When two of your people clash

Two people on your team stop working well together. Each comes to you separately. Being trusted feels good, so you listen, you sympathise, and you pass on a gentler version of what each one said. Within a fortnight you are the postal service for a conflict you now own, and the two of them still have not spoken.

This lesson is for new managers stuck in the middle of a falling-out. It covers why carrying messages makes it worse, how to get both people in one room without it turning into a trial, and the single question that moves a conflict forward. You get a line for refusing the go-between role kindly, and what to do if one of them will not come.

Part of the Hard talks track. About two minutes to read, with a seven-day practice plan and a recall check a week later.