Adopting a remote work model for your business offers significant benefits. Yet, there are also some distinct challenges you’ll face as a business leader. One of the key issues here is the impact of conflict among your workers.
You may think a remote workforce would present fewer opportunities for conflict to arise. Yet, you’ll find no matter what business model you adopt there is the potential for friction to breed among your team members. A recent study found 80% of remote professionals experienced workplace conflict.
Moreover, workplace conflict can take a variety of forms in a remote setting. Let’s take a look at how these issues occur and how you can prevent them in the first place.
Team Distance
It’s fair to say that when employees are entirely remote, they don’t always have the opportunities to forge strong bonds with their colleagues. As such, you may find that distance between your team members may cause conflict due to a lack of interpersonal relationships, empathy, and even trust.
As such, part of your approach to preventing conflict has to include methods to keep remote teams closely connected. This begins with encouraging remote team engagement to strengthen the bonds workers have with colleagues and the business itself. Implementing this is integral to your remote company’s culture. Make working practices as much about collaboration as attending to their independent tasks.
In addition, establish practices to minimize the tendency toward self-isolation. Yes, some workers may prefer to operate independently. But it’s in everyone’s best interest to make efforts to connect. Arrange remote team-building exercises. Create channels on your communication platforms dedicated to casual chats. It may take more effort than in an office, but you can reduce the conflict of distance by creating strong social interactions among your team.
Microaggressions
The presence of microaggressions in the workplace has become a key focus in many industries. These are the more subtle verbal, behavioral, and environmental behaviors often directed toward workers from marginalized groups. They can come in the form of damaging cultural stereotypes, invalidating actions, exclusive conduct, and many more harmful activities. It may be more difficult to note and address microaggressions in a remote environment compared to a traditional office workplace, but if left unaddressed, these actions may build toward a destructive conflict.
Part of the problem with microaggressions is the perpetrators aren’t always aware of their transgressions. Their actions and opinions are based on toxic cultural elements that were ingrained over decades. But these more subtle barbs are no less damaging or impactful to the recipient. As such, it’s vital to implement training on microaggressions and how to recognize them in employees’ behavior.
It is also vital to make it clear to your workers that they can speak to you in safety and confidentiality if they feel they are victims of microaggressions in the remote workplace. Should a worker approach you, make sure to handle these swiftly and sensitively. This can prevent further conflict from arising.
Leadership Disagreements
Some of the most difficult conflicts you’ll face in remote environments are those related to your leadership approach. When your staff doesn’t have meaningful contact with you every day, it can be difficult for them to develop respect for you and your methods. As such, when the time comes that a worker doesn’t agree with your approach, you may find them less responsive. This isn’t good for productivity, team cohesion, or employee retention.
Your most important tool in preventing this type of conflict is a commitment to regular communication from day one. This doesn’t mean you should micromanage them; you’ll just create more conflict. Rather, check-in with individual team members at the beginning of each day via email or messaging. Show some care for their welfare and touch on the tasks for the day. Make it clear what the best contact channels are if they need your help with anything.
Throughout the day, you should take moments to connect with the whole team on your shared chat channels. Make this a mixture of work-related points and engagement with the social channels. This demonstrates your professional abilities and aspects of your personality. At least once a week, hold a video chat with team members so they get some face-to-face contact. This way, should disagreements about your leadership decision arise, you’ve already established a basis for respect and understanding. It also makes employees more comfortable in communicating with you.
Work Style Clashes
Remote operations can be an attractive option for workers. Many workers may strive for this work setup as it gives them the flexibility to handle their working tasks according to their individual working preferences. Providing this choice can certainly be a motivation and productivity boost. However, if your workplace involves a lot of collaborative work, a difference between work styles may lead to a clash between employees.
You can help prevent this by introducing some form of company standardization in your practices. This may be something as simple as a solid basic framework for each task or project. Set specific milestones to meet along a task’s timeline. Confirm what tools are used for each step. These steps add structure and set consistent expectations for everyone while still giving space for individual processes.
Most importantly, encourage your employees to communicate with one another about their working practices. Help them to better understand each others’ workflows throughout the process of a project. It’s also worth implementing project management software to keep each team member’s tasks on the project timeline visible. This helps all colleagues to see progress so they can plan accordingly.
Conclusion
Any workplace will be subject to a certain amount of conflict among staff. Remote businesses have specific challenges surrounding distance, respect, trust, and cooperation. In almost all of these cases, the preventative solutions revolve around effective communication and finding ways to forge better connections. With a little strategy and focus, you can find ways to minimize friction and maximize productivity.
