There are a number of things that are important for teamwork. In my team of three engineers, they have many different roles and responsibilities, from writing code to scheduling meetings to speaking with customers.
Often, we do not communicate very well, and that can lead to a lot of misunderstandings.
One example of this was that one of our customers was not being fully aware of what was going on in the company. He didn’t know that we were having issues with a bug on the production server or that the bug was affecting a huge number of developers.
It turned out that we had been having issues for several months without telling our customer because we had not discussed what was going on.
I heard from my colleague that the customer was grateful that we had been honest about the bugs and issues in our product. However, there are some assumptions that I have made in my career that I want to discuss, and it is possible to agree to disagree on these things without insulting or hurting each other.
I have seen companies that have lost trust in their staff because of the way that they have handled relationships. One example was from the financial industry.
In finance, you need to have relationships with customers, partners, and investors. However, when people from the financial industry were to communicate with their customers, they tended to go through the company that they were dealing with.
This is known as brokering, and this meant that communication would take place between the customer and the broker.
It turned out that the brokers were not involved in any of the decision-making or strategy for the customer, or really, they had no other way to communicate than through the other person.
It’s a pretty painful experience for both parties involved when they find out that they have been involved in an unfair situation.
How can we deal with conflict?
Although brokering can cause a lot of problems, we do have a lot of tools that can help us when we have a conflict.
I think that our greatest tool is empathy. We are very good at putting ourselves into someone else’s shoes.
However, when it comes to complex conversations, we often forget that there are multiple layers of reality that we need to consider. That means that there is a lot of mental gymnastics that you need to do when a client wants to understand why something has gone wrong.
I’ll share one example with you from a conversation I had with a customer.
A customer used a web application for their current product, and they reported bugs and issues that they needed help with. This application was used for a wide range of tasks from order management to database development.
That meant that a lot of the work was done on a web page and delivered to a browser. This made it a great solution for medium to large organizations, but it did require collaboration with a number of different departments.
I suggested that I could try to create a new web application from scratch that was fully integrated into the existing customer’s systems.
The customer agreed, so I took that as my starting point. I started working with them, and after several days, we got to the point where we had finished a design and written several client/customer scenarios.
I proposed that we should send the design files to them and have them review it and sign off before we committed to the final version.
They agreed.
There was one problem, though. We had done a lot of design work and we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to put in the final product.
When I presented the design file to the customer for review, they had their own ideas and preferences that they wanted incorporated.
This is where things got tricky.
I have written previously about this exact scenario, but the important thing to take away is that the customer started to have an issue with my feedback and my communication. For example, the customer pointed out a number of problems in the design and told me that they had ideas of how the application should be different.
At this point, I realized that it was time for me to step back and work on my own perception of the interaction.
As I learned in personal development circles, we are trying to develop our EQ.
The beauty of emotional intelligence
Our emotional intelligence is our ability to effectively manage and reduce the negative impacts of our emotions and to strengthen our positive interactions.
Developing this skill helps us to build relationships with clients that are centered on a mutual commitment to make our products or services successful.
I took a step back and recognized that this was a business situation, so I needed to focus on what I thought was best for the customer.
If you take anything away from this post, I want you to take away the importance of empathy.
One of the worst mistakes we can make when dealing with a conflict is to assume that we know the whole story. If we start to treat other people like we know their pain points and weaknesses, we are basically giving away our power.
The one good thing that I can say about this interaction is that it was pretty productive for me. I was able to create a level of trust with the customer that I wouldn’t have if I didn’t take a moment to step back and reevaluate my perspective.
I am glad that I took the time to do that, and I am glad that the customer was able to gain a better understanding of where I was coming from.
Sometimes in the workplace, we don’t always get the opportunity to take time out to step back and analyze a conflict from different perspectives. It is very easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day demands of your job and to become laser-focused on the tasks that you are assigned.
However, it is equally important to take the time to step back and develop an understanding of other people and the problems that they face in their jobs. It is impossible to be a successful communicator and professional if you don’t have empathy for the people who you are dealing with on a day-to-day basis.
You are better equipped to solve problems and to develop healthy relationships when you are able to step back and gain an understanding of what other people are thinking and feeling.
What is important for people to understand
It is very important for people to understand how to do their job. If they understand that, then they will know what is expected of them and the process will work for them.
If they do not understand their job, then how can they look after the department and the other members of the team?
Team members should be able to answer simple questions. When there are queries, the employee should know how to find the answer.
They should not have to call a manager to ask a simple question.
If the answer is not found on the company’s intranet, they should be able to find it by a simple search. Not everyone will know the answer, but they can be confident that if they ask a question, then they will receive an answer.
There are a lot of these questions. That’s the problem, they are simple questions.
Yet people are not getting the answers to these simple questions. People should be able to find the answers without having to call a manager.
You need to allow everyone to have an individual space. People should have their own cubicle or room.
Some of this is to ensure that they get their own privacy. Some of this is so that they can have an area to relax and be able to speak to another member of the team.
If there is no privacy in a workplace, then people are not going to want to communicate with each other. In a small team, people are all facing each other all the time.
If there is no privacy, then they are not going to be able to communicate with each other.
As a manager or leader, you have to be willing to listen. Listen to what people are saying.
Listen to the problems they are having. They can’t solve the problems they are having until you listen to them.
The team members have to be given a sense of ownership.
By giving ownership to the team members, you will be able to work with them to achieve the results that you want. If you have a good team, then your department will be working together as a team.
They will be working as a team to achieve the results that you are looking for.
Being part of a team is a lot of fun. If the leader is a team player, then you can help the team to work together to achieve the results that you are looking for.
Being part of a team that has the right structure is something that many people fail to achieve. That is because they do not think that they can work with a team that has structure.
Even if it is not there, you need to be willing to work with the team that has it. Once the team is structured, then the team will achieve the results that you are looking for.
If you do not have structure, then you have to be willing to work with the team that does have structure. If you have structure, then the team will have direction and focus and will be able to work together to achieve the results that you are looking for.
It is all about teamwork. To achieve the success that you want, you need to be able to work with a team that is willing to work together.
