Posted by: Frank Chiapperino in Untagged on
Jan 05, 2007
Brian Kruckenberg at LifeChurch.tv recently wrote on the topic of conflict. He is their groups pastor at their campus in Mesa Az.
Here is what he had to say...
Capitalizing on Conflict
Whenever you get a group of people together to do anything, one thing is certain: there will be conflict. As a leader, you have to become effective at dealing with conflict, or as I have begun to think about it, you must learn to capitalize on it. No more “conflict management,” okay? And, let’s be clear: conflict in and of itself is not bad. Conflict can lead to innovation and breakthrough. Non-constructive conflict is what we most often think of when we hear the word “conflict” and that’s the junk we need to overcome as leaders.
Here are some quick thoughts for you to ponder and comment on:
Vision and passion trump most non-constructive conflict. If you cast a strong vision, write it down and reinforce it, group members who want to be negative will be run over by the vision.
You must uncover the real reason behind the conflict. Often the stated issue isn’t really the issue at all. You must dig deep as a leader but to dig deep requires trust.
Once you’ve found the real issue, you have to be willing to confront it. Again, if you don’t have trust, this is difficult to do. But, to be an effective leader, you have to ask the hard questions.
Which brings me to this: ask questions. One of the best ways to confront conflict is to ask the right questions. You’ll get a lot farther by helping people uncover a potential problem area in their life than by showing them the problem yourself. Help them discover it.
