It's Beyond EQ, It's RQ: Relationship Intelligence Transforms Conflict into Innovation and Creativity

Dynamic, diverse, demanding, dispersed... these are all descriptors of today's workforce and the ability for leaders and team members to connect on a deeper level is required for success. Unmanaged conflict in the workplace is one of the costliest demotivators and productivity killers out there. Workplace conflict costs companies worldwide an estimated $359 billion yearly due to lost productivity! WHOA! You may be asking yourself; is it possible for the team(s) to disagree productively? The answer is, YES! Relationship Intelligence is defined as insight to adjust your approach to make interactions more effective. The difference here is an awareness of how you AND those you interact with, tick. Helping your team members expand their EQ to RQ allows them to understand individual filters and how they alter one’s experience during conflict. The use of assessment tools absolutely assists with this type of awareness. However, you can offer opportunities that are at no cost to engage your team in getting to know each other on a deeper level.

Here are a few tips to consider:

• Provide opportunities for team members to get to know you and each other. This could be during simple activities during team meetings, engagement in a team forum such as Microsoft Teams, and/or formal teambuilding workshops/events.

• Create incentives for collaboration within the team so the focus isn’t solely on individual contributions.

• Show up authentically and encourage others to do the same. As a leader, you must model the behaviors you want to see from your team.

• Do not take sides during conflicts between team members and encourage them to find solutions without your interference. If they cannot resolve it themselves, you must not allow the conflict to linger and should take quick action to bring the conflict to an end.

• Celebrate out-of-the-box thinking, diverse opinions, and creative solutions, even if they fall short of the final solution.

• Provide formal training on conflict management to shift how conflict is viewed and navigated.

Conflict management isn’t putting up with conflict. It’s anticipating, preventing, and resolving it.

Conflict: disagreement that feels like a personal attack on values.

Opposition: objective disagreement that leads to smarter decisions.

Opposing views and ideas will bring about holistic solutions that leverage diverse viewpoints. Solutions may lack innovation and the creativity to tackle large-scale problems. When a disagreement moves from opposition to conflict, it feels personal and can derail productivity and destroy trust within a team if it is not addressed in a timely and helpful manner.

Exploring and leveraging the concepts related to Relationship Intelligence (RQ), allows teams to embrace diversity, navigate conflict, and power through obstacles with smarter, more effective decisions.