A respected voice in legal and policy circles, Tracey L. McNeil of Lake Ridge, VA, brings more than 20 years of cross-sector experience to her role on the board of the Fordham Law Alumni Association. Her professional journey spans major law firms, global insurers, regulatory bodies, and public service. She is recognized for her collaborative approach to strategy, her adept stakeholder management, and her ability to translate complex legal and regulatory frameworks into operational impact.
Ms. McNeil spent 14 years at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including 8 years as ombudsman, where she developed innovative engagement tools and helped reduce organizational risk. At the PCAOB, she provided strategic legal counsel to the chair, navigating high-stakes matters related to ethics, oversight, and international coordination. In 2024, she dedicated her time to grassroots political engagement, volunteering full-time with the Democratic Party of Georgia. She is a graduate of Fordham University School of Law and a former fellow of the New York City Bar Association Diversity Fellowship Program. Her academic background also includes advanced degrees from Columbia University and Cornell University in urban planning and regional studies.
Effective workplace conflict resolution strategies can help leaders and teams avoid unnecessary stress and missteps, and can help improve communication, transparency, and productivity. Executive leaders should familiarize themselves with various conflict resolution strategies to spot, address, and diffuse the wide range of conflicts that can occur in the workplace.
Conflicts differ, but most have a few common elements. Personal viewpoints and perspectives, for example, often serve as roadblocks to communication and collaboration in the workplace. Overconfidence and rigidity also contribute to many workplace conflicts. Similar to the way a person may prioritize their personal perspective and refuse to consider the feelings and views of others, overconfidence and rigidity can create stalemates, with both sides unwilling to budge and feeling they must win.
To encourage communication and discourage conflict, it can be helpful for coworkers to have frequent opportunities to gather and work as a group. These opportunities serve several purposes, including providing settings where coworkers can interact with and learn from the entire team. These settings may diffuse or resolve early conflicts by helping coworkers take a step back and view the perceived or anticipated source of conflict from a neutral and better informed perspective.
As one approach, leaders may wish to schedule frequent, focused collective working sessions where the entire team is present. These sessions — intentional gatherings where every team member is empowered to present an issue, question, or need, and where the entire team collaborates to strategize, learn, and problem solve — create ideal opportunities to foster transparent communication. During these intentional gatherings, coworkers may benefit from leading, coaching, and assisting each other, while also breaking down perceived cliques and communication silos, where workplace conflicts often germinate.
These intentional gatherings are also ideal opportunities for executive leaders to discuss how the work of the team fits into the goals of the larger enterprise, boost team engagement and morale, and celebrate the work of the team. What also occurs during these gatherings is that coworkers learn more about each other’s assignments and skills. This helps to expand and shift perspectives on how work is assigned and prioritized, which can help coworkers appreciate the importance of their individual and team contributions to the success of the larger enterprise.
Even when leaders successfully implement a suite of communication and engagement initiatives, workplace conflicts may still arise. Some people are simply geared toward conflict, and will often go to unreasonable lengths to stoke conflict in their desire to win in the workplace. Leaders should be well-versed in active listening and negotiation strategies, as these are foundational aspects of conflict resolution that will help them spot, understand, and communicate with high conflict persons. Leaders should consistently set the tone for their teams that conflict resolution does not mean that there is a winner or loser, or that someone is right and someone is wrong. Rather, the goal is that those involved work toward a realistic and practical understanding of what caused the conflict and the steps that will be taken by everyone involved to address and eliminate as much of the conflict as possible.
Conflicts often diminish or become easier to address and resolve, without resorting to formal channels such as mediation, arbitration, or litigation, when coworkers have opportunities to communicate, work, and problem solve together. “Be curious, not furious,” is a handy way for leaders and coworkers to remember that fostering transparent communication and considering different perspectives go a long way to mend divisions, quell conflict, and ultimately, strengthen workplace teams.