Brutal Honesty & Conflict Resolution Part 1
Eden Minucci, Legal Operations Partner, and Janelle Chapa, Director of Operations, sat down to discuss conflict resolution and how to handle that. The conversation has been lightly edited. You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/y9EWV7EILws
Eden: Conflict in the office is never an easy topic. At Clear Guidance, we strive to cultivate a culture of trust, transparency, and continuous improvement. One approach we encourage is rooted in the principles of honest, direct communication combined with genuine care for one another. By being straightforward and supportive, we aim to create a work environment where open feedback can drive growth and strengthen relationships. Janelle, can you walk us through the process we follow?
Janelle: The process has 4 steps to it. Those steps are:
Step 1: Really acknowledge your feelings. Whenever you feel something might be a little off or doesn’t feel right, you want to make sure that you can fully understand the emotion so you can verbalize it level-headed.
Step 2: Schedule a private conversation with whichever peer or coworker you might have this feeling towards. When you’re scheduling this meeting, you’ll want to explicitly state that you would like to have a [direct] conversation. Provide some details so they’re not coming in caught by surprise.
Step 3: During the meeting, you’ll want to begin the conversation with care. Express empathy for the individual and make sure this is coming from a place of gratitude. Give specific examples about the actions that are being addressed and then challenge your peer directly. Offer honest feedback, suggest improvements, and always encourage dialogue between the two of you. The goal of the meeting is to promote honest feedback and make strides towards better communication.
Step 4: You want to follow up with this individual to make sure that it is understood that things are getting better.
Eden: Those are really good directions. During a meeting, just to kind of dig down a little bit more, you should listen actively without interrupting when someone is sharing, seek clarification, and accept feedback. If you’re the recipient, try to keep an open mind as much as possible without getting defensive. There is still a lot more to this topic so we will have a second discussion later!
If your firm is interested in learning more about this process or would like to do a tabletop exercise around this ideology, fill out this form and someone from our team will reach out: