Addressing Team Dynamics and Conflict: Insights from Kwame Christian

Hello my friends, and welcome to a special episode of Negotiate Anything Premium. I'm Kwame Christian, of course, and I'm here to answer a great question from one of our premium subscribers named Genevieve. So shout out to Genevieve for being the first person to ask a question in Negotiate Anything Premium. And this one is so good I'm really excited to get into it. So for those of you who are premium subscribers, you'll be able to hear the whole thing and if you are not subscribed, you're just hearing bonus content to hear the rest of it. Make sure to subscribe for your free trial of Negotiate Anything Premium. Link in the description of this episode and let's jump into it first by addressing the question so here's the question I've observed team dynamics in the past where subordinates are pushing back on their leader and it left me perplexed as to what might be behind this. Leaders want fearless advice, but also expect faithful implementation. When the faithful implementation side is missing, it unbalances team function. Clearly, conflict is at play here. Do you have any insight into what might be the dynamic at the root of this and what techniques could be used to restore a healthy dynamic? Incredible question, and there's so many different ways for us to address this. But for me, let's go ahead and go back to my career as a lawyer and one of the key skills of being a lawyer is issue spotting. Before we get into diagnosing the problem, we have to get a really clear understanding of what the problem is here. So there are a couple of things that are coming to mind. First, when we think about the team, we have the people who are executing the plan, and let's say the people who are creating the plan. Hopefully the plan is co created to a certain extent. But the people who are executing the plan, we would call those the team members, the people who are creating the plan. Let's call those the leaders. But in order for the leaders to be effective in the creation of the plan, we have to be able to solicit the feedback from the people who are on the team because they are the people who are executing the plan. And as a result of that execution, they are privy to information that can only come through execution. So the folks who are boots on the ground have incredible insights and knowledge that the leaders will not know if they don't receive it from the team members. But at the same time, in order for a plan to really come together, we all need to be rowing in the same direction, if we're using that metaphor. Because let's just go back to that metaphor. If you're we're all in the same boat together, but you're rowing one way, I'm rowing another way, and the people in the back are rowing different directions, we're not going anywhere, right? So at the end of the day, we have to be able to coalesce and come together around whatever plan it is and move in the right direction. Now, we have to understand that there's going to be some friction at play as well. Because, and I'll tell you, as a leader, I run this company as the CEO, it doesn't always feel good to get pushback, but I recognize that I need that pushback because successful strategic creation and execution is not about feeling good. It's about having a plan that works and is executed within a cohesive team dynamic. But if you don't have a good relationship with the people on the team, you don't have a good company culture, then the conversation will create conflict that is destructive, not constructive. So where do we go from here and now? Let's actually get into the solution part of this because I want us to address this through three domains, Mindset, skill set, and culture. So mindset, how do we think about this situation? Skill set, what do we actually need to do in this situation? And do we have the capacity and the skills required to do that thing? And then culture within our organization, have we established a healthy working culture that invites and tolerates such discussions so they can actually happen? We need all three in order for us to have a situation of constructive conflict, not destructive conflict. So now let's get into each of these elements. All right, I hope you enjoyed that snippet. And if you want to get more, make sure to get your free trial of Negotiate Anything premium. Check out the link in the description to learn more.