You're managing a team with conflicting emotions. How can you use active listening to ease tensions?

Create a safe space for open dialogue by actively listening to understand each team member's perspective and emotions without judgment or interruption. This fosters trust and encourages constructive communication, easing tensions and promoting team cohesion.

Managing a team with conflicting emotions requires active listening to ease tensions. Start by giving each team member a chance to express their feelings without interruptions. Show empathy by acknowledging their emotions and validating their experiences. Ask open-ended questions to gain deeper insights and clarify misunderstandings. Reflect back what you’ve heard to ensure accuracy and demonstrate understanding. Foster an environment of respect and trust by encouraging open dialogue and collaboration. Use these insights to address the root causes of conflict and work towards mutually beneficial solutions.

Para practicar la escucha activa, es esencial distinguir entre oír y escuchar. Oír es el acto pasivo de recibir sonidos a través de los oídos, mientras que escuchar implica prestar atención consciente con nuestro cuerpo, mente y comprender el mensaje. La escucha activa requiere que nos enfoquemos completamente en el otro, dejando de lado nuestros propios pensamientos y juicios. Acá te comparto los beneficios: 1. Hace sentir al emisor verdaderamente escuchado y valorado creando un entorno de confianza. 2. Una escucha profunda permite entender mejor al otro y resulta en conversaciones más efectivas y constructivas. 3. La escucha activa transforma la comunicación, haciendo que cada interacción sea más significativa y enriquecedora.

As a Digital & Payments Business/Risk Executive, I practice intuitive listening. That means listening with the entire body. I give my full attention to what is being said and what is being portrayed through body language, tone of voice, and choice of words. People want to be heard. In my experience, once they feel heard the tension starts to melt away.

Depending on the severity of the team fracture it is important to structure the conversations and strategy of mitigating a bad groupthink. Sometimes it is best to break the team down into the smallest groups possible. This minimizes the potential for a “mob mentality” that can derail the effort of an individual that will inject too much negativity into the process. It is important to know that the mindset of each team member is ready for a discussion with the larger group before the larger meeting. At times it can also be beneficial to leak out the initiative a few days prior so that people come to the sessions understanding the goal and are not blindsided.

La empatía nos permite trascender las jerarquías y conectar con los demás a nivel humano. Nos recuerda que, a pesar de nuestras diferencias, todos compartimos emociones fundamentales. Enfocarse en el sentir, es más poderoso que en la experiencia En lugar de intentar "ponernos en los zapatos del otro", lo cual puede ser limitado si no compartimos sus experiencias, podemos conectar con sus emociones. Todos hemos experimentado sentimientos universales como miedo, tristeza, ansiedad o enojo, lo que nos permite comprender cómo se siente el otro.

With conflict emotions and conflict situations, having an empathetic approach will help ease some ongoing tensions. Listen with empathy and understand the real problem without just acknowledging for the sake. This will help build a healthy relationship and help manage a team with conflict emotions.

Where there is no empathy there is no leadership. True empathy can only happen when the leader actually makes the effort to walk in the shoes of the the other party, even if it’s just a mind trip.

El cuerpo siempre está en el presente y no miente. Los gestos no verbales, como la postura, los movimientos de las manos, la mirada y el tono de voz, revelan cómo se siente un colaborador, incluso cuando no lo expresa con palabras. Aunque las emociones no siempre se verbalizan, el cuerpo las manifiesta claramente. Estar atento al lenguaje no verbal nos permite comprender mejor a los demás y escuchar de manera mucho más efectiva. Un beneficio de estar atento a las señales no verbales es que estas señales nos proporciona información valiosa que podemos usar para complementar nuestros argumentos y abordar conversaciones difíciles con mayor empatía y comprensión.

Reading nonverbal communication is a powerful skill that very few possess. I learned my skills during my law enforcement years and cannot imagine doing that work without them. They are wildly valuable in the business world in every situation. Usually when one individual has the training and skill they have a huge advantage to meet their objective in that situation. On the other hand, people who are just dabblers will do more harm to their objectives than if they didn't have the skill at all and many times could produce the opposite of the desired outcome because they are reading the clues wrong. Without training and practice, it is not an easy skill to deploy.

Read the One Minute Manager, it is still a very good read and it is easy to execute the methodology. The one-minute reprimand is actually a great way to get buy in on a course correction discussion.