“When we avoid difficult conversations, we trade short-term discomfort for long-term dysfunction.” 

— Peter Bromberg, organizational development consultant

Dysfunction in the executive suite can doom an organization. Many senior leaders, fearful of conflict among those closest to them, strive for artificial harmony — inadvertently squelching debate on issues critical to the company’s strategic growth and its capacity for innovation. 

Experts in workplace dynamics advise leaders to reframe conflict — not as a negative to be avoided, but as an opportunity to stimulate innovation.

“Conflict is productive,” says Patrick Lencioni, author of “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.”

Research links higher workplace engagement to the ability to speak one’s mind at work. In their study, “The State of Miscommunication,” sponsored by Fierce Conversations and Quantum Workplace, the authors found that, in surveying 1,300 people, those who said they always or almost always speak their minds report being more engaged at work than those who said they never or almost never did so.

Building skills

So, let’s say a leader knows that he/she should be embracing conflict and leveraging it productively. But the leader may lack the skills and the necessary emotional control. 

Gerry Pierce, VP of innovation at Smart Recipe Consulting LLC in Rochester and former senior VP of human resources at Wegmans Food Markets Inc., emphasizes the value of facilitation skills for leaders whose role requires them to productively manage conflict and unlock the door to innovation.

Executive coaching and well-chosen training programs, Pierce says, can strengthen a leader’s facilitation skills. At the highest levels of an organization, he notes, where the stakes are high and the egos are large, respectful listening is particularly crucial.

He describes a scenario where conflict erupts in a meeting: An energized team member dominates the discussion with strong opinions, threatening to derail the meeting. To redirect the outspoken person’s energy, Pierce advises his clients to adapt the skill of mirroring, popularized by Stephen R. Covey and others. He suggests respectfully interrupting the dominant person and reflecting his words back to him: “If I understand you correctly, you believe we’re wasting time by pursuing X.” He may then ask others in the room to comment on the outspoken person’s points. 

Once the outspoken person is heard, Pierce says, both he and the group tend to relax. By deftly managing the dominant speaker, the facilitator not only brings the conversation back onto a constructive track, but he/she also creates an opening for the quieter people around the table to offer opinions.

In workplace cultures where consensus is valued, the meeting leader may hear out everyone at the table and announce a decision on the spot, explaining her rationale and insisting that the decision be supported wholeheartedly. Such approaches can work well in organizations where trust, respect and patience are valued. 

But not all leaders aim for a consensus model.

Alternatives to consensus building

“Consensus is good, but it’s too slow,” says Christophe Weber, CEO of Takeda Pharmaceutical, “and sometimes you end up with the lowest common denominator.” Weber is quoted in a Harvard Business Review article titled, “What Sets Successful CEOs Apart,” summarizing research on CEO effectiveness. 

“When tackling contentious issues, leaders who are good at engagement give everyone a voice but not a vote,” report researchers Elena Lytkina Botelho, Kim Rosenkotter Powell, Stephen Kincaid, and Dina Wang. 

They contend that “engaging for impact” — anticipating conflict and harnessing its transformative value — is crucial to CEO success.

The researchers cite other models of CEO success, such as Madeline Bell, CEO of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“With any big decision,” they quote Bell as saying, “I create a stakeholder map of the key people who need to be on board. I identify the detractors and their concerns, and then I think about how I can take the energy they might put into resistance and channel it into something positive.” 

While Bell says she assures stakeholders that their input is important to the process, “(the leader has) to be clear that you’re making the call and you expect them on board.”

Beware ulterior motives

A note of caution: Not all conflict is a rich resource just waiting to be tapped. Particularly in cultures where trust is low, certain conflict can be dangerous.

Patrick Lencioni writes: “(In some teams,) arguments are often destructive because they are laced with politics, pride and competition, rather than humble pursuit of truth. When people who don’t trust one another engage in passionate debate, they aren’t usually listening to the other person’s ideas and then reconsidering their point of view; they’re figuring out how to manipulate the conversation to get what they want.”

