Leadership Conflict: Understanding, Managing, and Resolving Workplace Disputes

Conflict is a part of life, and an inevitable part of leadership and organisational dynamics. Conflict – when managed well – can be positive. In reality however, conflict is often a negative experience for all parties, and has wide-reaching effects.

What Is Conflict?

Conflict arises when individuals or groups experience incompatible goals, values, or interests. It can show up as disagreements over tasks, relationships, or even fundamental principles. In leadership settings, conflict is particularly prevalent due to differing communication styles, personality clashes, or competition for resources.

Conflict can be positive. The different viewpoints can be harnessed constructively to lead to innovation, better decision-making, and stronger relationships. Spirited debates can foster creativity and collaboration when handled with mutual respect. In fact, within leadership the concept of carefully considering all views in a balanced and fair way helps to ensure that no stone is left unturned during decision making.

More commonly, conflict is displayed negatively. Negative conflict shows up when differences and disagreements are rooted in blame, or defensiveness. These show up as heated arguments that become personalised, or even avoidance and passive-aggressive behaviour, and are often caused by individuals ‘digging in’ to their viewpoint and being unable, or willing, to see someone else’s point of view.

The Costs of Conflict

The cost of conflict to companies is well documented. The CIPD identified that work conflict costs every company around 350 management days per year. In some instances, this figure can equate to a financial cost of around £1000 per employee, per year. When you factor in the additional impact of work-related stress due to conflict, reduced productivity, and even directly linked sickness absence, it's estimated that 370 million days are lost per year due to conflict and behaviour.

The costs to organisations are therefore significant – productivity reduces, especially at management level who on average spend around 6 hours per week dealing with conflicts.

And let’s not forget the people impact. In June 2024, the CIPD recognised that 25% (that’s 8 million) UK employees had experienced conflict in the past 12 months.

Conflict drives mistrust and can result in feelings of anxiety, suspicion, and paranoia. As many as 55% of employees report that conflict has resulted in anxiety and/or depression. Conflict isolates, reduces inclusivity, and lowers morale. Prolonged conflict leads to poor decision-making, and a challenging environment to navigate.

Common Causes of Conflict

Whilst there are many factors within individual conflicts, there are five common, underlying causes:

1.      Communication issues: misunderstandings account for 39% of workplace conflicts.

2.      Role ambiguity: unclear responsibilities create confusion and power struggles.

3.      Insufficient resources: competition for time, money, or recognition fuels disputes, within teams and across departments.

4.      Leadership styles: differing approaches to management and inconsistency in approaches can clash with team dynamics.

5.      Personality clashes: diverse temperaments may lead to friction if not well understood.

What is important to recognise is that in none of these five top causes of conflict is anyone setting out to deliberately undermine, argue or humiliate another party – whilst there are instances of this behaviour, it is rarely the starting point of a conflict. When you boil it down, the initial trigger for conflict tends to be that the intention of the individual was different from the outcome achieved, due to one of the above.

Tips for Avoiding Negative Conflict

• Foster clear communication. Leaders should ensure that transparent, honest communication channels are in place, and used. Clear language and unambiguous, actionable feedback will reduce misunderstandings. Communication includes receiving information, not just giving – so making sure active listening is a skill deployed by all team members is critical.

• Define roles clearly. Clarify expectations to eliminate ambiguity. Clear boundaries around roles and responsibilities support teams to work together and avoid unnecessary competition.

• Promote inclusivity. Encourage respect for diverse ideas and personalities within teams. Exploration of all avenues demonstrates that differences are valued and therefore minimise the likelihood of resentment or judgment.

• Align Goals. Ensure individual objectives are consistent with organisational priorities, reducing us and them mentalities in relation to resources and effort

• Develop Emotional Intelligence. Leaders should model empathy and active listening. There is a difference between hearing and listening, and the majority of people don’t need to be agreed with – they need to be heard.

Resolving Conflict Effectively

As stated, the majority of conflict is borne out of misunderstanding and as such, the key with conflict is to resolve that issue. Some key principles for conflict resolution:

1.      Engage a collaborative approach, involving all parties in finding a mutually beneficial solution through open dialogue.

2.      Active listening to understand the root causes, by giving everyone a chance to express their views respectfully. Using open questions to uncover the issue behind the emotion is critical, and it may be that individual parties need to explore their own reasons independently before engaging with one another.

3.      Focus on interests over positions, shifting discussions from rigid stances to shared goals. Finding common ground is critical – and the reality is there will be lots of common ground in terms of intentions.

4.      Encourage parties to consider the positives they each bring to the relationship, supporting them to shift from an entrenched position to one that considers the benefits of moving to a more positive relationship.

5.      Mediation can be essential. Involve a neutral third party if conflicts escalate beyond internal resolution.

Coaching for Conflict Resolution

There are many ways in which coaching supports conflict resolution. Working with a coach provides individuals with the tools and confidence to navigate complex interpersonal dynamics effectively. Coaching around conflict scenarios helps to foster self-awareness, emotional regulation, and constructive communication skills, as well as supporting individuals to consider alternative causes, beyond their assumptions.

Through non-judgmental questions and a safe space, coaching supports individuals to consider all different views and opinions, which in turn leads to a stronger desire to resolve the situation – as well as developing an approach to take that suits the styles and preferences of both parties. Perhaps most importantly, coaching through conflict helps to build resilience in handling disputes, and conflict triggers, and improve communication – thus reducing the likelihood of future conflict.

Conclusion

While conflict is unavoidable, it doesn’t have to be detrimental. By understanding the common causes and adopting proactive strategies for management and resolution, leaders can transform conflict into growth. Coaching plays a pivotal role in equipping leaders with the mindset and skills needed to foster a culture where positive conflict thrives—and where negative conflict is swiftly addressed.