6 Strategies of how to deal with Office Politics and Difficult Co-worker Situations

The way your team reacts to one another can have such a strong impact on your customer's experience. In a recent survey, it was really clear that incivility between co-workers not only affected the customer experience in the moment but had a long-standing effect on the perception of the brand. Add to that that the incivility affected other co-workers as well as those co-workers as far as their productivity level, their job satisfaction level, and their overall performance. But when there's a spat going on with co-workers, what can leaders do to offset that? And that's coming up next on Marc Haine Live. Welcome back to Marc Haine Live where small business owners and entrepreneurs pick up core skill sets to help them work On their business, not just in their business. I'm your host, Service Expert and Master of Experiences Marc Haine. And today, we're talking about what leaders need to do to recognize strife and conflict between their employees and what they need to do to address it. Before we get into it, I just want to remind you that we are here Tuesday at noon Eastern Time on YouTube. Of course, you can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and on Instagram. Feel free to like and comment on this post. And even if you are watching the replay here on YouTube, be sure to hit the subscribe button and ring the bell. That'll give you first dibs when I have some fresh content for you. For today though, feel free to drop a question or your own fabulous insights into the comment box below so people can benefit from your experience as well. Okay, it's important to share. We have these situations that keep popping up all the time. And if we address them, the power comes to us because we get to share in our global experience. Have you ever witnessed employees going at it either as a coworker or as a customer? And if you have, How did it make you feel? Put a comment in the comment box. Let's share our experiences. So, our topic today is leadership. It's recognizing and dealing with employee interaction issues that happen in public. Now, this is born from my experience just recently. Like 3 days ago, I was in the grocery store. I was standing in line and it was absolutely obvious that my clerk and the clerk in the next aisle had an issue with one another. You could tell the tension was absolutely incredible. You could see them sneering at each other, glancing at each other like there was an issue. And then, of course, when the customers— I mean, they could feel the negativity. And in fact, I think the customer ahead of me said to the clerk, you could smile because they were absolutely stone-faced and absolutely miserable looking. And her response to the customer was, well, I could smile if I didn't have to work with the likes of that. Obviously doing the head nod over the direction of her co-worker. And it makes the customers feel like they're in the middle of something. And it makes it feel like the customers, like the clerks make the customers feel like they're the problem. And what really compounded this issue for me was the fact that the The supervisor came up to do some transaction on the cash and did nothing. And it could be that she didn't see what was going on. And I guess that's okay. But that's telling me something. That's telling me that the supervisor is so ingrained with whatever her thing is. She's walking around with blinders on and she's not noticing the environment that she's working in. And I guess when it comes down to this idea that when there's negative behavior, I feel that negative behavior will always escalate if it's not addressed. And so, I think it's really important that supervisors and managers and leaders pinpoint problem areas and start dealing with them. Because if they're not dealing with the employees, it's going to just manifest itself into something much bigger. Now, I do know that there are some supervisors who will see something like that. They'll notice some interaction like that and they'll just walk away. And it's like, I can't be bothered with it. Let them deal with it. And it's all fine to say that. But when push comes to shove, you still have customers in your store. You still have production happening in your warehouses or in your production lines. And if you have 2 people who aren't getting along together, it affects the whole Gambit. You know, I have to use like an example like a sports team. If the coach is sitting on the sidelines and he's looking over to the players and the players obviously have a chip on their shoulder about something, is he just going to sit back and watch what's going on and just, come on guys, okay, keep playing, right? Or is he going to be more proactive? And chances are, I bet you any money, Any coach would yank their players off the field, sit them down, and figure out what the heck is going on. Likewise, the director on a stage play, right? If you have one of the actors has become— is doing a diva thing, right? It would be really hard-pressed for the director to not address the performance capacity of their actors on stage, right? And so, if somebody acted up during rehearsals, the leader would have to Do something about it. They have to take steps to correct the issue. A leader who ignores the issue will allow the situation to get worse. And ultimately, even a worse flip side to that is the leader is actually giving permission for that behavior to escalate. And so today, I want to talk about 6 steps that you can do to address kind of these on on-the-job interpersonal conflicts. Okay? The first one is recognize that there is a problem. And this is one of the problems I think in the grocery store. This is one of the problems that the supervisor didn't do. The supervisor walked into a situation and was so blinded by whatever she had going on that she didn't address. She didn't even recognize that there was a problem existed. And if she did, she really gave a good act of ignoring it. But what that tells me is that the supervisor is not sensitive to the environment that's around her. It's important that as supervisors that we take it all in. We are kind of taking in all the things. We're looking for problem areas. And sometimes, because we're so involved in our day-to-day things, we don't see the forest for the trees. We're so ingrained into our environment that we stop asking, are the questions about what's going on at any given time. Now, let's face it. As leaders, one of the things that we are there to be the eyes in case of conflict. And when 2 people are going at it, if you're not present, you are blinded, right? So, it's really important that you recognize that a problem exists. The second thing that we have to do is we actually have to acknowledge That there is a problem. Right? We can't just recognize it and walk away. We have to acknowledge that there's a problem. So, it means that we have to get some information. We have to find out what the heck is going on. And sometimes, that means talking to the individual employees themselves. At the very least, going up to them and saying, is everything okay? Talking to co-workers, talking to other people, finding out what the comments are. But it's important that we take those steps to acknowledge it. And then, the next thing is we have to do is we have to make absolutely sure that we take steps to keep the issues from affecting our business. And this is probably step number 3 is probably the most self-serving as you're going to get throughout this process because we want to make sure we can still make the sales. We want to make sure that we are still serving our customers. We want to make sure that we're still moving forward. But like any crisis, You are there to make sure people are staying safe and