Apple founder Steve Jobs, too, understood the value of rooting out ulterior motives and potential sabotage. “It’s OK to spend a lot of time arguing about which route to take to San Francisco when everyone wants to end up there. But a lot of time gets wasted in such arguments if one person wants to go to San Francisco and another secretly wants to go to San Diego,” he said.

Building a ‘voice-empowered culture’

In reporting on the Fierce/Quantum research on workplace engagement, Dana Wilkie of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) provides leaders with some guidance for creating a “voice-empowered culture”:

• Build a foundation of trust where leaders communicate transparently, remain accessible, and exercise consistency in dealing with employees and other leaders.

• Create an environment of safety that requires leaders monitor the ways they react to feedback and ideas, guarding against retaliation or shutting down.

• Welcome and support ideas, particularly those that are not yet well developed. 

• Show vulnerability by inviting others to critique the leader’s early ideas, and admitting to being unsure or wrong. 

• Explain how the team’s input is being used.

Conclusion

The best leaders are good listeners, according to Pierce, and know how to manage conflict with a process that builds trust and respect. It is important for everyone on the team to have an opportunity to be heard he says, because healthy conflict stimulates innovation.             

Candace Walters is president of HR Works, Inc., a human-resource management outsourcing and consulting firm with offices in Rochester and Syracuse, serving clients throughout the U.S. 

Behind their assertions of self-confidence and annoying arrogance is an undeniable fact: It takes guts to get the endless unknowns and oddities of customers. But that’s what salespeople do.

At the end of the day, it isn’t how many calls you make, appointments you go on, or proposals you prepare. It’s how much revenue you chalk-up. Some sales are better than others, but every sale counts. After losing a sale, how many times have you said, “I can’t believe it; I was sure I had that one.”

No one sets out to lose a sale. But it happens. That’s why recognizing the danger signals can help avoid unnecessary losses. Here they are:

Deciding who will buy and who won’t 

No matter what they may say, no one dislikes disappointment more than salespeople. So, they come up with the clever little trick to avoid it by claiming they can tell if a customer is going to buy or not. Having been through it so many times, they have a sense of what’s going to happen.

This thought process helps avoid the downer of disappointment. You knew the outcome, so just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and move on. It also erases the need to analyze what you could have done differently to get the sale.

Assuming the sale is a sure thing 

Because selling is a tough game, salespeople are prone to believe that having “the right attitude” they can influence the outcome of a sale. If they think the sale will go their way, it will. 

Unfortunately, this approach keeps the focus on the salesperson and takes it away from the customer. To try to do both at the same time doesn’t work, as Stanford University has shown with multi-tasking research. In fact, they found that the human brain is built to do one thing at a time. 

This suggests that salespeople are at a disadvantage if they try to keep the focus on both themselves and the customer at the same time. It’s counterproductive if they try, and it may send a signal to the prospect that the salesperson “isn’t all there,” which is exactly the case.

Playing the “friend game” 

The salesperson’s mission is to present a compelling case for winning the order, not to make a friend or to feign friendship just to get the sale. Customers can see through such thinly veiled tricks. They’ve seen it and they don’t like being used.

More than anything, the goal is to be viewed as competent. Impress the customer by being laser-focused on the customer so that you thoroughly understand the business and the issues and can differentiate yourself from the competition. 

If a friendship should occur, it will be after you get the account, not because of it.

Quitting too soon 

For serious salespeople, the “Urgent” sign is lit up all the time. Get in, get the order, and get out. And it’s understandable and even commendable because that’s what gets the job done. But not always.

There are times when you can be too sure of yourself and overly confident. After giving it your best effort, you decide the prospect can’t make a decision or isn’t serious. Then, three months later you find out that the person bought from a competitor. 

Some prospects put salespeople to the test, checking them out to see if they want the business.

Failing to ask discovery questions 

Some salespeople can’t wait to get to the good stuff — their sales pitch. They’ve been through the drill so many times they find it distracting and a waste of time getting bogged down in asking a lot of discovery questions. 

The purpose of discovery questions is not just to qualify prospects, but to engage them so they are talking about what’s important to them — their business. There are many possibilities, but here are four examples of discovery questions:

• Why did you agree to meet with me? 

