Don’t be afraid of conflict; instead, welcome it.

People agreeing with me is something I enjoy, and I’m the first to admit that. It makes me happy when someone says they see things the same way I do or laughs at my jokes. However, if we only interact with people with whom we agree (or who share our values), we will not innovate, produce good work, learn and grow, and we may not even be happy at work in the long run because people are much more engaged when they feel they can openly disagree at work.

We have a tendency to interpret disagreeing with someone as being rude. But there are times when disagreeing or engaging in productive conflict is the kind thing to do. There’s a chance that your team doesn’t have the skills or mindset to use such disagreements/conflicts effectively.

Promote constructive conflict.

Despite the fact that conflict is a natural part of any social or organizational setting, the challenge of conflict is how to deal with it. However, when leaders become profoundly conflict-averse, it has an impact on their ability to bring the real issues to the table and work through them constructively. A leader can take the following proactive steps to ensure that his or her team is prepared to navigate conflicts and create win-win situations:

• Make it clear that there will (and should) be conflicts on your team.
• Describe the characteristics of healthy, productive conflict. Create a culture in which team members value different points of view and ideas. Someone isn’t…