{"id":886,"date":"2018-03-01T01:12:42","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T01:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dynamicteamsolutions.org\/?p=886"},"modified":"2018-03-01T01:12:42","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T01:12:42","slug":"how-to-avoid-your-very-own-mutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.dynamicteamsolutions.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/01\/how-to-avoid-your-very-own-mutiny\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Avoid Your Very Own Mutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Too often, leaders ignore conflicts and hope they will miraculously go away. Others, by contrast, jump right into the middle of them, believing their role as the leader is to serve as a go-between in all complaints and disagreements. They establish an \u201copen-door policy\u201d to help the team feel heard and understood. Being helpful in this way sounds good, but, in reality, trying to solve everybody\u2019s problems is less likely to result in solving them than in everyone seeing the leader as part<\/em> of the problem. That\u2019s when the real trouble begins.<\/p>\n

Once that happens, the leader\u2019s role as impartial arbiter is compromised. Each side views the leader as being on the other<\/em> side. Dissatisfaction festers, rumors fly, and what may have been a simple misunderstanding can escalate into an even bigger crisis.<\/p>\n

A leader\u2019s role in conflict<\/h1>\n

Consider the captain of a 19th<\/sup> century sailing vessel. He (perhaps she!) held a key role in ensuring safe travel to the ship\u2019s destination. More than anyone else on the vessel, the captain was responsible for keeping that destination in mind. The crew focused on the many tasks that kept the ship moving day-to-day, but the captain alone kept his eyes on the horizon.<\/p>\n

That means he couldn\u2019t put himself in the middle of day-to-day tasks; he counted on the crew to do those. Certainly, if crew members didn\u2019t work together effectively, he would take action, but not in the way that leaders in modern organizations try to do it.<\/p>\n

Can you picture a 19th<\/sup> century ship captain with a modern \u201copen door policy\u201d? \u201cCome on in and tell me your problem. I\u2019ll talk to the other person and we\u2019ll work it all out.\u201d Not a chance! There\u2019d be mutiny after mutiny.<\/p>\n

Granted, many of the problem-solving strategies of a 19th<\/sup> century captain wouldn\u2019t be appropriate for our organizations today (walking the plank has been outlawed in several states), but the fact remains that you don\u2019t solve people\u2019s problems by stepping squarely into the middle of them.<\/p>\n

The key to solving people\u2019s conflicts<\/h1>\n

Successful leaders steer people to solve their own problems. You can learn more about that in my video blog Stop Bothering Me and Let Me Get Back to Work<\/em><\/a>. Or, better yet, watch the second installment of my webinar series on \u201cThe Dynamics of Conflict \u2013 The Impact of Leadership.\u201d We\u2019ll dive deep into the topic of safe and productive ways to navigate around conflict rather than getting drawn into it.<\/p>\n

In either case, keep your focus on the destination. Don\u2019t get drawn into the disruptions on deck. Help your people work out their conflicts in productive ways and you\u2019ll experience much smoother sailing. And if you need a hand at how to do this, I\u2019d be very happy to help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Too often, leaders ignore conflicts and hope they will miraculously […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.dynamicteamsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.dynamicteamsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.dynamicteamsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.dynamicteamsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.dynamicteamsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.dynamicteamsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.dynamicteamsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.dynamicteamsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.dynamicteamsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.dynamicteamsolutions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}