Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader: How You And Your Organization Can Manage Conflict Effectively

By Craig E. Runde and Tim A. Flanagan

Book Overview

Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader 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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0787984701
• ISBN13: 9780787984700
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass Inc Pub
• Length: 217 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.3" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Behavior is the key

Fair warning to the reader! I work with the Conflict Dynamics Profile 360 assessment (CDP), which is the core of this book's approach to conflict. Having said that, I also want you to know that the reason I work with the CDP is because it provides a research-based behavioral approach to managing conflict. The body of work in this book was developed in response to data showing that the most commonly low-rated behavior for people in leadership development programs was conflict management. Often the individual receiving such feedback had no idea what behaviors were leading to those low ratings. Conflict Dynamics clarifies the behaviors that escalate vs those that manage conflict, so that the reader can identify what behaviors to change. Whereas other conflict management approaches focus on general styles toward conflict (i.e. competitive, collaborative, etc.) or individual personality differences that lead to conflict (nurturing vs. driving, for example), this book clearly describes behaviors, regardless of styles and individual differences. Filled with well written scenarios depicting the different conflict behaviors - both constructive and destructive - this shows readers how they may contribute to negative conflict situations and - more importantly - how they can move conflict situations to positive issue-focused resolution rather than destructive person-focused escalation. No matter how this book is used, the reader will find that it contributes to growth as a leader in the real world.

Recommended to businesses who want to understand conflict dynamics

My typical observations of conflict in the workplace when working with executive and managerial teams are that leaders typically ignore or avoid the conflict and hope it goes away, or they resort to intimidation, sabotage, and winning at all costs. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that authors Craig Runde and Tim Flanagan of the Leadership Development Institute (LDI) at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida offer a better way to leverage the value of constructive conflict and minimize the effects of destructive conflict dynamics. In less than 200 pages, Runde and Flanagan easily and concisely share: * Definitions of leadership, conflict, and conflict competency * The process for conflict dynamics * Importance of leader self-awareness and self-control * Methods for preventing destructive responses to conflict * Suggestions for enhancing constructive responses, and * Building conflict competent organizations I particularly enjoyed the Dynamic Conflict Model in Chapter 2 which provides an easy method for understanding the triggers (hot buttons) that incite conflict, the active and passive constructive or destructive responses we choose in response, whether conflict remains task or person-focused, and the resulting de-escalation or escalation of conflict respectively. The main weakness in this book is the brevity of Chapter 6 on building conflict-competent organizations. Additional strategies and work-related case studies in multiple industries would be helpful to apply the theory to personal experience, particularly if the reader is a new supervisor or from a particular industry where some destructive responses may be the organizational norm (i.e., avoidance and yielding were highly prized in one of my client companies where overt conflict was viewed as contradictory to the values of customer service and teamwork). In spite of this, Becoming a Conflict Competent Leaderis a very worthwhile read particularly in light of the escalated violence observed in workplace and school campuses and in communities. Armchair Interviews recommends this book for business consultants, organizational leaders, or professors interested in building personal competence in conflict dynamics to achieve solid results.

Highly Recommended!

The authors could have written another relatively dry and merely theoretical book on workplace conflict. Instead, they made it something all readers can all relate to whether we are practitioners interested in helping clients understand the effects of their behavior on others or organizational leaders interested in finding a resource that expertly guides them to greater success in their career. The examples are great! I'm sure I'll be giving many copies of this book to my clients.

A How-to Guide for Managing Conflict

After reading this book, I asked myself what the take-away was. Essentially, it is that everyone has at least one hot-button. It is natural and customary to have emotional reactions. The authors refer to a "refractory period when the emotion holds sway over our rationality." However, just because we're hardwired this way doesn't mean that the affects are acceptable or desirable. Outbursts and, what the authors refer to as cycles of retaliation, erode relationships and can infect whole organizations. The authors courageously confront the reader with the notion that if people are "... really honest with themselves, during conflict many resort to tactics and behaviors designed to cause discomfort, delay progress, disrupt communication, or even inflict pain." However, there are alternatives: one can take a breath, find a new sense of control and choose a better way to communicate. Essentially, they point to what it means to be emotionally mature. But that's the rub. Not every organization will be so lucky to be comprised of consistently mature, healthy adults, their professional skills notwithstanding. Thus, it is every leader's responsibility to recognize that managing conflict is as important as managing the more quantifiable aspects of business. How to do this is not especially complex nor novel. As a matter of fact, they're the same skills as good parenting skills. For leaders who may have not conceptualized their roles to include this or, more honestly, would rather ignore conflict in the hopes that it will just go away, the book gives some valuable tips. It shows how to spot conflict and identify the ways in which it can show up -- not every conflict is a loud brawl and the insidious quiet ones can be just as if not more damaging. More importantly, it gives instruction on how leaders can and should deal with it constructively.

Grounded in Reality

It's a sad reality that conflict is displaying exponential growth around the globe. The authors have compiled an excellent resource that is grounded on significant experience. The work and experience shared in this text allow leaders to develop a constructive response to conflict, as opposed to avoiding conflict or escalating conflict. The combination of stories, technique, and empirical data are packaged in such a way that the information is highly accessible. It has the credibility and depth one would expect from the Center for Creative Leadership. The resource list and bibliography also afford useful entree to more specialized tools to heighten the awareness and efficacy of leaders whatever their context. Bill Lindberg President The Ash Grove Group Santa Barbara, CA