Here's how you can navigate conflicts of interest when working remotely with senior stakeholders.

"A stitch in time saves nine." Here's how to handle conflicts of interest remotely: 1. Communicate clearly; misunderstandings can breed conflict. 2. Establish transparency; it builds trust and aligns interests. 3. Prioritize; focus on common goals to navigate through conflicts. 4. Be empathetic; understanding perspectives can dissolve tensions. 5. Document decisions; it ensures accountability and clarity. Effective conflict management leads to stronger remote collaborations.

I would also encourage periodic verbal interaction when conflicts arise. Sometimes the written word will miss the mark on compassion, sincerity & even light humor.

1. Senior stakeholders may have different communication preferences or strategies, leading to misunderstandings or expectation mismatch. 2. The decision making authority has to be clearly recognized. This becomes difficult when many senior stakeholders are involved, which leads to delay and confusion. 3. Senior Stakeholders can have conflicting priorities or goals. We have to be careful not to rub them on the wrong side of it. 4. As we do not share the same view as that of the senior stakeholders, we have to give them sufficient time and bandwidth to help us with the allocation of resources else there may be a project delay. 5. Risk Management, for a Senior stakeholder, lies in the monetary impact & the cost of the risk and its mitigation.

As this project is your baby, you would have to set boundaries with your senior stakeholders: 1. Cleary outline your roles and responsibilities of all senior stakeholders, including decision making authority and areas of influence. 2. Be clear with them from the start, as to how and when the statuses would be communicated and also understand what is their expectation from performance metrics perspective. 3. We have to be very clear and concise as which information would be treated as confidential and which would be for public usage. 4. Without sounding offensive, we have to clarify the limit of their interference and the boundaries beyond which they are not expected to look into. This would avoid micro management.

"Too many cooks spoil the broth." Navigating remote conflicts with stakeholders: 1. Set clear boundaries; it prevents overstepping and conflicts. 2. Seek common ground; it's the foundation for compromise. 3. Listen actively; it shows respect and aids understanding. 4. Choose battles wisely; not all conflicts are worth the fight. 5. Follow up in writing; it keeps everyone on the same page. Managing conflicts remotely requires tact and strategy.

1. Encourage Transparency where information is shared openly and honestly among senior stakeholders. 2. Encourage Active Listening among stakeholders, where everyone feels heard and understood. 3. Respectful Communication: Create and promote the environment of respect and professionalism in all your communications. 4. Promote an environment for constructive feedback and no blame games. 5. Create a safe place for addressing conflicts or disagreements openly with constructive feedbacks.

I have come to learn that we have the opportunity to learn a lot more about ourselves and those around us in our struggles than when we experience success - though that's a good teacher as well! Our true character will come out when we are squeezed. Take time to conduct a self audit and see how you could have done things better. If we first work on correcting our own mistakes and improving our own activity we will find our hearts and our minds moving away from the tendency to find fault in others and look for ways to blame or excuse failures.

In my experience, we are mostly more successful if we make efforts to find some common ground/cause while at the same time acknowledge that there is a conflict of interest. Working through the differences respecting each others point of view and yet serving the larger cause/goal of the enterprise or program or any cause is what we should try to aspire for transparently(openly talking it out) when engaging with senior stakeholders. At senior levels turfs are set and they often cross into each other- sometimes by design to promote competition but I believe there is always scope to find common ground to move things forward. Also, relationship at a human level can always be built irrespective of work conflict of interest 😊