How to navigate a dramatically altered workplace and anticipate greater occasion for workplace conflict

Employees now demand much greater flexibility and better treatment. With their feet to the fire, leaders must learn how to manage, inspire, and evaluate the performance of a distributed and newly empowered workforce. Leaders should consider how their style––including actions and inaction––contributes to the benefits of healthy relationships, trust, and constructive conflict.

Be appreciative and authentic. Appreciative leaders focus on what’s going well––solutions over problems. They explore employees’ strengths and interests, then “fan and flame” them. They leverage the tenets of appreciative inquiry, a proven tool to validate and empower stakeholders, including remote and hybrid workers. Workers respond to leaders who show up authentically, as opposed to actors who merely take on the persona of a leader. Leader authenticity signals acceptance and belonging; it drives the trust and psychological safety necessary for healthy debate and strong relationships.

For more details, see Make the Most of the Nexus Between Leadership and Conflict