In today’s complex health care setting, conflicts arise on a regular basis. That’s why physician leaders, health care team members and other stakeholders need strong conflict resolution, feedback and negotiation skills to help their organizations navigate challenging situations in the most effective way. This is key to creating supportive workplace environments where employees feel strong job satisfaction and can do their best work, according to Ted Witherell, MA, program director of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Executive and Continuing Education’s Conflict, Feedback and Negotiation in Health Care.
Yet many people in health care management positions often lack the experience they need to resolve conflicts in the workplace and lead their teams successfully. This can have a negative impact on both employees and patients.
Part of the problem is that people who hold leadership roles in health care often have extensive clinical training and experience, but they may not have been taught some of the foundational interpersonal skills they need to deal with the types of problems they face on the job, explains Jo Shapiro, MD, FACS, associate professor of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery for Harvard Medical School and consultant in the Department of Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. Shapiro also serves as faculty for Conflict, Feedback and Negotiation in Health Care.
The Need to Build Stronger Conflict Resolution Skills in Health Care
“What I notice in health care is that there isn’t any real structure for dealing with [conflicts] and performance issues, and it leaves people feeling very frustrated,” Shapiro says. The aftermath of COVID-19, increasing hospital closures, staff shortages and clinician burnout are further compounding the problem, leaving leaders and other stakeholders with more problems to manage than ever—and little time or energy to devote to the task.
“All human beings have conflict. It’s central to the human condition. We tend to view it as negative, but it leads to great things if you know how to address it well. Negotiation is simply the way we bridge our differences,” Witherell says.
In order to do this properly, Shapiro and Witherell agree that physician leaders and other stakeholders need to build some key business management skills—including developing the ability to manage conflict, provide feedback and negotiate effectively. These skills are essential to establishing a culture of psychological safety, which is a framework that includes shared principles, values and beliefs about how we engage with, and participate in, an organization.
Using Conflict, Feedback and Negotiation Skills Effectively
As part of the process of managing conflict, leaders must also be able to deliver feedback to team members in a constructive way.
“I put conflict management, feedback and negotiation all under the same umbrella,” Witherell says. Leaders need to be able to understand a problem, manage it, deliver feedback and negotiate a resolution. These steps need to happen in a variety of settings and situations.
“You can start by thinking about these skills at the individual level, then at the team level and then move up to the organizational level,” Shapiro says. This enables you to gain more experience as you go along. “You can only do what you can do within your sphere of influence,” she says.
“People who hold leadership roles in health care often have extensive clinical training and experience, but they may not have been taught some of the foundational interpersonal skills they need to deal with the types of problems they face on the job”
As your influence broadens over time, so can your impact. This can be essential to strengthening your team’s productivity and satisfaction, improving performance and morale and creating a healthier setting overall, Witherell points out.
Shapiro stresses that leaders who hone these key skills can also use them beyond the workplace to help them to navigate conflicts at home and to strengthen personal relationships.
“It’s worth making the time to build conflict, feedback and negotiation skills because these are highly practical and useful skills that people use every day,” she adds.
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health offers Conflict, Feedback, and Negotiation in Health Care, an online program that empowers participants with cutting-edge skills and confidence to tackle the challenging situations they face as leaders.