34. The Devastating Costs of Unresolved Conflict

Welcome back to Lead thru values

I am your host, James Mayhew

Before we begin I just want to mention an ongoing leadership accelerator program I run called XLR8. 

I designed XLR8 to give new and emerging leaders — even veteran leaders — the tools and training on the essentials they’ll need to lead their teams and companies effectively. 

XLR8 is a live, virtual training program. It’s 8 weeks of intense, high-impact training delivered through Zoom.

There are 6 modules from human communication & behavior through feedback and accountability and more. 

I saw the need for a program like XLR8 because as I’m working with my clients, I’m hearing their desire to promote leaders from within, but then they find that they’re missing vital responsibilities.

So XLR8 gives them the solid foundation so they are more confident, have greater clarity and focus, and less stress about managing growth.

Coming soon XLR8 will also be available as an online course with 45+ videos, 11 cheat sheets and 10+ hours of content.

So today I’m going to be talking about the causes and impact of unresolved conflict in your workplace.

Understand that any workgroup will experience conflict between 2 or more people at some point.

It’s inevitable. 

It starts with disagreements about how to approach a particular challenge or problem
It might be a disagreement about the urgency of said challenge or problem
It might even start over something small like a thermostat setting in an office!

And as the disagreements continue, it can escalate and deteriorate into 2 people unwilling to work well together: 

• they stop communicating well
• they avoid collaborating on a customer’s project
• so now we have a bigger problem that could result in losing a customer

That’s why I always teach my clients that if they want to create a great customer experience, that they MUST focus also on the employee experience

Because two or more people who aren’t working well together because of a difference of opinion, method, pace or whatever their issue is, CANNOT and WILL NOT provide the top level of customer experience that they either can or have in the past.

Unresolved conflict is costly

• It will cost you time and profit because work is progressing slower
• It will cost you customers or clients because of slower response time, poor quality or missed deadlines…
• And that could add up to some staggering numbers

One thing I do with my clients in training is ask them, How much revenue does a medium-sized customer bring you on a monthly bases? 

Let’s say it’s $10,000

So over a year, that’s a $120,000 customer

And over a 10-year period of time, that’s a $1.2M customer!

Is it worth risking $1.2M over unresolved conflict between people in your team or company? 

That’s why training around teaching conflict resolution is absolutely vital. In fact, teaching healthy conflict resolution skills could be the difference between keeping — or losing — your best customers.

It’s also the difference between keeping — or losing — your best employees.

What are some other results of unresolved conflict on a team? Here are 10. All of them have varying degrees of severity, but the one thing they absolutely all have in common is LOSS. 

Loss of time.

Loss of productivity.

Loss of revenue.

Loss of joy.

Confidence Covered by Humility is a podcast that explores what it takes to lead your business, your team and your home with humble confidence.