There are those unfortunate moments though, like this past weekend when I knew I was having company, when I am forced to clean. The bathroom in my apartment had become a bit less than hygienic in the past few weeks, so I grabbed a sponge and some cleaning fluid and headed in with my tail already between my legs. The moment I saw the dust, dirt, and whatever else was covering nearly every surface, those overwhelming thoughts began to creep back in. “This is gonna take some serious time and even more serious elbow grease!”
What surprised me though, was when I finally got down to it and began to scrub, the dirt came up much easier than I had thought. The mess wasn’t as deep rooted as I had imagined. It looked bad, but simply starting to scrub made a world of a difference.
When doing collaborative work within a team, things are bound to get messy. Feelings get hurt, time gets wasted, morale goes down, and pretty soon the entire project looks like one big mess. A great leader knows that in moments like these, it’s time to start scrubbing.
Conflict is inevitable, and it can also be pretty easy to avoid as long as we don’t mind living among the mess. But there is another way. The fastest way to enhance the creativity of your team is to manage conflict as it comes. Start scrubbing away at the dirt and the grime. You’ll quickly realize it’s probably not as bad as it looks, and you can get back to the important work that needs to be done.
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