There’s comfort in conflict.

I’m sure you’re aware that challenges are inevitable in business. Managing a diverse and growing team, meeting client demands and navigating volatile market conditions are only a few of the issues you face daily.

While the natural human reaction is to avoid conflict, I encourage you to face and embrace it. Find comfort in conflict because the challenges it brings open incredible opportunities for growth and success. When handled correctly, conflicts can drive growth and innovation while strengthening your team. Approached from the right perspective, it won’t disrupt or damage business relationships - as most entrepreneurs fear.

In this article, we’ll explore how you can leverage conflict and feedback to unlock the potential of your business and drive significant growth. You’ll learn how to shift your mindset so you’ll feel comfortable with conflict - allowing you to turn everyday challenges into opportunities for resilient progress and deeper relationships. Read on if you want to confidently navigate conflicts to usher your business to the next level.

Surprising Benefits of Embracing Conflicts in Business

Conflict is generally perceived as a negative force - mainly because of the pain and discomfort that it brings. In business, some leaders choose to avoid it to maintain harmony in the workplace.

But in the coaching sessions that I’ve done, I’ve observed that avoiding conflict does more harm than good. Think of it as a pot of boiling water. If you ignore it and keep the lid on, the water keeps boiling until it completely evaporates. But if you manage the heat and the lid on the pot, you’ll manage the water and keep it from running out. In the end, you get clean and clear water.

This is the same for conflicts in the business. Conflicts should not be viewed as a disruption that’s kept covered and ignored. That’s the quickest way to make the problem boil over and even explode.

Instead, use this opportunity to turn the disagreement into a clear resolution. Manage the source of the heat and understand the factors fueling the problem. Reframe your thoughts about the conflict and focus on how it can be used as a tool for innovation and problem-solving.

For instance, you want to implement change in your business and you’re being met with resistance. Instead of ignoring the tension or delaying the changes, encourage open and honest conversations. Find out what’s fueling the resistance. By letting your team air their frustrations and challenges, you can discover inefficiencies that may have missed your attention. You can use this to improve operations and boost productivity.

This is the type of growth mindset that embraces conflicts and converts them into a more understanding, collaborative and progressive culture in the workplace.

Difficult Conversations Can Lead to Business Growth

Confrontations can be nerve-wracking. This is why even business leaders try to avoid difficult conversations and choose to sweep them under the rug. While it may feel like keeping the peace, it’s just delaying the conversation for another day.

You have to remember that problems don’t go away just because you choose to ignore them. Most of the time, it gets worse the longer you delay. This can seriously stunt your business growth.

My experience while working with business leaders made me realise that problems left unaddressed eventually affect the team’s morale and performance. As your team gets demoralised, client satisfaction also declines.

If you want to foster continuous improvement, you should learn to face these difficult conversations. Don’t make it seem like a confrontation. Use it as a way to face challenges together - regardless of who is right or wrong.

You see, success is achieved through constant improvement - and it doesn’t happen in a straight line. Take a look at the illustration below.

The level of improvement shows a continuous cycle that goes up and down - where every downturn is marked by conflict and problems. You need to address the problems through healthy conflict to get the lesson out of the situation and improve the business.

As you can see, improvement involves a continuous cycle of setting goals, identifying problems, creating a diagnosis, designing strategies and taking action. If you can embrace difficult conversations, you can tackle problems head-on and take your team through the improvement process. The next time another problem occurs, you can face the conflict with confidence because you and your team know that it’ll lead to another level of business growth.

Mindset Shift: Turn Problems into Gifts

Embracing conflict and facing difficult conversations confidently requires a mindset shift for entrepreneurs. I always tell the business leaders I coach to view problems as a gift. Although it’s frustrating, problems offer a chance to gain new insight. It creates a golden opportunity to innovate and achieve significant growth.

Every time you encounter a problem, like there’s a drop in your sales, don’t ask yourself “Why is this happening?” Instead, ask yourself “What can I learn from this?” This shifts your focus from the chaos of the problem to the cause of it. When you uncover the cause, it’ll be easier to identify the solution that’ll get you out of that chaotic problem.

For example, the drop in sales may be caused by an issue in your pipeline. Or your team is not feeling motivated and requires additional training.

This growth mindset turns setbacks into learning experiences. You’re treating issues as opportunities to improve a skill or business process. This leads to new knowledge and reveals stepping stones to success.

The next time you encounter another problem, your mindset will help refine your approach so you can keep improving and come back stronger than before.

Deepen Relationships Through Healthy Conflict

Contrary to popular belief, conflict doesn’t always have to destroy relationships. If you can turn it into a healthy conflict, it can deepen relationships. But what does a healthy conflict look like? Take a look at the illustration below.

There are three ways to approach conflict. On the leftmost side is Avoidance where you’ll sweep the conflict under the rug to create a sense of harmony.  It can be constructive but it might not always be enough to resolve issues healthily. On the rightmost side is Dominance where things can easily feel like a personal attack. It can be destructive for the team when it gets out of hand. In the middle is Negotiation - which is the sweet spot to create healthy conflict within the workplace.

Focusing on negotiation opens doors of communication and trust. Your team will see that you’re willing to negotiate and find a middle ground to resolve a conflict. This fosters transparency as it encourages constructive dialogue within the team.

When you engage in honest conversations, even the difficult ones can strengthen the bond within the team. As a business leader, you can use this to improve employee loyalty. Your ability to face difficult conversations shows a willingness to listen and collaborate.

Ultimately, this leads to better outcomes in the business. Your team knows that you’re not against them and that you’re willing to settle differences and not be dominant about it. They will feel comfortable escalating problems with you to resolve them together. This strengthens the bond between the team and the clients, too.

Strategies for Delivering Constructive Feedback

Delivering feedback is part of helping your team improve and deliver better outcomes. But it requires the right approach - specifically a constructive one. Don’t focus on what people are doing wrong. While you need to mention the areas they need to improve or point out mistakes made, don’t stop there.

In my coaching sessions, I often use the “don’t/do” statement as an example. When someone submits the wrong deliverable to a client, avoid saying “You sent the wrong file.” Instead, say something like “Don’t forget to check your work before submitting it.” This points out the error but it identifies the right action that your team should follow.

When phrased this way, you’re offering clear guidance and constructive advice at the same time. It keeps the conversation positive because it feels supportive and not judgemental.

Use Conflict and Feedback for Long-Term Success

As a business leader, you will encounter conflicts and feedback in the workplace. Instead of shying away from it, learn to embrace conflict. Find a way to approach difficult conversations so they lead to business success. This requires a mindset shift so you can transform problems into opportunities, deepen relationships within the team (and even clients) and practice delivering constructive feedback to encourage growth.

As difficult as this might be, I’ve worked with enough business leaders to know that using conflict and feedback can set up your business for long-term success. If you’re ready to embrace conflict to foster growth, let’s together. Book a complimentary 15-minute call here: https://www.butleradvisory.com.au/time-with-trent.