First there was guerilla warfare, then the concept was expanded to non-military ideas like guerilla marketing and guerilla bloggers. Now we have guerilla bridge building.
Conflict management skills are important for a leader no matter what the job title is. Left to fester, conflict can spread in the organization, consume resources, and become even more difficult to resolve.
A recent article posted at mediate.com talked about unanticipated mediation opportunities and gave examples from history. Author Peter Adler asked “Why not a new art and science of guerilla conflict management applied to the day-to-day politics that pop up when you are leading an enterprise?“ The skills to manage conflict are key for every leader and potential leader.
Imagine this: a CFO works in a family business, but is not a member of the family. The CEO is the founder of the business and reluctantly considering transition to retirement. There is a conflict between the CEO and his daughter, a 12-year employee who wants to be her father’s successor and is about to leave the company because of frustration with her father. This CFO has an opportunity to do some guerilla bridge building. The possibility of keeping this business intact and managing the transition to the second generation may hinge on whether the father and daughter can resolve their conflict.
The stories where family businesses are not able to do this are the ones that make news headlines. To me, the stand-out news items are the businesses which grapple with conflicts effectively, while managing to grow and prosper.
Where can you learn the skills to be effective at helping those in conflict to build bridges with each other? Many of us did not learn those skills in our formal schooling.
Bridge building is also known as mediation. Leaning the skills of mediation equips leaders for effective guerilla bridge building whether they are in a large company, a small non-profit, or a community group.
Improve your leadership potential by building your mediation skills.
Join us for Fundamentals of Mediation, a 40 hour, 5 day intensive mediation course. The next course dates are March 21, 22, 23, 26 and 27, 2018 in London, Ontario, Canada. Early registration discount ends February 12!
Read the full article here: https://www.mediate.com/articles/AdlerEye1.cfm