By Mário Grieco*

Conflicts within the company are just like a disease or even worse: like a cancer, perhaps. People usually don´t like to talk about it. But the truth is that they bring to the organization a destructive power able to directly or indirectly affect the results of the company as a whole.

Such conflicts might arise due to the lack of the company´s global vision, like when the sales department establishes a goal without taking into consideration the production availability, or vice-versa. The innate differences among staff and the lack of ability to interate and cooperate can also lead to conflict within the team, as well as greed due to promotions and higher positions.

Opposing goups start to gather and grow fast and progressively. What really concerns us is that such situation does not bring any benefit to the company or to any of the partners. On the contrary: such groups waste time and their focus with uninportant things.

In an environment full of conflicts the decisions usually take longer. Several theories state that conflicts within the company can´t be avoided once they are closely related to peoples´ innate differences, processes of communication and individual behavior.  I totally disagree with that!

In the corporative world one´s private issues result in perception, expectancies and principles, which can lead to resolvable divergences.

The fact is that conflicts should not exist. When they come up, though, need to be managed efficiently, otherwise they will bring serious problems to the organization. Leaders play a very important role in this stabilization process. They are supposed to know the members of their teams and to act firmly when facing organizational and staff problems that might generate conflicts. 

A leader shouldn´t and mustn´t accept that conflicts take part of their companies, not even think that they will be naturally solved as time goes by. They should, therefore, act proactively by trying to find the best alternative to have the problem entirely resolved.

When we share ideas and are willing to listen to what one has to say, we start to deal with the situation and the occasional problem differently. That is exactly the first step to avoid a conflicting situation and also to find an effective solution.

Other good hint is to be careful when dealing with people. Each one has a different way of working, thinking, speaking, expressing ideas and deffending principles. The secret lies in evaluating those different profiles and taking them into consideration when discussing or debating about a certain issue. By having this in mind it is much easier to deal with differnces, respect the others and find solutions.
  
If both parts involved in the problem are willing to understand what is going on and to discuss and respect the other´s opinions, by having emotion under control, they will have taken the first step. Reaching the final solution is just a matter of time.

(*) Mário Grieco is the president of Bristol-Myers Squibb Brazil and a professor at Business School São Paulo.