Among the various responsibilities of Sales Leaders, one of the most crucial is to ensure that conflicts within their teams do not escalate into confrontations. That conflicts are restricted to healthy disagreements only, and not allowed to degenerate into nasty personality attacks. The moment conflicts cross the line, they destroy team spirit and camaraderie.
Conflicts are inevitable, so it's crucial to understand their causes and know how to manage them effectively.
A. Common causes of conflicts in sales teams:
1. Differential treatment by Sales Leaders between team members who achieve their targets and those who don’t.
2. Partiality in giving feedback - some get positive feedback (they can do no wrong) and some only negative (they can do no right).
3. Sales Leaders often practice selective listening, giving more attention to the inputs, opinions, and feedback from 'achievers' while ignoring those from 'strugglers'.
4. Ego clashes between high performers in the team as well as between team members & their Sales Leaders.
B. Ways to minimize conflicts:
1. Be fair to all team members, irrespective of their current performance as well as of your personal feelings towards each.
2. Do not 'divide & rule', nor encourage team members to carry tales to you about their colleagues.
3. Ensure all disputes are discussed and resolved in the presence of all parties involved, so everyone feels they had an equal opportunity to voice their opinions.
4. Deal with every team member as you would deal with your star performer.
5. Build a one-on-one equation with all, without exception. Effect way to pre-empt conflicts.
C. Guidelines to resolve conflicts successfully:
1. Educate team members to keep their conflicts work-related and constructive (focused on ideas, opinions, views, etc.) rather than personal and destructive (avoiding personality or character attacks).
2. Communicate to team members the criticality of identifying and resolving conflicts at early stages (perceived stage or felt stage), before it manifests into a full-blown fight and spirals out of control.
3. Ensure discussions to resolve conflicts are held in a non-threatening environment and that all conflicting parties get equal opportunity to present their side of the story.
4. Emphasize the importance of resolving conflicts to achieve a win-win outcome.
To quote Max Lucado - 'Conflict is inevitable but combat is optional'.
Let’s not fight over a simple disagreement.
Co-facilitated Sales Leadership Workshop for Area Sales Managers of CavinKare at Noida.
Comentários