Let’s face it: If you have more than two people in a room tasked to accomplish something, you have the possibility of conflict - different ideas, personalities, “conflict hooks” all bouncing against each other. You as the leader are responsible for ensuring a positive exchange and productive outcome. You set the example in your behavior which will lean your group either to resistance (read unproductive conflict) or to cooperation (mastering the productive, innovative power of conflict)..

Here are 10 behaviors that elicit cooperation and allow positive, healthy, productive conflict.

Employee retention has become a big issue lately in this period of national economic growth and consistently low unemployment rates. So opportunity is knocking for great talent. You may not be hiring, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay attention to this hot market trend.

You may have a valued employee who is, at this moment, looking around for a “better” opportunity.

This is a crucial time for organizations to assess their employee retention policies and, perhaps more importantly, their employee job satisfaction levels.

Your team has outlined your change effort process, including team agreements. You’ve done a great job building strength, common purpose, and cohesion within your team. Everyone bolts out of the conference room with Super Bowl energy, pumped-up for success!  Yet … three weeks into implementation it’s already apparent that the team is woefully behind on its first accountability goal. What happened to the agreements that everyone signed-off on?

Someone is soon to be leaving your organization, whether it’s a long-time employee, founder, partner, CEO. People leave organizations for many reasons; it is a normal feature of any workplace. The separation may be considered under “good terms,” maybe less so. Whatever the dynamic, any workplace separation involves much more than signing agreements and getting the security pass turned in.

It’s easier to let the separation blow over and “move on.” But these are sensitive, complex events that can make or break an organization.

As a leader, you may have gone through this, are going through it now, or (inevitably) will sometime soon. What is it? One or more people separating from your team or organization.

Maybe your project phase is ending and some of the team is leaving. Or it's more complex: a founding partner has decided to leave after a long-standing dispute. Or worse, is being forced out.

There are as many reasons for people leaving teams as there are teams; it’s a normal feature of any workplace. And … it can be one of the most complex issues a team ever has to deal with.