Workplace Conflict Resolution: Matt Doherty Of Doherty Coaching On How Team Leaders Can Create The Right Environment To Resolve Conflicts
An Interview With Eric Pines
Practice it. Like any skill, conflict resolution needs to be practiced. Demonstrate in a team meeting or a workshop how you want conflict to be managed.
An important component of leadership is conflict resolution. Why is conflict resolution so important? How can leaders effectively incorporate conflict resolution into their work culture? In this interview series called “Workplace Conflict Resolution: How Team Leaders Can Create The Right Environment To Resolve Conflicts,” we are talking to business leaders who can share insights and anecdotes from their experience about how to implement Conflict Resolution at work. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Matt Doherty.
Matt Doherty is a nationally recognized motivational speaker, best-selling author, media personality, and executive coach. In 2022 he was named the Vistage Rookie of the Year and won the Chair Excellence Award.
He guides corporations, C-suite managers, sales executives, and business and sports coaches to develop their leadership skills and team dynamics.
Since being a part of the 1982 National Championship team with Michael Jordan at UNC, his journey has included Head Coach at Notre Dame and the UNC Tar Heels, 2001 ACC Regular Season Championship, AP National Coach of the Year in 2001, Head Coach at FAU and SMU, in addition to working with ESPN, the Indiana Pacers, and the Atlantic 10 Conference.
In 2003, he embarked on a mission to “learn and grow” by beginning a leadership journey that took him to the UVA Darden School of Business and The Wharton School.
Coach Doherty is committed to sharing universal teachings and actionable ideas that will work for anyone.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
I was the head basketball coach at the University of North Carolina and the 2001 National Coach of the Year. Two years later I was asked to resign after my leadership style was questioned. I decided to go on a leadership journey. I worked with executive coaches and studied at Wharton and the Darden School. It became evident that leadership is a learned behavior, and the most important thing a leader can do is create a good culture. I got into executive coaching because I didn’t want others to step on the same landmines I did.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
I wrote a book “REBOUND: From Pain to Passion — Leadership Lessons Learned. In addition, I was named the 2022 Vistage Rookie of the Year. Vistage is one of the oldest executive coaching organizations in the country. I thought it was ironic that at 61 years old I was a rookie again.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?
Nelson Mandela said, “I never lose. I either win or I learn.” I think it is important to have a mindset that everything that happens to us can be interpreted as good. The best lessons we learn are often due to trauma in our lives, like me being asked to resign at North Carolina.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
I have a small company with 1099 employees. But we all come together to accomplish my vision. I want to be one of the best executive coaches and keynote speakers in the industry. We had a live podcast event on August 24. It was the REBOUND Live Podcast. My guest was ESPN’s, Jay Bilas, and over 100 people attended. Everyone on my team did their part without complaining. They rallied together and embraced their individual roles for the good of the team. I love that. It made me proud.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
With your permission, I would like to name four. My core values are RTCP — Respect, Trust, Commitment, and Positivity.
Respect: I try to show everyone on my team respect and in return I believe I get it. It comes down to little things like saying “thank you” or “I appreciate the job you did”, etc. At the REBOUND Live Podcast I made sure the team got together for a team picture. “Little things are big things!”
Commitment: We are all committed to the common vision. The example above regarding the REBOUND Live Podcast, I gave the team the vision for the event and WE created a plan and the team executed the plan for a successful event.
Trust: I trust that my team will deliver, but I also have to verify. That’s where accountability comes in. I trusted my team in executing the plan for the REBOUND Live Podcast and held them to their respective tasks and deadlines. As a result, it freed me up to focus on my part as the host.
Positivity: Lastly, I want us to have a positive attitude and have fun along the way. We need to be able to laugh and enjoy the moment. The leader needs to model that behavior so I try to show up with a smile on my face and offer compliments. My college coach, Dean Smith, would always say, “Praise the actions you want repeated.” I try to do that.
Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. Can you share a story about a hard decision or choice you had to make as a leader?
I was the head basketball coach at Notre Dame in 2000 and was offered the head coaching position at my alma mater, The University of North Carolina. I remember flying back from our visit to Chapel Hill with my wife and I said to her “I could be the head coach of North Carolina or I can continue to be the head coach at Notre Dame“. Great options are often heavy burdens. That is where you need to take inventory of your options and weigh the good vs. the bad. I always look at the worst case and the best case scenarios in any decision. I also think it is important to have a personal board of directors that can help you make critical decisions that can impact the trajectory of your career.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Let’s start with a basic definition so that all of us are on the same page. What does Conflict Resolution mean?
Conflict resolution means addressing any issue that arises in a timely and professional manner. I think it is important to utilize your core values in this process.
What are some common misunderstandings about Conflict Resolution that are important to clear up?
When you hear the word conflict, it puts people in a defensive posture. I think it is important to coach through conflict rather than dictate through conflict. Emphasize the positives of conflict such as the fact that people care and that it can lead to a better organization.
This might be intuitive to you, but it will be helpful to clearly express this. Can you please explain why it is so important for leaders to learn and deploy conflict resolution techniques?
I think a leader’s job is three fold. One, to cast the vision. Two, to drive a positive culture and, three, to engage in significant business transactions/development. The leader needs to leverage the talent on their team to accomplish their vision. Therefore, their main focus should be their people. A leader can’t do it alone. As with any human being, there’s going to be conflict. Issues arise. Personalities surface and a leader needs to connect emotionally to make sure everybody is rowing in the same direction.
