{"id":2029,"date":"2018-10-10T07:30:11","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T12:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teachersfirst.com\/blog\/?p=2029"},"modified":"2018-10-09T11:19:29","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T16:19:29","slug":"lets-go-there-conflict-resolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/2018\/10\/lets-go-there-conflict-resolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Let&#8217;s Go There: Conflict Resolution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/teachersfirst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/2018-OCT-Lets-Go-There_-Conflict-Resolution.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2056\" src=\"http:\/\/teachersfirst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/2018-OCT-Lets-Go-There_-Conflict-Resolution-200x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/2018-OCT-Lets-Go-There_-Conflict-Resolution-200x300.png 200w, https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/2018-OCT-Lets-Go-There_-Conflict-Resolution-683x1024.png 683w, https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/2018-OCT-Lets-Go-There_-Conflict-Resolution.png 735w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>Conflict. That\u2019s right; we\u2019re going to put it out there and get real in this blog post. With Conflict Resolution Day upon us (October 18<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), I thought it was important to bring this issue to the forefront. However, as I was brainstorming ideas as to what to write, I decided to take a slightly different stance. I would like us to look at conflict (and conflict resolution) through the lens of a school leadership team member. Whether you\u2019re a grade-level team leader, coach, department head, or administrator, with any leadership position comes a healthy dose of conflict (as a former principal, trust me!).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In my experience, the students are the ones who ultimately suffer if the adults don\u2019t resolve their conflict. If that isn\u2019t reason enough to get a little uncomfortable, then I don\u2019t know what is. However, although uncomfortable, it\u2019s important to embrace conflict and work toward making it a growth experience for the team. As with students, we want to confront the issue and, in an ideal world, resolve it. Let\u2019s look at some practical tips to use when trying to resolve conflict in a team you lead.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Name the issue. Stick to the facts, rather than imposing judgment on team members. I like to compare this to techniques used when disciplining a child. We are told to separate the behavior from the child. The same applies here.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Be honest, but kind. Describe the impact that the conflict is having on others, whether it be the larger team, school culture, students, parents, etc.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Empower team members to problem solve and work towards a resolution. Think of yourself as a facilitator rather than the authority. In addition, try to ensure that all members of the team have a voice. You can guide, but let the team do most of the talking. As a leader, you should ask probing questions for deeper understanding and summarize, rather than offering your opinion. Have the team own it!<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Communicate that you expect progress and will monitor it. My advice is to ensure the right balance of firmness and support, but not create reliance on the leader to provide a top-down resolution.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keep it confidential. As a leader, it\u2019s imperative to build trust with your team to create a positive school culture and climate.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, let\u2019s embrace the inevitable conflict as school leaders, and work toward turning them into growth opportunities for improvement.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Conflict. That\u2019s right; we\u2019re going to put it out there and get real in this blog post. With Conflict Resolution Day upon us (October 18th), I thought it was important to bring this issue to the forefront. However, as I was brainstorming ideas as to what to write, I decided to take a slightly different &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/2018\/10\/lets-go-there-conflict-resolution\/\" class=\"more-link\">read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[144,117],"class_list":["post-2029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","tag-conflict-resolution","tag-leadership"],"modified_by":"Karen Streeter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2029"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2048,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2029\/revisions\/2048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}