Conflict resolution. To managers and HR professionals, these very words can be cringe inducing. It’s not the most fun or glamorous part of your job, but it’s one of your most important responsibilities. How you mediate employee conflict not only affects employee morale and retention, it reflects on your leadership abilities and your willingness to tackle the tough stuff. It can earn or lose you respect—and employees.

To earn respect through conflict resolution, recognize:

• The conflict must be addressed. You can hide it inside a filing cabinet or slap on a superficial patch, but that conflict isn’t going away on its own. It’s only going to fester and undermine any chance at a positive work environment. Worse, the conflict can escalate if the parties feel that management or HR isn’t offering much help—if they feel trapped in a problem, they can turn their ire toward you and the company. And who else can they come to with their HR concerns?
• The parties must be addressed together. Meeting with each party separately can lead to bickering and finger-pointing as each person struggles to be right. (And they will wonder what the other person said behind closed doors, and what you said to them.) Bringing the parties together not only keeps everyone on the same page, out in the open, it shows you are committed to finding a fair solution. So start by explaining that you’re not there to choose sides in the conflict; you’re there to foster a resolution.
• The conflict must be resolved as a team. This means each party offers specific steps the other can take to work out the differences. This also means that leadership owns its part in the conflict—researching what in the work environment or the leadership team allowed the employees to get to this point.
• The parties must commit to the proposed resolution. The parties must agree to and stick to the recommended changes, moving forward. And they should be courteous to one another during the process. As the conflict mediator, your job is to commit to follow-up. Check in on a regular basis to see how things are going. Meetings can facilitate discussion of any new or unresolved issues, to help maintain positive change.

Skillful conflict resolution can paint you as a strong leader who cares about your employees’ success. And that success ties directly into your own, as you build a work environment where everyone feels valued, and where everyone respects your ability to keep the show running. So while conflict resolution may not be your favorite job duty, it’s one of the most powerful skills you can bring to the team.