Managing Conflict at Senior Level

cofounders, directors, shareholders, or between other business critical people

One of the toughest challenges I faced when running professional services firms was when two senior people had strong disagreements that went way beyond different interpretations of rules or situations. It happened more than a few times in different organisations. Lawyers, accountants and all other professionals are bright, educated people who hold themselves and each other to high standards, but they are also people. Sometimes they dislike each other. And sometimes that goes quite far and creates toxic behaviours and environments in the workplace.

Sometimes the conflict is between you and another business-critical person. One of your shareholders, your co-founder, or a director. Again, how you handle this is very important. I would always try to manage the conflict first, but sometimes you have to part ways and mitigate the fallout.

These toxic disagreements can happen in any office environment and in companies of any size, but in my experience, they become particularly bad in law firms. On the why, my view is that lawyers are trained to argue, disagree and defend, and be suspicious, and thus they can be some of the hardest people to manage. Now imagine two of these having a full-on fight – but they are supposed to be on the same side, the side of their firm. If you are a fan of any of the many dramatised TV shows about law firms out there, you probably have an idea of what that might look like. Now imagine this same conflict, minus the dramatic cut-aways, in your own company, and you are in charge of sorting it out. What do you do?

Bringing in an outside coach or mediator might be helpful.

Of course, you can always call in help from someone with the experience and credentials who has successfully handled such situations, like myself.

Going back to our example, let’s say both these professionals are strong revenue generators and clients and (some) colleagues like them. You, too, get on perfectly fine with both of them on a collegiate level. But their disagreements are so deep that it is difficult to judge which one is ‘right’ in what instance. Sounds a bit like a divorcing couple, doesn’t it?

And you have to solve this problem without delay; you have to create a situation where both of them and the wider company do not just function but thrive. How do you do that?

There are various ways to handle the situation, so let’s get to it.