Emotional Intelligence: 6 Effective Steps to Resolving Conflict Columbus, GA Saturday, March 12, 2011 Emotional Intelligence involves understanding yourself, managing yourself, dealing with emotions, making good decisions, seeking and using feedback, exercising self-control, dealing effectively with others, listening, showing empathy, motivating, and leading.

As global leaders we are faced with the daunting task of making critical decisions that affect our profit margin each day. Important decisions are made even more difficult because of workplace conflict.

Faced with these issues, how can you resolve these conflicts? The ideal model involves six steps. These steps are designed to answer these questions: What do we want to transform? What's preventing us from completing the milestones? How can we implement the changes? What are the benchmarks? Are we following the plan? And how successful was the outcome?

1. Identifying and Diagnosing the Issue: The first step to resolving conflict is to recognize that an issue exist and must be solved.

2. Defining Alternative Solutions: The second step to resolving conflict links problem diagnosis to the development of alternative courses of action aimed at resolving the conflict.

3. Evaluating Alternatives: The third step to resolving conflict involves determining which solution will be more effective.

4. Choosing A Solution: Once you have considered the consequences of your alternatives, it is time to make an informed decision.

5. Implementation: The steps to resolving conflict does not end once a choice is made. The chosen alternative must be implemented. Sometimes the leaders involved in making the choice must put it into effect. Those leaders who implement the decision should understand the choice and why it was made. They also must be committed to its successful implementation.

6. Evaluation: The final step of resolving conflict is evaluating the implementation. It involves collecting data and doing a follow up on the previous steps. Then objective data can be gathered to accurately determining the success or failure of the processes.