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The Friction Caused by Conflict Leads to Innovation and Breakthroughs. But Only By Leaders Who Can Deftly Navigate It. Here’s How. Many leaders shy away from conflict or wear a lack of conflict as a badge of honor. But emotionally intelligent leaders understand that conflict can be transformed into growth and can forge resilience and connection. Lack of conflict could signify far great issues and missed opportunities within your team. Conflict is inevitable. But in the workplace, it’s often treated as something to be minimized, avoided, and at its worst, as a signal of failure. A 2024 State of Workplace Conflict report shows just how deeply embedded it is in organizations’ functions. According to the report, 32% of all workplace conflict happens between management levels, while 22% occurs between line managers and their team members, and 20% between senior leaders and executives. The survey also shows that workplace conflict takes a serious toll on both people and organizations. Over half of employees (55%) say they’ve been personally attacked, and nearly half (48%) have been bullied. Most (88%) have seen morale drop because of conflict, 18% say it’s caused projects to collapse, and 23% have even quit their jobs because the conflict was never resolved. Workplace conflict is more than just an interpersonal issue. It’s a culture, engagement, and performance issue that — left unacknowledged and unaddressed — can ripple far beyond tense email exchanges and uncomfortable team meetings. For leaders, this means no longer treating conflict as an occasional HR matter. Instead, we need to learn how to lead through conflict and leverage friction as an opportunity for growth, trust, and greater alignment. Empathy Helps Leaders Navigate Conflict and Drive Performance In a conversation on The Empathy Edge podcast, co-founder of performance consulting firm Take New Ground Dan Tocchini warns that most executives avoid hard conversations and, as a result, “The conversation you’re not willing to have becomes your culture.” This unspoken rule of “We don’t talk about problems” can show up as employees withholding feedback, collaboration suffering, and politics taking over. MORE FOR YOU Changing this culture requires structural support, and perhaps more importantly, personal growth. As Kristine Scott, founder at Seattle Conflict Resolution, shares in a podcast interview that “We all have our weak points about the things that really get under our skin, and we lose all objectivity. But we can work on that old stuff.” For leaders, doing this work is key to modeling the emotional presence and maturity needed to build a culture that openly addresses conflict. Productive workplace conflict flourishes when leaders balance empathy with both compassion and accountability. As shared in a recent Forbes article, “Even when performance and empathy conflict, an empathetic environment will always outperform one that’s only performance-driven.” To offer psychological safety that allows for open dialogues and conflict, leaders need to lean into the tension rather than being hijacked by it and seek to understand what is really going on. Three Core Practices to Transform Conflict into Opportunity Engage sooner rather than later Waiting until conflict escalates is a gamble. Of all respondents in the State of Workplace Conflict survey, 82% support early intervention as a strategy to prevent escalation. According to the Harvard Negotiation Program blog, the three most common sources of workplace discord are task, relationship, and values conflicts, and may even require different resolution tactics. Holding back may seem easier and more "kind” in the moment, but it actually leads to creating anxiety among the team - this is anything but empathetic. By creating clear feedback loops and space for real-time check-ins, small fissures can be explored before they become chasms. Use structure to ground conversation With workplace conflict costing companies billions annually, the stakes are undeniably high. This makes it critical for leaders to embed clear conflict resolution pathways in their systems. As Forbes contributor, Julian Hayes II writes, “U.S. employees spend an average of 2.8 hours per week navigating conflict, which adds up to $359 billion in lost productivity.” One way to address this is for leaders and their teams to get clear on what their conflict style is. And as Tocchini highlights in his podcast interview, effective resolution structures need four steps: Clearly name the issue Offer concrete examples of how it shows up Share the impact it’s had Acknowledge how each party may have contributed to the issue. Model conflict competence, not perfection In the State of Workplace Conflict report, only 27% of managers were rated “very skilled” at conflict resolution. This is a significant gap. But it’s also an opportunity to say empathy-first leaders don’t need to expect flawless conflict resolution from themselves or others. Instead, they recognize that a little bit of conflict and friction is needed to innovate, question what we're doing, and figure out if there’s another way. And because of this, they’re able to model candor and vulnerability by lingering a little longer in that friction. Balanced Leadership Helps Navigate Conflict Conflict will always be uncomfortable, but great leadership means learning to balance both firmness and empathy. It’s about asking, “What needs to be acknowledged here?” and then stepping into the conversation with equal parts courage and compassion to transform conflict into growth.
