Most of the team members have been unhappy with the leadership behavior they experienced from their boss. Escalations, conflict resolution across various hierarchy levels as well as the involvement of the workers council had not been successful.

We were asked to support in resolving the conflict between the leader and its team.

First of all we analyzed the root-causes for the persistent dissatisfaction and why any solution attempt failed so far. This was done in individual in-depth and empathetic interviews.

After the assessment of all interviews, we decided to start with an individual coaching process with the  manager in order to make him familiar with the relevant and critical topics in his team. In the coaching he reflected his own behavior and motivation and generated first ideas for possible changes and solutions.

In a second step our focus was to create a positive team climate. Together with the leader we decided that the situation needed individual conversations with the employees.

Based on these mediation talks between the leader and individual team members old conflicts could be clarified and solved. Both parties had time to digest the insights and started opening up and thinking about future ways of collaboration.

As a last step, we facilitated a team workshop with an open reflection of all insights, newly gained perspectives, expectations for the future and strategies to deal with new potential conflicts in a more effective way.

After these interventions team members described the atmosphere within the team being more open and relaxed paired with a willingness to immediately and openly speak with each other in difficult situations. They gained a better understanding of their own behavior and risks for conflicts in the team as well as strategies to deal with them by communicating with each other more effectively.