Becoming A Conflict Competent Leader

The Second Edition of this classic resource on conflict resolution combines research, conceptual models, practitioner experience, and stories that highlight the core conflict competencies. The book underscores the importance for leaders to develop the critical skills they need to help them, their colleagues, and their organizations deal more effectively with conflict and move their organizations forward. This new edition expands on the conflict competence model, includes new tools and techniques, shows how to develop conflict competent teams and organizations, and offers a new online assessment.

Understanding how to cool down, slow down, and engage the naturally occurring conflicts among team members is critical to the ultimate success of a team. With this book, your team and its members will gain a deeper understanding of how conflict emerges and how to respond in ways that will leverage conflicts to their advantage. Team members will learn the importance of establishing a safe team climate, agreeing on processes to guide interactions, and use of constructive communication skills in order to develop a conflict competent team. As the authors say, conflict is not to be avoided, but embraced and explored. This often results in new, previously unimagined opportunities, solutions and results. The authors include stories, interviews, and examples that provide entertaining and thought provoking insights. They dedicate one chapter to techniques and processes for addressing team conflict that has gone awry. Runde and Flanagan also include useful tips and tools for assessing your team?s current state of conflict competence and suggestions for addressing the challenges of today?s virtual and geographically dispersed teams.

A practical resource, this book combines tips, checklists, exercises, and stories to outline concrete processes that improve the way leaders, managers, and anyone within an organization responds to conflict. Beginning with a series of questions and self-diagnostics, the authors show you how to: maintain emotional balance in the face of conflict; implement constructive communications techniques; help others deal with conflicts that are causing organization problems; establish norms for handling conflict; use specific approaches for addressing conflict more effectively. "A must-have guidebook for the new age of global business. This book shows every leader how to turn feelings of fear into feelings of safety, suspicion into trust, and competitiveness into collaboration." --Jim Kouzes, coauthor of the best-selling book The Leadership Challenge and Dean's Executive Professor of Leadership, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University "Craig Runde and Tim Flanagan use their vast experience to give us Developing Your Conflict Competence. Move beyond negative workplace conflict to positive and constructive outcomes with the simple tools and suggestions in this must-read field guide!" --Marshall Goldsmith, best-selling author of What Got You Here Won't Get You There, Succession: Are You Ready?, and the upcoming MOJO "I've read the authors' first two books, Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader and Building Conflict Competent Teams. Their latest book pulls it all together by providing models, examples, and thought-provoking insight. It will be required reading for my senior management team." --Deborah Jallad, president/chairman, Accredited Surety and Casualty Company, Inc.

A practical resource, this book combines tips, checklists, exercises, and stories to outline concrete processes that improve the way leaders, managers, and anyone within an organization responds to conflict. Beginning with a series of questions and self-diagnostics, the authors show you how to: maintain emotional balance in the face of conflict; implement constructive communications techniques; help others deal with conflicts that are causing organization problems; establish norms for handling conflict; use specific approaches for addressing conflict more effectively. "A must-have guidebook for the new age of global business. This book shows every leader how to turn feelings of fear into feelings of safety, suspicion into trust, and competitiveness into collaboration." --Jim Kouzes, coauthor of the best-selling book The Leadership Challenge and Dean's Executive Professor of Leadership, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University "Craig Runde and Tim Flanagan use their vast experience to give us Developing Your Conflict Competence. Move beyond negative workplace conflict to positive and constructive outcomes with the simple tools and suggestions in this must-read field guide!" --Marshall Goldsmith, best-selling author of What Got You Here Won't Get You There, Succession: Are You Ready?, and the upcoming MOJO "I've read the authors' first two books, Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader and Building Conflict Competent Teams. Their latest book pulls it all together by providing models, examples, and thought-provoking insight. It will be required reading for my senior management team." --Deborah Jallad, president/chairman, Accredited Surety and Casualty Company, Inc.

George Kohlrieser—an international leadership professor, consultant, and veteran hostage negotiator—explains that it is only by openly facing conflict that we can truly progress through the most difficult business challenges. In this provocative book, he reveals how the proven techniques and psychological insights used in hostage negotiation can be applied successfully to any personal or business relationship. Step by step, he outlines the seven key factors that anyone can use to remove the blocks that stand in the way of resolving tough problems and shows how business leaders, in particular, can develop and access the skills they need to create trust and a positive mind-set in their companies.

Make workplace conflict resolution a game that EVERYBODY wins! Recent studies show that typical managers devote more than a quarter of their time to resolving coworker disputes. The Big Book of Conflict-Resolution Games offers a wealth of activities and exercises for groups of any size that let you manage your business (instead of managing personalities). Part of the acclaimed, bestselling Big Books series, this guide offers step-by-step directions and customizable tools that empower you to heal rifts arising from ineffective communication, cultural/personality clashes, and other specific problem areas—before they affect your organization's bottom line. Let The Big Book of Conflict-Resolution Games help you to: Build trust Foster morale Improve processes Overcome diversity issues And more Dozens of physical and verbal activities help create a safe environment for teams to explore several common forms of conflict—and their resolution. Inexpensive, easy-to-implement, and proved effective at Fortune 500 corporations and mom-and-pop businesses alike, the exercises in The Big Book of Conflict-Resolution Games delivers everything you need to make your workplace more efficient, effective, and engaged.

This book brings together over 40 papers presented at the 1992 International Construction Conflict Management & Resolution Conference held in Manchester, UK. Six themes are covered, including alternative dispute resolution, conflict management, claims procedures, litigation and arbitration, international construction, and education and the future. With papers from arbitrators, architects, barristers, civil engineers, chartered surveyors and solicitors, this book represents the first multi-disciplinary body of knowledge on Construction Conflict and will act as a unique source of reference for both legal and construction professionals.

“When leaders fail to confront conflict, they become the ‘biggest elephant’ in the room.”In a survey of more than 4,000 CEOs, executives, and managers, more than 90 percent admitted they were uncomfortable confronting or engaging in conflict.Yet leaders must realize that every conflict presents an opportunity to reach higher levels of performance. In The Elephant in the Boardroom, award-winning leadership psychologist Edgar Papke explores the unique and challenging relationship that leaders have with conflict, and offers the know-how needed to use conflict as the engine of innovation and creativity. As a result, you will learn how to act courageously and be better equipped to lead and win in today’s complex and turbulent world.The Elephant in the Boardroom will help you:Better understand the unique relationship leaders have with conflict.Gain the self-knowledge required to confront conflict and attain higher levels of leadership performance.Learn how to foster cultures of openness and higher accountability.Identify the sources of dysfunctional conflict to create constructive change effectively.Learn to use a proven, seven-step model for effectively managing and leveraging conflict.Are you ready to confront the “big elephant in the room,” and manage the elephants living and thriving in your organization?