Starbuck Academy · Grow
Manager Skills: Handling Conflict
Handle team conflict early, fairly and with confidence
A short, practical course for managers and team leaders on handling conflict in your team. In five video lessons you learn to tell healthy disagreement from the harmful kind, choose your own response on purpose, get to what people really need, mediate between two team members and prevent avoidable conflict.
Why conflict is a core manager skill
Disagreement is a normal part of any team with capable people in it, and handled well it leads to better decisions. Left alone, or handled clumsily, it drains energy, damages trust and pulls the whole team off course. Most managers are never shown how to step in between two people, or how to set a team up so that small frictions stay small. This course gives you a clear structure and a practical tool for each of those moments.
Who it is for
For managers and team leaders, whether new to the role or experienced, who want to handle disagreement in their team with more confidence. It is especially useful if you tend to avoid conflict, step in too hard, or find yourself caught between two team members.
What you will be able to do
- Tell task, relationship and process conflict apart, and spot the early signs of unhealthy conflict
- Recognise your own default conflict style and choose your response on purpose
- Uncover the interests behind people's positions and reframe complaints as needs
- Run an informal facilitated conversation between two team members
- Know when a situation must follow your organisation's policies and involve HR
- Prevent avoidable conflict with clear roles, a team agreement and early conversations
Five lessons
Healthy and unhealthy conflict
Separate task, relationship and process conflict, spot the warning signs and know when to step in.
Your own conflict style
Explore the five Thomas-Kilmann modes, what your default costs your team and how to choose on purpose.
Interests not positions
Ask the questions and reframe what you hear so that real needs, and better options, come to the surface.
Mediating between two team members
Prepare for and run an informal facilitated conversation that ends in a specific, shared agreement.
Preventing conflict before it starts
Use clear roles, a team agreement and early conversations to stop small frictions becoming lasting tension.
What is included
Five short video lessons you can watch on any device, workbook pages and a practical tool for every lesson, the full Manager Skills: Handling Conflict workbook to download, a five-question knowledge check per lesson, a certificate of completion showing 2.5 estimated learning hours, and 12 months’ access. A one-off payment of £49 per person inc. VAT.
How your learning time adds up
Your 2.5 estimated learning hours are made up across five lessons of about 30 minutes each:
- Watching the five short lesson videos: about 15 minutes (about 3 minutes each)
- Reading the lesson notes and workbook pages: about 40 minutes (8 minutes each)
- Working through the practical tool for each lesson: about 40 minutes (8 minutes each)
- Planning each workplace task: about 30 minutes (6 minutes each)
- Completing the five-question knowledge check after each lesson: about 25 minutes (5 minutes each)
Total: 2.5 estimated learning hours. Carrying out each workplace task at work is in addition to this.
Knowledge checks: every lesson or module ends with a short multiple choice knowledge check. The pass mark is 80% and you can retake a knowledge check as many times as you need.
Who designed it
This programme was designed by ICF credentialed coaches at Starbuck & Associates, led by Paul Starbuck, our Founder and CEO and an ICF Master Certified Coach (MCC). Every lesson draws on our coaching and leadership development work with organisations in the UK, Europe and around the world, and each programme is reviewed regularly to keep it current.
Before you start
This course is general learning and development content and is not professional advice. Always follow your own organisation’s policies, and take specialist advice on legal, medical, financial or HR matters.
