Management

Preventing & managing conflicts between leader and employees

When challenges or conflicts arise in the relationship between the manager and the employee group

As a people manager, it can be difficult to handle when challenges or outright conflicts arise in the relationship between the manager and all or part of the employee group. It can also be difficult to get real help to successfully re-establish or build a following from your management colleagues because they are not present where the "battle is being fought" and they may themselves be part of the approach or thinking that has led to the challenges escalating. The HR manager's manager can often do little more than support from the sidelines and may be under pressure to "close the case" upwards and outwards...

The result is often a lack of knowledge, tools, methods and coaching that would put the HR manager, employees and organization on the right track.

Often there have been signs of dissatisfaction for a long time.

Dissatisfaction is typically articulated as, among other things:

  • Management doesn't know what we do, so we can't use our manager as a sounding board, and the manager's actions are not based on reality and our professional and well-being needs.
  • Management doesn't seem interested in how we're doing, we never get concrete feedback, and when we do, it's about how we need to do more or do something in a new way.
  • Management doesn't address the colleague conflicts, and no matter how many times you go to management with concerns and colleague complaints, nothing happens - at least that's not clear to us...
  • Management is conflict-averse and does nothing about the fact that some colleagues have a very harsh and unpleasant tone towards both colleagues and management.
  • Management has handled the personnel case against xx in a completely unacceptable manner and we have lost trust.

It is crucial that the HR manager and their colleagues have a common conflict management language and a common methodological frame of reference so that management is continuously able to work consciously preventively and at the same time be able to collaborate and manage conflict in a precise and constructive way when conflicts, opposition and crises arise.

We can help you - and you - with both management and prevention:

  • An evidence-based conflict language to support collaboration, sparring, prevention and management of conflicts.
  • Uncovering the real challenges.
  • To design an effective and implementable conflict strategy.
  • To assist with conflict resolution in the specific situation with the tools that are most suitable in the specific context.
"I was promoted to head a department with 55 employees. It became clear that one of the very experienced employees in particular had felt overlooked and had for a long time made negative comments about my promotion and questioned the objectivity and reasonableness of the promotion, for example when the employees met for social gatherings."
Anonymous
Manager in department with 55 employees in large public organization with +600 employees

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We serve throughout Denmark and within the European Union & North America.

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We serve throughout Denmark and within the European Union & North America.