Morning all,
Up at the right time today as now I’m able to sit down and get a blog out.
It’s been a challenging couple of days as I’ve been away for (in the end 3 days total) and it’s been mainly with the lead-generation/sales team there have been challenges.
And it issues that are internal that then bleed into client work.
So dealing with internal conflict is something that is somewhat new to me.
But I guess it’s an expected part of growth when the manager steps away and then we discover there are squabbles amongst each other.
So with this in mind, I want to discuss the actions I have taken with this in mind –
The first thing that has happened is that I’ve heard the grievances of our team leader overall.
The second element of it is that I’ve heard the grievances from the new people that have come in at the same time.
In the same week that I went away – we’ve had 3 new people in Josh, Robbie, and Axel join the team.
Furthermore, Vasco has navigated his move to London, Kristel has been away and Gary and Jay have had to take some time off mid-week to figure out some personal stuff.
So in some senses, no wonder it’s been chaotic!
Not only have I heard grievances from those who spoke up – I’ve also solicited feedback from everyone…about everyone.
Being away for a couple of days entirely has been useful to see what happens with the team dynamic.
Based upon the feedback I’ve received there have been some big wins in terms of learning outcomes –
- We’re switching from Soundcloud links for calls to internal Crazy Call links for internal lead generation as this will save the team a significant amount of time – as no more need for call uploads
- We’ve established how raising questions in team meetings work using the hand-to-signal system explicitly
- We’ve identified how to add call recording links to bookings and notes that only come to us and not the end prospect
- Vasco will step in as a client relationship manager alongside Gary to help manage clients across the board
- Daily meetings will become 2x per week meetings (on a Mon and Fri)
- Any training can be done as needed and outside of these clients
- Meetings on Mon will be a summary of last week and the agenda for this week
- Fri meetings will be ‘the week in review’ and any group feedback
- Established a ‘complaints/conflict management hierarchy’ – i.e if two people have a problem – than they should try and resolve it together and if that doesn’t work THEN they should escalate it
I’ve also taken it upon myself to download a few books from Audible –
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I’m going to read all three to learn things about management that I’m as of yet unaware of (in the spirit of ‘I don’t know what I don’t know’).
I presume some of you came to this blog expecting a ‘step-by-step’ guide – and I’m not here specifically to give you that (or at least in the manner you expect).
But here are some solutions overall:
- Listen to all grievances
- Aim to identify the overall ‘win-win’ for everyone in the team
- If two people can’t get along – find an ‘amicable way of co-existing’ or simply separate them
- Take massive action – starting with the ‘wins’ you can identify quickly and easily
- For the longer-term challenges – think harder upon them (and likely) potential actions will appear
- Don’t be afraid to experiment with your choices
- Be extremely apologetic – if mistakes happen and you’re leading – you OWN the problem – it’s a leadership problem for you to solve and the failure lies with you
So…once I get through the books above I hope to offer even more insights into what changes you can make when you have conflict within a team!