people are getting served. So, I hope this is of service to you. I hope you're getting something out of this. And if you do find this valuable, I'd love it if you would do me a favor and if you would just click the button and drop a comment below. And I would even appreciate it if you would even share this post because I'm sure there are people out there who would benefit if you're benefiting from it. from it. Okay, I appreciate you so very much. Okay, step number 4. It's important that we take time to understand what the problem is. Now, this is a challenging one because this now moves you from being that supervisor to being kind of that coach where you need to coax out the information. You need to understand and be able to pull. And sometimes, it's pulling one person first, pulling another person, then bringing them together. And this is where having a high level of emotional intelligence really comes in. Having a strong sense of empathy about it is about the situation is really important as well. And see, this is where I find that adults stop talking about their feelings, about how hurt their feelings are. You know, when we're very little and we come back from the schoolyard and little Johnny pushed me and I'm really upset about little Johnny, Right? Mom would say, you go and you tell little Johnny that he hurt your feelings. Tell him not to behave like that. And so then, we'd go back and in my case, I'd go and tell little Johnny that he hurt my feelings and he'd beat the pulp out of me. As adults, we stop talking about how badly our feelings get hurt by stuff. And whenever you hear this idea of, I got disrespected, or they didn't give me any kind of credit, or what— People are reacting because their feelings are hurt. Right? And so, if we can identify where it is we're hurting each other's feelings, we take a step closer to being able to find a solution for that. And that's step number 5. And that is to work to create a solution with accountabilities. Once we're defining the problem, it's then easy to start coming up with solutions. And It's where ultimately, you as the leader becomes the coach and the mentor. It's, we are going to put an action plan together and we're going to figure out how do we do this so we can move forward and keep this from affecting us in the future. And we create measurable deliverables and we put benchmarks down on what needs to happen next. Once you have people sit, the 2 parties or the parties sitting in front of you, if you can get them to help you build those solutions, You're much better off in being able to have them abide by whatever decisions are made because they are part of the solution. They help come up with it, right? And then, step number 6 is probably one of the most important. And that is move on. The past is the past. Once it's dealt with, once the plan is in place, it's important to move forward and stop Making this affect everybody around you. This is when we stop talking about it. We stop backstabbing. We stop— it is the past. And right now is the present. And anything before us is a new day. And so, we don't have to hold on to grudges. The one thing as a leader is you probably do have to keep records. And I would strongly recommend you keep records of the incident and the steps taken just in case there's something somewhere Down the line, you need to be able to protect yourself. But this is the one aspect I think when I used to do discipline actions with my employees. And when it's all done, it's done. That's my thing. We dealt with it. The book is closed. We move on. And they'd be a little bit freaked out. They're like, well, I thought you were mad at me. It's like, no, I'm not mad at you. Why would we? We dealt with it. It's over. It's done with. I don't understand why you think I would be mad at you. But having said that, we can now move on with a clear conscience, with a clear slate. So, being a leader in a situation when there is employee strife requires that you take your time and you take the proper steps. It requires empathy and patience. You can't afford to jump into a situation and just snap. Nor can you afford to let the issue Slide. It's really important for you as the leader to take the stance that you are being of service to your team members. So, you take the stance, I am here for you. I want to make sure that you can perform at your best. And I want to help you overcome whatever barriers might exist for you to be able to do that. And if that means sitting down and coaching the 2 people through it, or the 2 parties through it, or the parties Because it could be even groups of people. Right? It's important that you help them move forward. You are there to be of service to them. So to recap, number 1, recognize that the problem exists. Number 2, acknowledge that there is a problem. You have to acknowledge it. You recognize, then you acknowledge. And then, you take steps to make sure that it's not affecting your business. You do whatever it takes to maintain the integrity of your business. And then, you take the time to understand what the problem is. And then, you can work on creating a solution with accountabilities with all the parties involved. And then of course, number 6, move on. The past is the past. Move on. Let's get over it. And let's go ahead and have a great day. Taking these steps will help you effectively deal with the issues while showing that you are compassionate and that you have empathy towards the needs of your team members. Okay. Folks, that's all that we have time for today. I hope you got a lot out of this information. And my hope is that the information is something that you can apply starting today, right now. And like always, through my vlogcast, this is episode number 10. Every time, I make you the same offer. I'm more than willing to give you 30 minutes free free of my time to work with you and your team on a brainstorming call. If you have a particular issue that you're trying to overcome, you need to brainstorm some ideas, maybe some ideas on how to pivot, whatever it is. If I don't have the answers, I know that I have resources. And so, maybe I can point you in the right direction. So, feel free to book time on the calendar. My link, the calendar link is below. I'd love to spend 30 minutes with you and your team and see what we can accomplish. I'd love to know what you thought about today's episode. So, please drop a comment in the box below. Feedback is so important because I generate this content and I don't know if it's resonating with anybody. I get a lot of thumbs up. I'm happy to say that I'm at 850 views on my channel, which is really fantastic. But I'd really love to get some sort of feedback, some sort of comments. What do you think? What do you like about it? What do you What do you hate about it? Hopefully, you don't hate that it's too long because sometimes they go a little long. But ultimately, what I'm trying to do is provide enough information that you're going to look at this and go, my goodness, I need to share this with my team. Or I need to share this with my managers. Or I need to share this with somebody that I know who's got this problem. My philosophy has always been that information is power. But it is only powerful if it's shared. If we hoard it in, it's no power at And if you haven't done so yet, please hit the subscribe button below and ring the bell. And I will make sure that we notify you whenever I do some fresh content for you. And please do let me know if there is a particular subject or a particular problem you'd like me to address on this vodcast. I'd love to hear it. My name is Marc Haine and I'll see you next week when I bring you some more juicy and tantalizing content to help you run your small business. I hope you will stay safe, stay healthy, and dare to be the exception.