As you know, working in a management position within care can be challenging. You're faced with not only your own responsibilities and experiences within the working environment but those of your team as well.
Just like you, your team will encounter other employees who are incompatible with their own personalities. When this happens, it can cause employees to avoid certain individuals or refuse to work with them.
Personality clashes are unavoidable, however that doesn't mean you can't do anything about them. Remember, it's important that you don't assume anything until the facts are either found by you or presented to you.
The most important step to take when finding out about a personality clash within the workplace is to see if any legislation has been broken, such as the Equality Act 2010, due to discrimination or workplace harassment. If this is not the case, it's now time to ask yourself the following questions.
Is the workplace becoming more stressful?
Are there any deeper issues at play?
Is there a specific task making your employee(s) act this way?
When taking steps to find the source of the issue make sure not to have any public confrontations, when speaking to your employees make sure you do this one at a time and in private.
Listen to everyone involved and not jumping to conclusions. Validate each employee involved, don't pick sides. By doing this your employees will feel safer to share their sides of the story to avoid any miscommunication and misunderstandings. You and your employees can find solutions correctly and quickly. When this is not done it creates a bad atmosphere and effects everyone in the workplace.
It's not about forcing everyone to get along but making sure that work is getting done and they are giving the best possible support. Not each personality clash that you face will require the same solutions therefore learning how to recognise, manage and accept each person's unique personality is the key to managing these personality clashes. This will not only benefit your staff team but you as well, improving both your problem-solving skills and leadership skills.
To prevent future personality clashes it's important that you are keeping track of any issue that is brought to your attention and what solutions were uses. You can also offer problem-solving techniques and communication techniques to further prevent future personality clashes.
