How to Resolve Conflicts Between Teammates: A Coaching Conversation With a Manager (7.6)

Damned if you hear it, damned if you don't.

Such is your predicament as a manager receiving an unclean escalation.

If you "hear the case", you allow a team member to present the issue without the other. If you tell the person to not delegate upwards and just "fix it," you alienate a team member who wants your help, and probably lead him to make a bad decision (with or without his colleague).

Whenever you're offered two equally bad alternatives, choose a third.

This third option is to ask the team member to go back and escalate the issue jointly; that is to say, together with his counterpart. This allows you to preserve cultural integrity (by not allowing end runs), interpersonal relationships (by having both teammates collaborate), and organizational effectiveness (by having the most complete information possible to make a wise decision).

In the following video I discuss with Johanna how she can help two of her team members resolve a conflict through clean escalation.

Readers: What conclusions do you draw from this case?

Fred Kofman, Ph.D. in Economics, is Vice President at Linkedin. This post is part 2.1. of Linkedin's Conscious Business Program. You can find the introduction and structure of this program here. To stay connected and get updates join our LinkedIn Group: Conscious Business Friends

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