There are a lot of different skills needed by project managers today. Not only do you need to be a great communicator, but you need to be honest, open, and an excellent decision-maker. In addition to this, the best project managers are effective when it comes to managing conflict within the project team, and with stakeholders and suppliers. With this in mind, in this post, we take a look at some of the different ways that you can improve your conflict management skills as a project manager.
Improve your ability to delegate effectively
One of the reasons why a lot of conflicts can occur in the workspace is because tasks are not being delegated effectively. If you simply delegate tasks to the first person available, rather than considering everyone’s skill sets, frustration will arise. This is because people will ultimately not be putting their skills to best use. People will feel that they can do certain jobs better, and this is how frustrations start to come about. Therefore, start off by addressing the manner in which you delegate tasks on your project team to see if improvements can be made here.
Address the real issue, rather than the symptom of conflict
This is an important step to follow when it comes to addressing conflict. You need to think about what is causing the conflict, rather than dealing with the arguments that are ongoing. Yes, you may be able to stop your team members from bickering for a few days, but you are only putting a plaster over the wound. Instead, you need to delve deeper and find out where this project issue is stemming from. By getting to the root cause, you can deal with it, so it does not keep recurring and causing issues.
Consider taking a project management course to enhance your conflict management skills
The final suggestion that we have for you is to take a project management training course. There are a lot of great training courses for project managers, and many of them will focus on conflict management. However, you will need to look at the curriculum and the specification of the course to make sure that this is the case. If you feel like you simply cannot get through to your team and that you struggle to manage conflicts, honing your skills by taking a course in this area of project management is one of the best things that you can do.
So there you have it: some great ideas and suggestions when it comes to boosting your conflict management skills as a project manager. Conflict is assured to be one thing that you are going to have to deal with when managing a project. After all, everyone has different ideas and different ways of doing things. However, if you want to achieve your project goals and ensure your efforts do not fall behind schedule, you are going to need to master the art of handling conflicts effectively. Follow the tips and advice that we have mentioned above and you should be able to notice a difference.