Alongside my 1:1 Conflict In Leadership coaching & consulting, I also run Proactive Conflict Masterclasses for advertising agency & media owner teams predominantly involved in business development & account management.
In all my years of working within the advertising industry, I rarely came across an agency or media owner that had an effective universal approach to conflict management that ensured it became an asset and not a liability when it came to winning new business, retaining important clients and growing them.
I found one of the biggest detractors of high-performance was what I call 'Silent Conflict' - the type that rarely gets told by employees and rarely gets asked about by managers and leaders... and yet, accounts largely for the low engagement, employee churn and consequently, lack of continuity with clients that leads to account losses.
The core mission for my services is to show leaders and their teams how they can harness the power of proactive conflict to overcome these 'barriers to success' and propel their teams and organisations to fulfill far more of their untapped collective potential.
You see, when properly understood 'Conflict Is Good’ because instead of getting in the way, 'Conflict Becomes The Way' to greater creativity, collaboration, innovation, cohesiveness and growth.
My Background
For over 20 years I was an industry-leading Group Account Director & Head of Strategic Account Management working with brand-name advertisers and their agencies.
Throughout, I was fortunate to be recognised with multiple Fortune 500 & FTSE 100 ‘Distinguished Achievement’ & CEO ‘Outstanding Business Contribution' awards for breaking new business, client retention & growth records.
None of these achievements came without their challenges however and as someone responsible for bringing people and resources together to accomplish industry-leading results, there was one single area of focus that I believe, set us apart from our peers and competitors. Namely; our universal approach to embracing and proactively managing conflict.
You see, most people have a typically fearful or confused attitude towards conflict and they don’t grasp the fact that this approach undermines personal, team and business performance... and, because 9 out of 10 employees fear or avoid the very subject of conflict, much of the damage goes unnoticed but costly nonetheless.
A proactive approach to conflict management, however, becomes a catalyst that accelerates individuals, teams and organisations to higher performance, exceptional growth and fulfilled potential. It...
- Makes 'uncomfortable' conversations 'comfortable & powerfully constructive
- Eliminates the need for 'after the event' remedial strategies like conflict resolution or mediation because people trust each other to handle conflict the right ways in advance
- Brings ‘warring parties’ together and turns potential ‘battle fields’ into ‘fields of collaboration & cohesiveness’
- Takes the ‘sting’ out of emotionally charged situations so people engage in calm & constructive debate
- Brings order to chaos, clarity to confusion and higher-level intelligence to low-level thinking
- Encourages the focus on ‘what’s good’ for the team and business over ‘what’s good’ for one and not for another
When people positively invite and engage in unfiltered, constructive debate around differences of opinion, opposing styles or methodologies, ideas flow and innovation occurs whereas ‘unrecognised or unresolved conflict' results in missed opportunities for growth.
If you're based in the UK and would like my help, please get in touch using the link below.
