Conflict Resolution
Learn about resolving personal conflicts.
We'll cover the following...
- Tell me about a time when you had a difficult working relationship with someone.
- Have you made a decision that was unpopular with some members of your team?
- Tell me about a time when you originally thought you were right but later realized your partner was right.
- Tell me about a time when you had a disagreement with the leadership about something.
- Tell me about a time when someone didn’t agree with your solution/design/proposal.
We’ve already covered conflict resolution in the people management section, which details how managers facilitate conflict resolution within their teams. In behavioral interviews, the focus is more on handling personal conflicts as a manager with other people.
EMs need to have the ability to understand diverse perspectives and listen to views from different people, and then make the decisions that cause the least harm. It’s important to be able to comprehend individual personalities and their communication styles to foster open and constructive discussions. In these discussions, you must remain calm and tactfully handle the situation without being too emotional. This means that you should always remain objective and not take these conflicts personally. This only happens when you have empathy for others and listen to all views in a positive manner.
Every individual is unique and has a different approach and perspective toward handling different situations. In cases of major conflicts, you need to identify the common grounds and then try to converge on a solution.
For example, you have a conflict with another manager on how to share an on call between the two teams. You both have different opinions about the action that should be taken, which creates a conflict situation. It will be most fruitful if you focus on the common objective you both want to achieve. The objective of both managers might be to improve the work-life balance of their employees or improve the customer experience for the users. The end result is the same. The approach differs for both managers.
You need to objectively discuss all available solutions and try to come up with an option that works for both teams. Sometimes, you may need to seek help from someone else, e.g., your manager or the other manager’s manager, or some senior IC who has the context of both teams' oncalls. Once you reach a decision, you should own it even if it was not your original idea. You must display a “Disagree and ...