On the flip side, what happens to a work culture when there is not an effective way of resolving conflict? How does it impact employees?
There is always an effective way to resolve a conflict. You talk it out or you eliminate the problem. A leader cannot operate out of FOG — fear, obligation, or guilt. Fear of losing an employee. Obligation to a team member that has been with the organization for a long time but not in the right seat. Guilt of hurting someone’s feelings. I think accountability is the hardest thing a leader needs to do . A leader needs to focus on the vision and not let anyone that is unwilling to work towards the common goal get in the way. No one person is bigger than the team. If there’s a lack of alignment the leader’s job is to fix it. However, this needs to be done within your core values. When a leader does this the team will align. If a leader doesn’t address a conflict it will lead to dysfunction.
Can you provide examples of how effective conflict resolution has led to increased team performance, collaboration, or innovation within your organization?
As the head coach at the University of North Carolina, we had a film review after a loss. During the film session, I pointed out a mistake made by one of our senior leaders. That player was visibly upset. I ignored it at the moment, but asked him to stay behind after the film session. I talked with him about the importance of his role as a leader and how he needed to accept accountability for his mistakes, otherwise, the other players wouldn’t fall in line. He listened and accepted the narrative. We went out that night and won by 20 points.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “Five Ways Every Team Leader Can Create The Right Environment To Resolve Conflicts”? If you can, please share specific examples of a workplace conflict you’ve encountered, and how you applied conflict resolution techniques to address it.
1 . Make it part of your culture. Build “care-frontation” into your organization. Emphasis “take the issue to the person”. That is one of my “key behaviors”.
2 . Practice it. Like any skill, conflict resolution needs to be practiced. Demonstrate in a team meeting or a workshop how you want conflict to be managed.
3 . Create a safe environment. Promote healthy conflict. Talk about it. Allow it to occur in a team meeting. Manage it and coach it. State that conflict is welcome in our team meetings, as long as it is professional and we adhere to our core values.
4 . Model the behavior. Allow a team member to address you with an issue in a meeting. Don’t get defensive. Let the person share his/her thoughts and respond in a calm manner utilizing your core values.
5 . Praise the actions. When you witness a healthy conflict praise the heck out of the participants. If someone confronts you in a meeting, thank them.
When I was coaching at North Carolina, I had an assistant that was submitting an expense on a report that wasn’t approved by the administration. It came to my attention and I addressed it with him. I went to his office, not mine and I sat down. I thought this was important so he wouldn’t become defensive by being called into my office. And by sitting down, I was less intimidating. 50% of communication is body language and 35% is tone. I sat in his office and listened to his reasoning for submitting the expenses. What surfaced was a bigger issue. I listened some more, and then I calmly explained why he may have thought the way he did. It was a misunderstanding. The issue was then resolved, and we were able to move forward.
In your experience, what are the most common sources of conflict within a team, and how do you proactively address these potential issues before they escalate?
The biggest issues on any team are usually jealousy and ego. I called them termites. Termites eat at the foundation of an organization. Most people are like little kids wrapped up as adults. They want to play with the nicest toys and they want attention. The best way to proactively address these potential issues is to hire the right people that fit your core values and the behaviors you create for your team. Once you hire a person to your core values and key behaviors you need to hold them accountable to them. The best way to do that is to “praise the actions you want repeated”.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I am toying with the idea of starting a Christian Academy in the Charlotte area. My mission statement is to make a positive impact on the people I meet in the groups I work with while dropping bread crumbs to the Lord. The youth of America is our future, and if we can instill good values and educate young people, the future of our country will be better off.
How can our readers further follow you online?
They can go to my website DohertyCoaching.com or follow me on social media:
Twitter: @DohertyMatt
Instagram: coachmattdoherty
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/coachmattdoherty
Facebook: Matt Doherty
Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
About the Interviewer: Eric L. Pines is a nationally recognized federal employment lawyer, mediator, and attorney business coach. He represents federal employees and acts as in-house counsel for over fifty thousand federal employees through his work as a federal employee labor union representative. A formal federal employee himself, Mr. Pines began his federal employment law career as in-house counsel for AFGE Local 1923 which is in Social Security Administration’s headquarters and is the largest federal union local in the world. He presently serves as AFGE 1923’s Chief Counsel as well as in-house counsel for all FEMA bargaining unit employees and numerous Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs unions.
While he and his firm specialize in representing federal employees from all federal agencies and in reference to virtually all federal employee matters, his firm has placed special attention on representing Veteran Affairs doctors and nurses hired under the authority of Title. He and his firm have a particular passion in representing disabled federal employees with their requests for medical and religious reasonable accommodations when those accommodations are warranted under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (ADA). He also represents them with their requests for Federal Employee Disability Retirement (OPM) when an accommodation would not be possible.
Mr. Pines has also served as a mediator for numerous federal agencies including serving a year as the Library of Congress’ in-house EEO Mediator. He has also served as an expert witness in federal court for federal employee matters. He has also worked as an EEO technical writer drafting hundreds of Final Agency Decisions for the federal sector.
Mr. Pines’ firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has offices in Baltimore, Maryland and Atlanta, Georgia. His first passion is his wife and five children. He plays classical and rock guitar and enjoys playing ice hockey, running, and biking. Please visit his websites at www.pinesfederal.com and www.toughinjurylawyers.com. He can also be reached at eric@pinesfederal.com.
Workplace Conflict Resolution: Matt Doherty Of Doherty Coaching On How Team Leaders Can Create The… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.