How to Manage Differing Opinions in the Workplace

No manager revels in leading a team that is constantly at odds or causing workplace arguments, but a degree of healthy disagreement and debate is actually good for your business. Conflict in the workplace and differing opinions may be uncomfortable, but it’s common across many job roles and can be beneficial. 

Why Having Disagreements and Resolving Conflict is Good

Firstly, it encourages your most stubborn team members to challenge their existing biases and think differently. Facilitating debate is a great way to introduce people to new ideas and new perspectives that they may not otherwise have been exposed to.

Secondly, there’s the fact that the pursuit of concord at all costs doesn’t serve your team’s best interests. By enforcing the mentality that everyone in your team should ultimately agree with one other, you dissuade people from speaking up. As a result, your more introverted or marginalized employees might feel unheard, which can lead to frustration, disengagement, and a lack of motivation.

Thirdly, diversity of thought provides good business outcomes. When everyone thinks in the same way, innovation is stifled and the boldest ideas or solutions go unexplored. Though it sounds counterintuitive, workplace conflict and collaboration come hand in hand. When you nurture a safe environment for your team to think outside the box and share their ideas, even when that means directly challenging their colleagues, you’ll find new ways of overcoming hurdles and resolving conflicts.

So how can managers best prevent their team’s disputes from spiraling out of control and harness them to drive innovation, productivity, and value?

1. Be Respectful, Patient, and Empathetic

You cannot create an environment in which everyone feels comfortable expressing their opinions without building respect and empathy between each team member. 

While it’s OK to disagree, no one’s input should be scoffed at or dismissed. Remind your team that by listening to — and striving to understand — a new perspective, they haven’t automatically prescribed to that idea. Rather, they’ve shown their colleagues the courtesy they deserve.

2. Give Everyone a Chance to Speak

Managing strong personalities is perhaps the biggest challenge when it comes to supervising a constructive debate between team members. The confident, extroverted, and more naturally confrontational among them will not only be the dominant voices in the room, and quick to express themselves, but they’ll also be the most likely to double down on their opinions — unafraid of, and unperturbed by, any escalating tensions.

Be prepared to rein in louder voices and elevate the quieter ones, particularly if certain team members will likely back down at the first sign of confrontation. Leaders come with all sorts of personalities, and it is possible to achieve more when you acknowledge everyone and their style of speaking and thinking.

3. Set Boundaries and Dampen Workplace Arguments

Empowering your employees to express themselves doesn’t mean your Monday morning team catch-ups should regularly descend into blazing arguments — there is such thing as too much debate.

Make it clear that raised tones, aggression, or personal jibes have no place in a constructive discussion and will not be tolerated. If debates often get heated or descend into disagreements, try to steer the conversation in a new direction, encourage other employees to chime in on the discussion, or interrogate why they have such opposing views. 

In some cases, you might need to give your team a cooling-off period by taking a break or returning to the contentious topic at a later date, allowing them to focus on more crucial tasks.

4. Invite Constructive Criticism

Effective communication and collaboration require honesty and transparency. Your employees will not learn to question their deep-rooted biases and opinions, or grow as professionals, if they are never called out by their colleagues and managers.

Inviting each co-worker to provide their peers with constructive criticism will challenge them to do better. As a leader, it’s your role to ensure feedback is executed with compassion and no individual feels targeted by the group at large.

5. Never Suppress a Workplace Conflict

When a conflict feels impossible to resolve, it might be tempting to put it to one side and hope that the problem goes away by itself — but this is never advisable. An unresolved dispute quickly becomes the elephant in the room and only serves to breed deep-rooted resentment and frustration between team members.

If you’ve struggled to resolve a conflict during a meeting, you might need to conduct follow-up sessions with specific employees. In a more intimate setting, team members might find it easier to listen to one another and find a way to reconcile their differences.

6. Ask for Opinions in Advance of a Team Meeting

Some people might never feel comfortable speaking out against their colleagues in the middle of a team meeting, which is why forward planning is key.

It’s good practice to send out an agenda ahead of important meetings and ask attendees to share their input in advance. That way, you can have a balanced discussion that successfully incorporates everyone’s opinions and ideas. This also gives employees the chance to do research and think carefully about their position, rather than blurting out an ill-considered viewpoint in the heat of the moment.

7. Have a Plan for Conflict Resolution

Because everyone has different opinions and beliefs, conflict is inevitable in many cases, but having a plan in advance will help you as a manager find solutions and stay calm during these debates. 

The first step in conflict resolution is to listen actively. Try to understand the point your employee is making before jumping in to address issues. Then, work to determine the root cause of the conflict and see if you and your co-workers can find common ground. Understanding where each person is coming from and reminding everyone what the end goal is can temper emotions, clarify responsibilities, and lead to a more positive outcome. Avoid playing the blame game, too, as this isolates certain parties.

8. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Assistance

Dealing with constant conflict can cause a lot of stress for you and your team. Don’t choose to go it alone. Whether you’ve been managing people for one year or three decades, it’s never a bad thing to get a third party’s help. Your HR department, a mentor, or a fellow colleague on a team horizontal to your own can provide tips, methods of working peacefully, and even help identify problems you may be overlooking.

Don’t be afraid to talk or assume you have to find a solution on your own. A business should be structured to support you and your team, as that’s how everyone can be successful in the long run.