Emotional Intelligence prevents unproductive conflict
When you are self-aware (one of the five components of EQ) you understand your moods. Who do you think is more likely to engage in unproductive conflict? A person in a good mood or a person in a bad mood? Of course, you picked the person who is in a bad mood right? To build on that, imagine the person who walks around completely unaware of their emotions. Who knows what is going to set them off, they certainly don’t know.
Emotional Intelligence helps YOU navigate productive conflict
Sometimes disagreements are a good thing. When you lead your team through issue resolution, not every team member will suggest the same solution. From that productive conflict, the best and most creative solution can be designed. But only if YOU and your team can draw upon your self-awareness, self-control, motivation, empathy and social skills (all you guessed it components of EQ) to work together. As you work through the conflict you are drawing upon your awareness of your feelings during the conflict and your self-control to behave professionally. You are motivated to work things out and care about seeing the issue through until the best solution is found. You don’t care if the solution selected is your solution, you care that it is the right solution. You employ active listening (part of empathy) to guide the team through the discussion and you draw upon your social skills to seek participation from all appropriate parties.