Goals, priorities, and workflows can differ from business unit to business unit, from company to company, and from industry to industry, making workplace conflicts likely in day-to-day dealings.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Conflicts might point toward a need for change. For anyone with a growth mindset, conflicts can be an opportunity to use time and efforts productively.
“You don’t want to work in a place where everyone agrees with each other all the time,” said Pankaj Vasani, an India-based chartered accountant who is group CFO at Cube Highways InvIT, an infrastructure investment trust that is India’s largest highway platform that invests in, owns, and operates infrastructure projects. “Respectful disagreement is healthy for a constructive environment, productivity, fresh ideas, and better performance outcome.”
It may be difficult to be receptive to those who challenge your perceptions, Vasani said, but keeping quiet or not resolving the conflict may be a poor choice for the team, organisation, and even your mental wellbeing.
Tackling conflict
Finance members often have to deal with conflict when business decisions that affect staff, resources, and costs run into problems.
“Then it’s firefighting all the way,” said Jesmin Ehsan, ACMA, CGMA, business controller at Ericsson for Singapore, Brunei, Philippines, and Pacific Islands. At this stage, there’s stress, there’s pressure from the stakeholders, and pressure to perform. Emotions run high. If not handled properly, these situations can lead to strained relations, Ehsan said.
Finance professionals are either appreciated for their strategic, growth-driving role or perceived as a cost-conscious constraint, said Divinia Knowles, FCMA, CGMA, a UK-based executive coach for startups and C-suite leaders. Knowles suggested starting by creating a positive perception. In fact, better still, establish the facts about how finance can be helpful, she said.
Ehsan agreed. “Conflicts can generate positive results if you are candid and open,” she said.
To manage and resolve workplace conflicts, Ehsan, Vasani, and Knowles suggested these seven steps:
Collaborate and communicate early on. Involving the finance team early on in decision-making that affects costs, resources, or compliance issues fosters transparency and can prevent conflicts. Finance is often privy to information that helps reveal a larger picture regarding resources, markets, and suppliers.
“If we are involved from the beginning, we can work together to find that best way to approach any initiative,” Ehsan said. “That way, processes become smooth, and the assumptions about various departments peel off, making the workplace friendlier and more cooperative.”
Address misperceptions of finance’s role. “There’s a myth that finance departments don’t understand anything outside compliance, audit processes, and accounting best practices. That we bring out the compliance cards all too often and disregard anything else,” Ehsan said.
This misperception can be resolved by talking about compliance and audit practices, what they are and why they are needed, she said. It needs to be explained that these frameworks keep the organisation and the owners of its various processes protected.
Knowles takes this a step further. “[Previously, as a CFO] I was always reframing other people’s mindset [about finance] — it’s an enabler, it’s a growth function, it’s commercial and strategic, and it can help you,” she said. This was useful because it came from a place of positivity.
As a coach now, she guides finance professionals to understand finance’s strategic role and the perception of compliance as a constraint. She suggested starting by asking: “How can I be a facilitator and not a blocker? How can I show people that this is a function that will help grow the business instead of holding it back?”
“Our default usually is that the other person is always the problem,” Vasani said. “Work relationships require the same amount of patience and forbearance as personal relationships.”
Bank on emotional intelligence. In situations of conflict, it is necessary to stay civil and professional. It might be the processes, the stress, the myths, or the speed of delivery that are causing conflict. In these circumstances, increasing the emotional intelligence quotient with these tactics can help:
- Practise empathy. Understanding where the other person is coming from and not taking words spoken or written personally often helps, Vasani said. Equally important is to honestly review whether you are contributing to the problem.
In conflict situations, people are often so intent on getting their point of view across that they forget about their counterpart, Knowles said. Instead, to contribute productively in those situations, regulate the tone of communication, remind yourself — and articulate clearly to all — that all participating parties come with positive intent, and that everyone is working for the best of the business.
- Give it time. Ehsan suggested breaking away from a communication or situation that is getting out of hand and to reconvene after some time. Emotions run high when people are stressed or feel they are not being heard or understood. Give it a day, or even an hour or two, depending on its seriousness. Take a walk, remove your mind from it, and come back to it later, she said. By then, all parties have greater insight to amicably rationalise the situation.
Be prepared for the conflict-resolution session. Realising that both parties are working in the business’s best interests is not enough. Establish the positive intent behind the actions leading to the conflict. Knowles said that it can be powerful to explicitly voice these intentions and strategise these conversations in the following ways:
- Express the intent. “Everyone’s really busy. These are people with very high-profile jobs, and a lot gets lost in the noise,” Knowles said. It helps to set the intent and what is wanted from the conversation even before the conversation begins.
“Voicing something like: ‘My intent here is that we have a really productive discussion,’ or ‘I really respect you, and my intent is that we come to a combined solution that we both agree on,’ helps set the stage,” she said. “When one is brave enough to express positive mutual regards and empathy, one can completely change the conversation before it starts.”
- Frame the conversation. Framing the conversation is reminding all concerned that they are entering a resolution zone and to do so with positivity and a common contract for the conversation — to resolve the conflict situation respectably, fast, and in the best possible way for all. Setting the rules of engagement and the goals at the beginning of the conversation helps in creating a safe and cordial space, Knowles said. It reminds everyone that they are there together, it is valuable time, and that everyone is committed to resolving what’s going on.
- Focus on facts. “When we talk about perception, it’s really that somebody has concocted a story in their own mind,” Knowles said. “Facts will tell us that this is not true — it’s a stereotype, a generalisation. So how can we, in a conflict situation, be really clear about fact and story perception?”
Her suggestion is to explicitly acknowledge the perception and then talk about facts so both parties can start to differentiate between the two.
The differentiation between fact and fiction helps create a safe conversation zone because, quite often in conflict, there’s an attacker and a defender. In a truly safe conversation, no one is attacking and defending.
Bring in a mediator. When a conflict is getting out of hand and can’t be resolved by the parties involved, and it’s affecting workplace relationships and environment, bringing in a mediator is useful. Is there a common friend, associate, or mentor who has great rapport with both parties?
Even with a mediator or another reconciliatory third party, it’s powerful at the top of the conversation to reframe it with a goal in mind, Knowles said.
When sharing your feelings, choose your confidante wisely. Find a trusted friend, preferably outside your workplace, who can provide honest feedback and perspective, but consider your organisation’s confidentiality obligations while sharing details.
Start afresh and set new ground rules. Once tempers no longer flare, work on establishing a connection. Find common ground and new serviceable terms of engagement, define joint accountability of all parties involved, stay focused on the bigger picture, and set work goals.
Remember, you don’t have to become best friends or best enemies, Vasani said.
Remember the big picture. Keeping core values in full view helps with managing a conflict. “Money is the by-product,” Ehsan said. “At the core, I am working this job for a sense of fulfilment and contribution towards my organisation and for the society in general, for the energy I get from my colleagues, for the sense of achievement, the recognition, and also my personal career ambitions.”
Managing conflicts and dealing with stakeholders are learning and growth opportunities. Once this is acknowledged, people stay grounded and are inspired to do what it takes to resolve the situation in the best interest of all, Ehsan said.
— Swati Sanyal Tarafdar is a freelance writer based in India. To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Oliver Rowe at Oliver.Rowe@aicpa-cima.com.
