How can managers lead in a polarised world?

If you want to maintain harmony on your team, then politics is one topic you should never discuss (alongside religion and money), says the old adage. According to a recent CMI Manager’s Voice poll, 44% of managers have witnessed disagreements in the workplace over political views. Of those, one in four said those clashes had caused people stress, while one in five said collaboration had suffered.

When the FT asked Ann Francke OBE, CMI’s chief executive, how managers can avoid creating rifts, she advised them to treat people as nuanced individuals, rather than representative of “everyone within their faith or culture or their political party”. 

“Let’s focus on the things we do agree on, which are germane to delivering what we have to deliver for the organisation,” she said.

• How to be an inclusive leader (without virtue signalling)

You may sense that straightforward goal becoming harder. The modern era brings a flood of contentious issues – from stagnating wages to climate change – that can easily drive wedges between groups and which seem to be pushing people into increasingly entrenched positions. 

This has the potential to affect not only your team, but also customers, investors and other stakeholders.