Section 1: Three Conflict-Management Principles
Section 2: Customer Perceptions
Section 3: Positive Resolution
Section 4: Minimize Negative Energy
Section 5: Employee Harmony

Section 1: Three Conflict-Management Principles
Although most of us were raised on the notion that conflict is bad, conflict itself isn't good or bad-but it is inevitable. Resist the temptation to quash conflict, instead learn how to make conflict work for you. These principles can help you manage conflict:

1. Prevent employees' conflicts from coloring customers' perceptions of your restaurant.

2. Make conflicts work to your advantage by resolving them in ways that improve the long-term strategies of the restaurant.

3. Set policies that minimize the nagging, negative conflicts that plague poorly run businesses.

Section 2: Customer Perceptions
No doubt about it, it's awkward for a customer to witness employees fighting. It also gives any business an unprofessional appearance. Managers need specific strategies to deal with such situations.

While your first inclination upon witnessing a conflict may be to discipline quarreling employees in public, trying to break up employee arguments can turn into a shouting match in front of customers. Instead, walk up to nearby customers to get them away from the argument. Let them know that such embarrassing situations are not the norm in your establishment.

Also develop a companywide hand signal that means "Let's all go to the back office immediately." This management tool can help shield customers from awkward situations. Such an internal communication can quietly head off embarrassing situations before they affect customers' perceptions.

Now that the fire is out, how do you prevent further damage?

Section 3: Positive Resolution
After customers are out of sight, pull the two warring employees aside and ask them, "Do you know what impact your behavior had on the customers?" Probe the problem with both employees present and work with them to promote solutions to their differences.

Meeting with employees separately to gather information about the conflict could give the more persuasive storyteller an unfair advantage. In general, managers should strive to limit situations where they merely sit in judgment of employees who are in conflict. Pulling employees together to work toward solutions under a team model is preferable. Don't forget to follow-up with the employees in a timely manner.

With harmony restored, your next step is preventing outbursts of negativity.

Section 4: Minimize Negative Energy
Although employee conflict cannot be avoided entirely, managers need to stamp out a culture of conflict that plagues poorly run organizations. Such conflict becomes institutionalized because of poor policies or bad behavior examples set by managers. Ongoing conflicts that are never addressed lead to the very headaches managers want to avoid: unnecessary employee turnover and distractions that pull employees away from attention to customer service.

Often just below the surface of many employee conflicts are intolerable behaviors, such as sexual harassment and racial bias. Establish clear guidelines very early on-even when prospective employees come in for interviews-that such behaviors will not be tolerated under any circumstances.

For restaurants, a particular flash point is relations between the front and back of the house. Managers need to make sure both groups work together to create a harmonious atmosphere conducive to great customer service.

Never pass up a chance to learn from conflicts by looking at them from an employee's point of view. Remember that employees often bring their personal problems to work and that when the restaurant is extremely busy, sometimes workers lose perspective and get caught up in conflicts with other workers. Look a layer beneath conflicts and generate policies that smooth employees' jobs.

Section 5: Employee Harmony
Keeping employees from crossing swords can be stressful for any manager. Follow these tips to keep a cease-fire in your business.

• Focus on tasks, not personalities. Personal slights won't solve conflicts but pursuing common goals will.
• Look for areas of mutual benefit. Find the common ground first and work from there.
• Design reward systems that recognize team behavior. A certain degree of competition between employees may serve as a motivator, but compensation plans should also recognize team sales or overall customer satisfaction to encourage cooperation.
• Managing conflict sometimes requires no response at all. Listen attentively as an employee or customer vents and then proposes his or her own solution.
• Recognize who the "complainers" are. Although constant complaints may be no fun, such employees may be valuable team members who simply require extra listening time. Praise their strengths but don't reward their inappropriate complaints.
• Stay in touch with all departments. Some chefs or owners never seem to leave the stove while some glad-handing proprietors never venture into the kitchen. Maintaining daily contact with every department can prevent employee conflicts from sneaking up.
• Distribute work and work hours evenly. This helps to lessen such common complaints as "he got more work hours than I did," which may lead to resentment.
• Model the behavior you want employees to exhibit. If you blow up in anger at inappropriate times, don't be surprised when your employees act the same way to one another.
• Keep staff busy. When the kitchen staff and dining-room workers are focused, they have less time to be in conflict.
• Train, train, train. Constantly train employees so that they know what is expected of them.

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