Customer Reviews

Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader: How You and Your Organization Can Manage Conflict Effectively (J-B CCL (Center for Creative Leadership))

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My typical observations of conflict in the workplace when working with executive and managerial teams are that leaders typically ignore or avoid the conflict and hope it goes away, or they resort to intimidation, sabotage, and winning at all costs. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that authors Craig Runde and Tim Flanagan of the Leadership Development Institute (LDI) at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida offer a better way to leverage the value of constructive conflict and minimize the effects of destructive conflict dynamics.

In less than 200 pages, Runde and Flanagan easily and concisely share:

* Definitions of leadership, conflict, and conflict competency
* The process for conflict dynamics
* Importance of leader self-awareness and self-control
* Methods for preventing destructive responses to conflict
* Suggestions for enhancing constructive responses, and
* Building conflict competent organizations

I particularly enjoyed the Dynamic Conflict Model in Chapter 2 which provides an easy method for understanding the triggers (hot buttons) that incite conflict, the active and passive constructive or destructive responses we choose in response, whether conflict remains task or person-focused, and the resulting de-escalation or escalation of conflict respectively.

The main weakness in this book is the brevity of Chapter 6 on building conflict-competent organizations. Additional strategies and work-related case studies in multiple industries would be helpful to apply the theory to personal experience, particularly if the reader is a new supervisor or from a particular industry where some destructive responses may be the organizational norm (i.e., avoidance and yielding were highly prized in one of my client companies where overt conflict was viewed as contradictory to the values of customer service and teamwork).

In spite of this, Becoming a Conflict Competent Leaderis a very worthwhile read particularly in light of the escalated violence observed in workplace and school campuses and in communities.

Armchair Interviews recommends this book for business consultants, organizational leaders, or professors interested in building personal competence in conflict dynamics to achieve solid results.

It's a sad reality that conflict is displaying exponential growth around the globe. The authors have compiled an excellent resource that is grounded on significant experience. The work and experience shared in this text allow leaders to develop a constructive response to conflict, as opposed to avoiding conflict or escalating conflict.

The combination of stories, technique, and empirical data are packaged in such a way that the information is highly accessible. It has the credibility and depth one would expect from the Center for Creative Leadership. The resource list and bibliography also afford useful entree to more specialized tools to heighten the awareness and efficacy of leaders whatever their context.

Bill Lindberg
President
The Ash Grove Group
Santa Barbara, CA

After reading this book, I asked myself what the take-away was. Essentially, it is that everyone has at least one hot-button. It is natural and customary to have emotional reactions. The authors refer to a "refractory period when the emotion holds sway over our rationality." However, just because we're hardwired this way doesn't mean that the affects are acceptable or desirable. Outbursts and, what the authors refer to as cycles of retaliation, erode relationships and can infect whole organizations.
The authors courageously confront the reader with the notion that if people are "... really honest with themselves, during conflict many resort to tactics and behaviors designed to cause discomfort, delay progress, disrupt communication, or even inflict pain." However, there are alternatives: one can take a breath, find a new sense of control and choose a better way to communicate.
Essentially, they point to what it means to be emotionally mature. But that's the rub. Not every organization will be so lucky to be comprised of consistently mature, healthy adults, their professional skills notwithstanding. Thus, it is every leader's responsibility to recognize that managing conflict is as important as managing the more quantifiable aspects of business.
How to do this is not especially complex nor novel. As a matter of fact, they're the same skills as good parenting skills. For leaders who may have not conceptualized their roles to include this or, more honestly, would rather ignore conflict in the hopes that it will just go away, the book gives some valuable tips. It shows how to spot conflict and identify the ways in which it can show up -- not every conflict is a loud brawl and the insidious quiet ones can be just as if not more damaging. More importantly, it gives instruction on how leaders can and should deal with it constructively.

Conflict is a normal part of relationships, and thus its management is an essential leadership skill. Precipitated by an event and/or hot button, the initiated conflict is either escalated by `destructive' responses or de-escalated by `constructive' responses according to the Dynamic Conflict Model introduced by the authors. A conflict competent leader understands this model and the elements of conflict. By using self-awareness and self-control, and by understanding conflict styles and behaviors, the conflict competent leader is able to make a choice in their responses.

