Difference Between Conflict Resolution and Leadership
Conflicts are a common occurrence in our day to day life. While most can be solved easily, some difficult conflicts may require specialized skills to resolve them. Conflict resolution is the peaceful and amicable solution for a disagreement between two parties. The conflict may be of any nature: personal, financial, political, or emotional.
Leadership, on the other hand, is motivating and inspiring people to do something they sometimes don’t even know they are capable of. Leadership is simply leading a bunch of people and pushing them to achieve their best as individuals as well as a team or a group.
Conflict resolution is more of a managerial job. It requires focus and dedication on one single task to create the results that everyone wants. It is a more focused job with definite goals and timelines. Leadership, on the other hand, has a much wider array of responsibilities and goals. Even the timelines vary, which are sometimes very short and sometimes much longer. Either way, the effects of leadership are long-lasting, even if the leader is doing his job for a short term. On the other hand, conflict resolution is a short-term goal oriented task and may or may not have much significance in the larger scheme of things.
Conflict resolution is about a particular problem. Leadership is about the whole problem-solving technique and learning. A manager supervising conflict resolution would generally be a subject expert working within his domain and providing the solution for that particular moment of time. A leader, however, may not even solve an issue at that time. But a leader makes sure he works on the mental side of the bunch he’s leading and that they are ready to face several conflicts in their lifetime and try to give their best when faced with travesty.
Conflict resolution is all about control, while leadership is all about unleashing the hidden skills and abilities. Conflict resolution works by controlling the situation and circumstances. It is about making sure the issue doesn’t spread, and the problem is taken care of at the present moment. Leadership, though, is about unleashing the thinking and working abilities on the basis of issue or conflict that is seen in any of leader’s understudy. The idea of leadership is to solve the problem permanently and imbibe in the disciple an ability to be able to solve such problems by themselves in future.
While conflict resolution may also be one of the responsibilities of a leader and leadership may be needed for conflict resolution to a certain extent, they are far from each other with regards to their main ideas. While we need conflict resolution at several points, it may be solved b a calm mind and a peaceful character. Leadership, on the other hand, is about the magnanimous personality and mercurial character who can spark others to do more than they think they can. Conflict resolution is handled by managers who live in companies generally and are social, therefore they handle conflicts well. Leaders, in general, are found to be loners though.
