Colleagues are not always people who would choose to spend time with each other if they didn’t have to. This means that there may well be times when you have members of your team who do not necessarily get along.
In smaller teams, such as you often find in dental practices, it can be even more likely to find personality clashes, as people work closely together which can give rise to tension and conflict.
Conflict between team members is unavoidable at some point, however, it needs tackling early on to avoid it escalating. A happy team is a productive one, and any personal tensions may be picked up by the patients, so this needs to be addressed as early as possible by practice management.
Below are some ideas about what you can do when two team members aren’t getting along:
- Begin informally by asking what they’ve done so far to resolve the situation and whether they need any help. You may have greater success if responsibility is given to the team members themselves. So, asking if they are happy to try and settle the matter themselves, with some advice from you, may be more effective than you simply taking charge from the start.
- Of course, this doesn’t always work. If it doesn’t then you need to speak to each person involved on their own first, before bringing them together later when you have a full picture of what the issue is. These conversations should take place face-to-face and should enable the person involved to feel like their view has been listened to and understood. As a manager, it may be worth learning about/skilling up on empathetic listening as it can be a vital skill in resolving conflict.
- When listening to each person’s point of view, try and acknowledge the problem by using positive re-wording. This means reflecting back to the person what they have said but it allows the parties to hear it in a slightly different way, while also feeling they have been understood.
- Be patient and don’t try to resolve the situation too quickly. Getting to the root cause of the issue may take time, and by trying to fix things quickly you may just end up placing a sticking plaster over it, rather than resolving it for the long-term.
- Allow the team members involved to feel they have safe space in which they can be open and honest. You can even have a dedicated area/person that staff know they can go to in order to air such issues, this can help nip any disharmony in the bud and prevent it from escalating.
There may be times when an issue can’t be resolved and in this instance you may need to see if you can adapt the way you work to ensure minimal contact between those involved.
However, this should be a last resort and every effort should be made to address and prevent conflicts as different personalities, if handled correctly, can strengthen a team by ensuring there is a wide mix of views, ideas and opinions.
