When talking about a conflict that needs to be resolved, keep the issue neutral and talk in objective terms. It is essential not to place blame, criticize the other party or imply the fault is all theirs. The conflict will never be resolved in this way. Talk about the conflict from the perspective of a business problem that needs to be solved in a collaborative manner.
For example, we don’t want to start a conversation by saying, “You did this… which caused this…;” or, “Because of your actions, we lost an account that we should not have lost.” Rather, consider a conversation starter to talk about conflict such as, “If we focus on improving how we work together, I bet we can do a better job of meeting the customer’s needs,” or, “Let’s collaborate about how we can improve our interactions with customers so that we can retain our best accounts.”
By keeping the conversation around conflict in neutral terms, you are more likely to be able to effectively work with the other party in order to come to a win-win solution to the situation.
