations

As a leader, your job isn’t to prevent all conflict, it’s to create an environment where issues can be raised early and handled fairly. This looks like:

• Making space for feedback: If your staff team only speaks up when they’re at their breaking point, it’s too late
• Demonstrating calm an direct communication: The tone you set is the tone your staff team will follow
• Acting quickly, but not reactively: Take time to understand the situation before stepping in

Dealing with conflict can be challenging, by the following the above advice you can get a head start.