Module 4 deals with mediation, negotiation and dealing with challenging situations. In this lesson, we will talk about conflict and mediation. So leadership challenges, a constant succession. As you sign up to be a leader, you sign up to deal with difficult situations and conflict between employees, customers, suppliers in very difficult and challenging, complicated situations. How you are able to deal with this, sometimes minor annoyances, sometimes maybe major disasters, defines your leadership reputation. If you can play to your strengths here, think about your personality type, go back to what we talked about in lesson one on leadership presence, executive presence. And use those self-managing techniques such that there is an air of calm about you, a minimum of fuss, and that most individuals don't even recognize that there was an issue that you had to be part of the solution. So what might be some of these leadership challenges? Well, you can imagine between two individuals, it can be so many different things. But there are a lot of external things that happen, very difficult things as you move up in leadership that you are also responsible for, not only responding to but finding solutions for. Public criticism, if you are part of an organization that had some difficulty, let's say in the community or with a customer and it was made public. How you handle the response is a reflection both on you and your leadership, but on the organization. Flare-ups, interpersonal issues, those will always be present. And in some cases, you want a little bit of conflict, because that produces a level of creativity and innovation on the team. Yet when it becomes unproductive and it's clear that the two persons cannot work out a meaningful solution, sometimes as a leader, you have to step in. Crises, think about those as financial, or legal, public relations oriented. Disasters, maybe natural disasters, fires, maybe hurricanes or tornadoes, maybe destroying a factory or displacing a workforce. All those, you will have to answer for, not because it was your fault, but you are the one that everyone is looking to for a solution. And what's interesting is collaboration. So when another group calls upon you, because maybe your team is not necessarily collaborating well with them, how do you step in in a positive light, resolve whatever issues are between them such that the collaboration can take place? So dealing with conflict, again, on your team with your customers, with your suppliers, that is a part of leadership in an organization. In this module, we're going to cover two different handling techniques, mediation and critical conversations. The first one is mediation. I hope you enjoyed the reading. I thought it was very good on laying out the very specific steps of a mediation. Now, a couple of things about mediation, you the leader can choose to be the mediator. Or in some organizations, there are people that you can call upon, usually in human resources, that will help with the mediation. But mediation is between three people, the two individuals that have the conflict and the mediator. It's completely voluntary, very important, and confidential. People enter into mediation with the agreement that at the outcome will be one solution mutually agreeable by both. A process obviously must be gone through to be able to get to that one mutually agreeable solution, and the mediator must be impartial and be seen as fair. Then when all of the conversations and different points of view are put out on the table and a brainstorming of solutions occurs, a final agreement is made. The best thing to do as a mediator is to have it written down, have the party sign it, and recognize the fact that they created that solution themselves for themselves. So mediation is usually used for problems between employees. And even small problems, if they're left unresolved, will fester. And it will not only hurt those two individuals, but a lot of the team around them. Mediation is a, as I said, a voluntary confidential way of coming to an agreement that really empowers both sides to find something they have in common and something they can work both towards. Another way mediation can help is in harassment complaints. And this is helpful because sometimes the complaint could be based on a misrepresentation or a misperception or a misunderstanding of what is acceptable workplace behavior. Mediation opens up the communication and conversation between the two. And in the best case provides a way for a healthy working relationship between the two individuals. Some of the key items in a mediation and one of the first things a mediator needs to figure out is whether to meet jointly with both individuals or to meet separately for the first time. If there are strong emotions, it is probably best to meet separately. Eventually, you will have to meet together. When you do meet together, ground rules must be set about respect and professional conversation. As a mediator, you are to be fair, but to show empathy and help each of the individuals show empathy for each other, reminding them that they are responsible for the solution, not you. Let's go back to you as a leader. You will be confronted in probably some of the most surprising places, the hallway, maybe the restroom, the cafeteria, walking to your car. Individuals want your attention and want to give you a piece of information and are looking for solutions. And the confrontation maybe a little bit angry or full of emotion. You as the leader need to control and manage your emotions. This goes back to your executive presence. One of the most critical parts of that is making sure you are self-managing yourself. Be aware of those trigger responses and tamp them down before they appear. Respect others positions, even if they are emotional at that moment, even if you might not agree, because you probably have not heard the whole story yet. When confronted as a leader, you begin with empathy. What might you not know, what might you not see from your perspective that you need to see from their perspective? Because what you are looking for is a solution and a viable compromise. When you are confronted, make sure that you understand the environment around the conflict, the background, as well as search for alternative solutions. And working with the person that is confronting you in a positive way will yield a much better outcome than sort of directing an answer, because as a leader, you probably could. So now, moving on to the next module, critical conversations. We're going to talk about what it is like to hold these difficult conversations and how you should act as a leader. There are readings in a video, and I will see you on that next module.
