As a manager, you have plenty on your plate. Dealing with the conflict between your employees only adds more stress. However, whether you have two or 2,000 employees, you will inevitably have conflict at some point. A dispute can get out of hand quickly and be detrimental to the employees' careers and the company culture. Therefore, meeting with the employees is essential, as well as knowing how to mediate the meeting effectively. Remember the following critical details during a conflict resolution meeting.

Meet as a Group

One of the most critical parts of resolving conflict in the workplace is to meet your employees as a group rather than individually. Everyone directly affected by the issue should work together to fix it to suit everyone's needs as much as possible. Negotiations training experts understand that meeting individually with employees could appear as favoritism.

Know the Right Questions to Ask

Go into the meeting knowing a bit about the problem and list the most important questions to ask. Let your employees know why you are asking a specific question if your intent may not be clear.

Be Respectful

Mediating a meeting of opposing employees is not easy. Things can get out of control instantly if someone says the wrong thing. Therefore, go into the meeting with ground rules that everyone must be respectful.

Remain Calm and Empathize

Everyone in the meeting needs to stay calm in the discussion. Everyone has stressors, whether in their work or personal life, that can negatively contribute to bad attitudes in the office. However, anger and confrontation make finding a resolution challenging. As the mediator, try to remain positive and reassuring that everything will work out.

Actively Listen

Everyone wants to feel heard, especially when upset or something is wrong. As a mediator, it's essential to actively listen to your employees and let them see that you are genuinely engaged and not only hear what they are saying but understand their point of view. By giving simple nonverbal and verbal signals that you are paying attention, you can help diffuse your employees' frustration.

Try To Understand Each Perspective

A big part of active listening is making sure everyone in the meeting has a chance to speak without interruption. Listen for comparable details of the opposing viewpoints and try to get the employees to work on those as a starting point.

Brainstorm Resolutions with the Employees

Most of the time, there will probably be more than one way to resolve the situation. Every method will likely require compromise on all opposing sides, though. Brainstorming with your employees for creative solutions can help significantly. Someone may think of a solution that no one else has thought of that could work best for everyone.

Offer Several Solutions

Sometimes there will be no easy solutions to a problem among employees. However, it helps to determine more than one solution, if possible, and give your employees a choice of solutions. Offering options can help employees feel empowered to have some say in handling things instead of feeling like a decision was made for them.

Resolve the Problem and Move Forward

Try to keep the meeting moving forward as much as possible once the employees have stated the problem. It's easy for everyone to dwell on past occurrences and base the future on those happenings. However, a good mediator will know how to get everyone looking forward to a brighter future in which the company will solve the current problems, and everyone will be better for it.

Encourage Open Communication

Sometimes you can't avoid conflict; it's just a part of life. Creating a company culture that encourages open communication can go a long way in preventing a significant problem. Employees confident that they will always be heard and respected will be much happier and more productive, which will benefit everyone.

Remember these tips next time employees have a conflict. Everyone in the workplace will benefit from a robust conflict resolution strategy whenever a disagreement occurs.

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