Mediation in Leadership: How to Resolve Workplace Conflict Before It Escalates

Learn how to use mediation as an early intervention tool to resolve workplace conflict, rebuild communication, and retain your best people before a dispute becomes a crisis.Most leaders only think about conflict resolution when things have already broken down. In this episode, Lee speaks with Alice Matthews, Chief Executive of Mediation Plus, about how to use mediation to reduce workplace grievances, retain key employees, and rebuild team communication before disputes escalate.Alice shares what nine years of leading a volunteer-driven organisation has taught her about delegation, peer support, asking for help, and building the kind of trust that holds complex teams together on a tight budget. She also makes a compelling case for embedding mediation into everyday leadership practice, not just reaching for it when a grievance policy has already been triggered.CHAPTERS00:00:00: Introduction and what Mediation Plus does00:03:00: What mediation actually is and how it differs from arbitration00:06:00: Leading a small charity: volunteers, trustees, and complexity00:11:00: Delegation as a leadership muscle00:13:00: Alice's leadership journey and growing with the role00:17:00: Workplace mediation: early intervention over escalation00:20:00: Intergenerational mediation and the Time to Talk projectRESOURCES MENTIONEDMediation Plus: Sussex-based charity offering community, family, workplace, and intergenerational mediation. www.mediationplus.org.ukhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/mediationplussussex/⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alice-matthews-ceo/Podcasthon: The non-profit initiative behind this special episode. podcaston.orgGUEST BIOGRAPHYAlice Matthews is the Chief Executive of Mediation Plus, a charity she has led for nearly nine years. Under her leadership the organisation has grown to serve communities across Sussex with neighbourhood, family, workplace, and intergenerational mediation, supported by almost 60 trained volunteers.This episode is part of Podcasthon 2026: check out ⁠podcasthon.org⁠ and join the movement!Thank you for watching/ listening.Ad. Editing my podcast used to be the most time-consuming part of my week. I now use Descript to edit my audio and video by simply deleting words from a transcript. It allows me to create my YouTube Shorts and TikTok clips in a fraction of the time.If you want to try it for your own projects, you can sign up here: https://get.descript.com/LevelUpUsing this link costs you nothing extra, but the small commission I receive helps support the work I do on my podcast and articles. Paid plans start at around £12 / $16 per month (billed annually) for the Hobbyist tier.Music, jingles, and images - attribution.Podcast Background Track: https://pixabay.com/users/poorartistt-45918667/Guitar Jingle: https://pixabay.com/music/introoutro-guitar-intro-ident-151972/Images: https://gemini.google/overview/image-generation/ & https://www.perplexity.ai/Disclaimer.LevelUp and the podcast host do not endorse, verify, or take responsibility for any products, services, views, or claims presented by guests during podcast episodes. Any opinions or statements made by podcast guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of LevelUp or its representatives.© 2026 LevelUp.This episode is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/