• What sets you apart from your competitors?

• Are there changes going on that affect your business?

• What problem are you trying to solve?

All of which is to get the right person (the customer) talking and the right person (the salesperson) listening, instead of the other way around. If you’re listening, you’re learning. When you do that well, you will know what to do to make a winning presentation.

Dispensing solutions 

When customers have a problem, they are primed to look for quick, easy, low-cost solutions. You might call them “low-hanging fruit” or, more appropriately, “easy prey.” They’re in hot water and they want to get out. This is why salespeople armed with appetizing and tasty solutions get their attention. 

Unfortunately, instant-fix solutions are like pills we pop to take away the pain. Customers want to believe they work, but, as we so quickly discover, they only disguise it and it doesn’t take long before it’s back. Yet, this is the sales tactic far too many salespeople utilize throughout their careers and why they have so few repeat customers and referrals.

If there’s a single objective in sales, it’s to empower customers to make decisions that are in their best interest, decisions that result in satisfaction. 

Giving customers what they say they want

“What’s wrong with that? That’s why we’re in business, isn’t it,” you say. In the age of the smartphone, there is no need for salespeople who are merely “transactors,” who literally give customers what they ask for, and whose function is to scan barcodes and say, “thank you.” Robots can perform that function 24-hours a day more efficiently and at lower cost.

The smartphone age brings the essential role of the salesperson into sharp focus and, surprisingly, it’s not new — it’s the same as ever. Believe it or not, the picture hasn’t changed over time. The sales task is that of the specialist, the one who serves as an authentic resource customers can trust.            

John Graham of GrahamComm is a marketing and sales strategy consultant and business writer. He is the creator of “Magnet Marketing,” and publishes a free monthly eBulletin, “No Nonsense Marketing & Sales Ideas.” Contact him at jgraham@grahamcomm.com, (617) 774-9759, or johnrgraham.com

In today’s business world, the days of being set in your ways — as an employee and a manager — are long over. Change is a near-constant. 

Takeovers, downsizing, and reorganizing can turn a company upside-down overnight, and those who remain have to embrace change in order to survive. More than ever, managers have to be the steady hand when those beneath them are shaking with uncertainty.

Change is difficult, and organizations have to go through a change process in order to evolve. Every manager and leader should understand that they need to have a change-management process included in their strategy.

Here are three tips for helping employees cope with change.

Clear communication 

Don’t let employees twist in the wind. Gaps in communication from management to employees can add anxiety and disrupt production. As much as possible, give them the “Why.” Every manager should inform their team of the change process and mentally prepare them for it. Give them the positives of the change. They need to understand that the change isn’t going to affect them adversely. Let them know they’re secure and that the change is not only good for the company, but also can be good for them. A manager will be appreciated for being upfront and upbeat, which in turn can lead to more trust and a smoother transition. 

Tools for the transition

After giving them the big picture, break down the transition particulars further for employees. Providing the details of what will lead to successful change individually and collectively is important. This can include implementing training and one-on-one or group-discussion sessions. In times of change, the most important thing for managers is how they help their employees through it. Change brings insecurity and anxiety. They want to know what’s next.

Personalize it — positively 

Even more relevant to each employee, create a personalized plan for them, setting expectations, goals, and putting new motivation in motion. This plan can act as a blueprint, where the manager can watch the progress step by step, and it’s a plan that can help employees grow into leaders. This kind of personalizing the transition can show employees they are valued and that they can continue to evolve with the company. They’re coming out of their comfort zone, and now they’re in this unknown area where they don’t know how to navigate. It’s important to make them aware they can move ahead with the company and be successful through certain steps. 

Change cannot be implemented without a certain level of influence. A leader’s influence involves mapping out the change agents and defining how they can lead to successful outcomes.

Mayur Ramgir (www.mayurramgir.com), author of “Evolve Like a Butterfly: A Metamorphic Approach to Leadership,” is a speaker, innovator, and entrepreneur. He currently serves as president and CEO of Boston–based Zonopact Inc.