I agree with what many others have mentioned so far, that most likely managers do not directly pick their project teams. In that case, as you mentioned, having strategies to deal with conflicts is ideal. I’d like to add that one tip that was given to me by a senior project leader was even though you may not like or agree with every team member, being objective enough to step back and see the areas in which they add to the team is the best move.

For example, if there is a very argumentative team member (that also happens to be a subject matter expert), you can utilize their skills to ensure that all the decisions the team makes are fully questioned (e.g. they can play devil’s advocate). Obviously, the ideal scenario is to pick a good mix of people with hard and soft skills and get along well together. But if that scenario doesn’t exist, trying to utilize all of the different skill sets is the only way to lead a functional team.