Workplace Conflict Coaching

What is Workplace Conflict Coaching and why would you use it?

1. It provides an opportunity for confidential, impartial support for HR Professionals, Managers and Employees and other stakeholders including Board Members, Charity Trustees etc.

Why is this important?

People involved in a workplace dispute do not always feel safe to openly discuss and actively address their unresolved conflict because they fear confidentiality breaches, gossip, interventions by senior managers with vested interests in particular outcomes that may not work for them, and other concerns. This often leads to an adversarial stand-off or impasse, and subsequent suspension of employees or employees ceasing to attend work because the situation has become unmanageable. Once this stage has been reached, involvement of legal representatives or other advocates is almost considered the 'norm'.

While all employees have a right to representation, earlier involvement of effective conflict resolution support is usually missed out in the stages before this becomes necessary.

Workplace Conflict Coaching can be made available to ALL participants in a difficult situation at any stage in a workplace conflict to help them review the way they are dealing with their situation and receive support in creating more effective ways of responding to it.

Contact us on 020 3371 7507 or via our Enquiry Form if you would like to find out more about having or arranging Workplace Conflict Coaching. 

2. Workplace conflict coaching is not 'counselling'.

One of the difficulties of offering counselling to employees with whom there is a workplace difficulty is that it can suggest that the 'problem' is with the employee. This is often why such intervention is refused or is taken up simply to fulfill the policy requirements of a Disciplinary and Grievance Procedure and can be ineffective if there is no real 'buy in' by the person attending.

Of course there can be a strong belief that the problem is with the employee being 'sent' for counselling, but if the situation is becoming unmanageable, conflict coaching can also support the Manager or HR Professional in reviewing their own response to the situation so that they can learn better ways of responding in future situations.

Conflict Coaching has to be a voluntary process and has to be available for all participants involved in an unresolved conflict at work. In this way it is clear that it is an impartial support, taken up freely by those wishing to and those who do not are not 'judged' for not doing so.

3. Workplace Conflict Coaching continues for no more than 3 sessions.

Why is Conflict Coaching limited to a maximum of 3 sessions?

One of the purposes of Conflict Coaching is to support a client in creating new ways of responding to their situation which are more self-supportive and more effective in terms of resolving any conflict that exists between themselves and another work colleague.

Conflict Coaching can also help HR Professionals and Managers to more effectively deal with any conflict situation they are involved in between two or more people who they manage.

Having 'ongoing' Conflict Coaching can mean that sessions become ways of 'offloading' stress about a situation without leading to any change. At CAOS, our view is that this can risk simply entrenching the difficulty rather than help the client to create change. That change may simply mean creating a different perspective on their situation that works for them without needing any external 'action'.

The limit of 3 cases challenges the client to step out on their own to deal with what is ultimately their 'owned' difficulty - or - to actively decide that at present they do not wish to deal with the problem, perhaps because they have other priorities and the Conflict Coaching has helped them to see that. Whichever they choose, the limit to the number of sessions offered is 3.

A client can return for Conflict Coaching after 6 months, but it is important that there is always a clear end to any Conflict Coaching process - and so, any follow up sessions would also be limited to 3.

Some examples of the kinds of things Conflict Coaching can help with:

• Preparing yourself for a meeting with an employee, colleague or manager where you have concerns about how the meeting will go and how you will respond.
• Developing and improving your communication skills and ability to respond to conflict more effectively - as an opportunity rather than as a 'battle' or a frightening experience you'd rather avoid.
• Developing your management and leadership skills - using communication skills and responding to conflict in ways that support teamwork, effectiveness and greater productivity amongst those you work with, manage and lead.
• Understand more about yourself and how you presently manage difficult situations and how you can learn from that in order to improve for future such situations.
• A feeling of being bullied and developing more self-supporting, assertive ways of dealing with it. 
• Situations where you are accused of bullying - workplace conflict coaching provides an opportunity to reflect on different ways of fulfilling your role but without your actions being perceived as bullying.