Your two high performers are openly undermining each other in meetings and pulling colleagues into factions. You need to address this dynamic, but they’re both sensitive to criticism and you need them on top of their game for a conference happening next week.
What would you do?
Discuss things now
Wait until after the conference
The Best Option
Discuss things now.
Anchor the conversation in the shared objective (in this case, conference success). Letting things summer until “a better time” can allow things to boil over at the worst time.