Conflict Management

Conflict Management can often be the toughest task for a leader to handle. It involves dealing with inter-personal and intra-personal conflict. As a team leader of a technical event called Pulse’09 at my university, I had to deal with conflicts on a regular basis. Conflicts usually arise either due to lack of effective communication, different ideologies, lack of resources or due to task interdependence [3]. It was by far my most life changing experience as it taught me the reason behind conflicts and the way to resolve them. In this paper, I will be talking about the way I dealt with conflicts and managed them, the impact they had on the team performance and what I could do to improve my leadership by contrasting my experience to the class readings.
When I was elected as the team leader of Pulse’09, the feeling was unsurmountable. Had I known the responsibilities that came along with being a leader, I definitely would be feeling something else. Every year a new team along with its leader was elected. In the first team meeting itself, I realized the need for a definite ‘goal’ to be set for giving a sense of direction to the team members. Additionally, I felt the best way to enjoy the experience of Pulse’09 would be by dividing the entire team into smaller groups that focused on a particular task. This way not only the final goal would be achieved effectively, but also members would get to know each other closely. Thus, after the first informal meeting I placed the team members into groups of three and allotted them specific tasks. The tasks were small goals that the individual groups needed to accomplish in order to reach the final goal; which was essentially the success of Pulse’09. But what I didn’t know was the criticality of ...

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...t that the task is divided amongst all the team members. Norms will be formed and followed. Timelines will be met and productivity will be high. Additionally, as a leader I will try to be approachable to ensure that the team members share a comfort level with me and are able to express their point of views openly with me [1].
Being an effective leader will always remain a challenge in my opinion. But if you follow and incorporate the appropriate leadership style that fits what the situation demands [1], I am sure the set objective will be met with ease.

References
[1] Rothenberg, S. (2013). Week 5 Slides (Leadership). Organizational Behavior and Leadership.
[2] Rothenberg, S. (2013). Week 8 Slides (Teams). Organizational Behavior and Leadership.
[3] Rothenberg, S. (2013). Week 12 Slides (Conflict and Negotiation). Organizational Behavior and Leadership.