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It is common for people to wait until conflict escalates before they do something about it, often this can mean significant impacts have been occurring to individuals and teams around them in the meantime. PEEL HR now offers Conflict Management Coaching (CMC) as a proactive, alternative strategy for organisations to have in their toolkit when they are supporting individuals who are in conflict.

CMC can be implemented at any point before, during, or after conflict. For example:

Before conflict – (i.e. before an unnecessary evolution of it) – such as where a person expects to get pushback and negative reactions to the delivery of a difficult message. For example, when managers are reticent to give performance feedback or conduct a performance review as they anticipate negative reactions from certain employees or where an individual needs to deal with challenging situations, such as meetings.

During the Conflict – CMC at this point in a conflict situation helps the person to consider how the conflict can be better managed rather than letting it escalate, such as to assist them in having a conversation with the other person.

After the Conflict – (e.g. post-mediation coaching) — CMC can be used to help individuals with any unresolved responses, or to manage ongoing interactions or consider what to do differently in the future if the same sort of situation arises.

This type of coaching is ‘Dispute Specific Coaching.’ Meaning, the coach helps people to focus on a particular dispute that is adversely affecting their work and working relationships. In these situations the Coach guides the person to conduct a structured analysis of the dispute, to gain insights about their own conduct in the dispute and to engage in a problem-solving dialogue with the other person. The main objectives of this process is to coach participants to:

• Identify their goals for managing conflict effectively;
• Reflect on the ways they react and contribute to conflict;
• Consider how they react to certain triggers;
• Shift unhelpful reactions to conflict to constructive responses;
• Consider and develop alternate ways to approach conflict;
• Improve language and communication skills in order to interact and address conflictual situations more effectively; and
• Reduce the harmful impact of conflict on themselves and others.

Dispute Specific Coaching may take four to eight sessions to complete (approximately an hour for each session), with increased awareness occurring in between the sessions due to seeds planted during coaching. The CMC coach uses a range of skills, including powerful questions that engender new perspectives about each person’s contribution to the conflict, including their own. CMC seeks to move people from reaction to reflection, which ultimately facilitates a more rational analysis and choice of action.