HBR Guide to Being a Great Boss

CHAPTER 7

How to Handle a Disagreement on Your Team

by Jeanne Brett and Stephen B. Goldberg

When you’re leading a collaborative project, you can’t always ensure that everyone will get along. Given competing interests, needs, and agendas, you might even have two people who vehemently disagree. What’s your role as the boss in a situation like this? Should you get involved or leave them to solve their own problems?

Ideally, you’ll be able to coach your colleagues to talk to one another and resolve their conflict without involving you, making clear that their disagreement is harmful to them and the organization. But that’s not always possible. In these situations, we believe it’s important to intervene, not as a boss but as a mediator. To be sure, ...