According to the authors, emotions play a key role in escalating conflict and there are five levels related to conflict situations:
* Level One: Differences
* Level Two: Misunderstandings
* Level Three: Disagreements
* Level Four: Discord
* Level Five: Polarization
One way to lessen emotionally driven destructive responses to conflict is to emphasize a positive emotional tone by managing effectively five core concerns:
* Appreciation - acknowledging the value of people
* Affiliation - developing connections with another person
* Autonomy - respecting the freedom of people to make decisions
* Status - recognizing the specialty of others
* Role - making sure that people have a clear, meaningful purpose
To promote constructive responses to conflict:
* Stay calm
* Encourage civility, fairness, and safety
* Use teaching and coaching
* Provide learning opportunities
* Embrace constructive conflict
The authors end the book by promoting the building of conflict competent organizations, including the adaptation of an Integrated Conflict Management System.

From an individual conflict management perspective, the book serves as a reasonable `how-to' guide for resolving a specific situation. From an organizational perspective, it misses the importance of building common purpose and shared goals as a performance foundation for conflict avoidance as well as conflict resolution. Dennis DeWilde, author of The Performance Connection

Fair warning to the reader! I work with the Conflict Dynamics Profile 360 assessment (CDP), which is the core of this book's approach to conflict. Having said that, I also want you to know that the reason I work with the CDP is because it provides a research-based behavioral approach to managing conflict.

The body of work in this book was developed in response to data showing that the most commonly low-rated behavior for people in leadership development programs was conflict management. Often the individual receiving such feedback had no idea what behaviors were leading to those low ratings. Conflict Dynamics clarifies the behaviors that escalate vs those that manage conflict, so that the reader can identify what behaviors to change.

Whereas other conflict management approaches focus on general styles toward conflict (i.e. competitive, collaborative, etc.) or individual personality differences that lead to conflict (nurturing vs. driving, for example), this book clearly describes behaviors, regardless of styles and individual differences. Filled with well written scenarios depicting the different conflict behaviors - both constructive and destructive - this shows readers how they may contribute to negative conflict situations and - more importantly - how they can move conflict situations to positive issue-focused resolution rather than destructive person-focused escalation.

No matter how this book is used, the reader will find that it contributes to growth as a leader in the real world.

If dealing with conflict effectively is important to your job and career, I recommend reading Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader. It provides a thorough treatment of the nature, sources, and dynamics of conflict, as well as the costly impact of negative behaviors and patterns for mishandling conflict. A large section of the book is devoted to a set of well researched constructive behaviors for engaging conflict effectively. The book is well written and laced with useful case illustrations.

The authors could have written another relatively dry and merely theoretical book on workplace conflict. Instead, they made it something all readers can all relate to whether we are practitioners interested in helping clients understand the effects of their behavior on others or organizational leaders interested in finding a resource that expertly guides them to greater success in their career. The examples are great! I'm sure I'll be giving many copies of this book to my clients.

I have used the materials in this excellent primer to help senior management understand the immense internal and external impacts that unresolved conflict have on their organizations. Identifying how people actually behave during conflicts (and can improve) is a major step forward for creating better workplaces.

The divisions of behavioral responses and the familiar and enlightening examples used, help everyone learn how to manage their constructive and destructive and active and passive actions. The overall framework serves both diagnostic and monitoring functions for determining what needs to be done to improve workplace dynamics. The inclusion of hot buttons is ingenious as it allows everyone to see their own vulnerable areas and to prepare for more thoughtful responses.

I'm recommending this superb resource to all my workplace clients. Some have been using the Conflict Dynamics Profiles to help them and their employees learn to discuss and manage the differences that too often lead to unresolved conflicts as well as to poor business practices.

This book is an excellent resource for coaches and other performance management personnel who want to help leaders become more aware of their constructive and destructive responses to conflict and who also want to help them strengthen their skills in responding to conflict. I have been using this book, along with a companion online resource, the Conflict Dynamics Profile-Individual (CDP-I), to help my coaching clients learn about their responses to conflict and also to help them work with others to develop healthier responses to conflict. It is working wonders with my clients in managing both personal and workplace conflict! Highly recommended!

Camille Harris, LCSW
Professional Coach
LaMountain & Associates
www.lamountaincoaching.com

This book is great for leaders at any level, from CEOs to project managers to teachers. I found it easy to read and full of practical examples that bring the lessons to life. Flanagan and Runde did a great job of showing how conflict can actually be positive within organizations. Breaking down conflict into constructive and destructive behaviors, levels of intensity, and hot buttons makes what is often an extremely uncomfortable aspect of leadership a little more manageable. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is, has been, or will be a leader!