The Leadership Book, 2nd Edition

Interpersonal conflict

You shouldn’t expect all your colleagues to ‘get on’ – indeed some conflict can be constructive. Where you see conflict becoming dysfunctional, you must act, and act quickly.

Frequency – unpredictable.

Key participants – unpredictable.

Leadership rating ***

Objective

A business environment where all colleagues ‘get on’ with each other, however laudable and potentially enviable, is unlikely to be an environment in which creativity and good business sense flourish if ‘getting on’ means that issues are ducked and realities not confronted. There is generally no worse environment than the one in which corporate/collective heads are buried in the proverbial sand.

But equally, it is unlikely that a workplace fostered ...