How Conflicting Personalities Can Cause Problems for a Team
A conflict between people at work can change everything. It can disrupt teams, make them miss deadlines, create general chaos and an unhealthy work environment. Stress can skyrocket. Ultimately, people may leave. When conflicting personalities create conflict, a lot can go wrong. What types of conflicts can occur? Can you find a way to prevent this problem?
Can Conflicting Personalities Cause Problems Within The Workplace?
What Are the Different Types of Personality Conflicts?
Every person is unique. The unique personality you bring to a job affects how you work individually and as a team. Some of the traits and experiences that affect how you work include:
- Your work style. Some people work fast and always seem to complete tasks on time. Other people are procrastinators and seem to always lag behind.
- Your background. For example, where you lived growing up and how you were raised; Your gender and ethnicity; Religious convictions and political views.
- Your attitude toward people and work. If you’re irritable or negative it affects people around you in one way, while if you’re positive and happy it has an entirely different effect.
- Whether you’re competitive or a team-oriented cooperative person also affects those around you.
Now imagine some of these personalities working together on a team. Can you start to see how people could start to have conflict? What happens to the rest of the team when the fireworks go off?
What is the Effect of Team Personality Clashes?
Ultimately, personality clashes cause tension on your team. This kind of stress is caused by our fight or flight response when conflict happens. It can put your body in a constant state of unease and stress. This is both physically and mentally draining. If the conflict is bad, it can even make you physically sick.
Team personality clashes can also decrease productivity both of individuals and teams. Teams are only as good as their ability to work together toward a goal. A personality clash can set teams against one another and slow down or halt their progress.
How can managers and business owners handle all this?
How to Minimize Personality Clashes at Work
Employees must come to a basic understanding that:
- Their way may not necessarily be the right way.
- Everyone has a different perspective on a situation. All are valid.
- Different personalities should be valued because they strengthen teams by contributing new ways to do things.
When personality conflicts are affecting the job at hand, you must deal with them. There are a few ways to do this:
- Through understanding the reasons behind the conflict. Sometimes you can diffuse personality differences just by being kinder and more understanding.
- By counseling your employees to stay professional and logical. Being overly emotional about a problem only creates more tension. Truthfully, you don’t even have to like each other to get the job done. Don’t take things personally and get the job done.
Are There Personality Conflicts In Your Workplace?
If none of these things work, it might be time to have a crucial conversation about selecting some replacement members for your team. The Custom Group of Companies can help by providing you with high-caliber talent to fill roles on your team. Call on us to find out more.
