You want a marketing team that is passionate and creative. You need to come up with novel ideas all the time if you want to stay ahead of your competitors. In the age of social media, things that are fresh today are not relevant the next day. The good thing with highly qualified employees working in your marketing department is that they will not settle for anything that they consider mediocre.
On the downside, they could feel too passionate about their ideas and end up fighting against one another until they prove that they have a better idea. As the team leader or manager, it is your responsibility to ensure that any disagreements do not escalate. It is excellent to have a healthy debate, but it is counterproductive if people start taking things personally. These tips will help during those instances.
Set clear rules
Before you start brainstorming or discussing the next marketing plan, you need to make it clear that you appreciate the exchange of ideas and healthy debate. However, you cannot allow everyone to take things personally. You can also set rules on how to resolve disagreements. You can tell your employees that you will have the final say. You can also vote within the team to determine what the rest think about it. The rules need to be clear enough so that no one will feel terrible if they did not get what they hoped for.
Let others talk
If the fight starts to escalate, you can tell both parties that you heard their thoughts and you appreciate what they have in mind. Since they already had their turn, it is time for others to speak. They could further debate the same issue, or they could also come up with new ideas that could be better alternatives than the plans presented by the two employees who are fighting. Everyone could also have a better perspective after listening to other people’s thoughts.
Call a private meeting with the parties involved
You can pull out the opposing parties during the meeting. It is unhealthy to continue in the same environment when there is too much tension. Besides, nothing will come out of a shouting match. If both sides are ready to calm down and head back to the meeting, they could. They can decide to talk to each other without someone else listening, or they could proceed with the meeting while brushing aside their emotions for a later conversation. The only thing to avoid is cancelling the meeting because emotions are running high since it could become the norm and it makes the team unproductive.
Do not join the fight
Even if you believe one side over the other, you need to stay neutral. You are the leader, and everyone looks up to you for calmness and clarity of thought. If you jump into the battle and choose a side, it could hurt your reputation as a leader.
When the discussion is about banner printing and many ideas are coming out, it is a great thing. Turn these ideas into real plans that are enticing to a lot of people.
