Conflict resolution through emotional competence | nursing | Chamberlain College of Nursing

Emotional intelligence is a systematic and scientific way of measuring our people skills. It is those skills and competencies that measure how we express and perceive ourselves, the way we develop and maintain relationships with others (Chamberlain College of Nursing, 2021). This involves using emotions as data to measure the quality of our relationships. It has been said that the majority of the success in business today is about 85% due to emotional intelligence and about 15% technology or actual job skills. This means that our success as leaders is less dependent on our knowledge skills of the job but more on our emotional competence. If we can skillfully perform the duties of the job but do not possess the elements of emotional intelligence such as self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills, we will not be effective leaders with high productivity, high job satisfaction, or great patient outcomes. Success in our work, therefore, requires us to work effectively, efficiently, and cohesively being mindful with other people be it as members of the same team, as leaders, or colleagues. According to   Krén & Séllei, 2021, emotional competencies like self-awareness, awareness of others, and self-management are positive predictable indicators of job performance. Emotional competence helps us to not only reduce friction in our relationships with others but also helps resolve conflicts as they arise and helps the organization thrive.

Identify three strategies to reduce friction and build unity between the parties using emotional competence as the framework?

            Every organizational leadership has to be able to adapt to changes, survive, and thrive in new environments (Sadeghi et al.,).  Emotional competence is one characteristic that can help leaders achieve that goal. Using emotional competence as the framework in order to reduce friction among my team members and build unity, I will exercise social awareness. This enables me to use effective communication to identify what exactly is the root cause of the conflict. As a leader, I’m fully aware that conflict is somewhat similar to an iceberg. What you see on the surface is typically not the cause or the only cause of the conflict but what’s beneath the surface. While exercising empathy, understanding, and being attentive to staff’s needs, I’ll speak to each staff to find out exactly what the conflict or the cause of the conflict is. Oftentimes, causes of conflicts are differences in opinions, perceptions, beliefs, values, needs, assumptions, knowledge, interests, roles and so much more. I will therefore do my best to identify what exactly is beneath the surface, what is the cause of the conflict, and provide my team with the support they so desperately need while helping resolve the conflict.

Through self-management, I’m able to be open-minded to the staff’s perceptions of the conflict, their criticism of my managerial style while gaining their trust. Identifying common grounds is a strategy for the beginning of a mutual relationship, a basis for building a relationship. As a leader, I’ll help the team focus on common grounds, our common interests instead of differences. Focusing on differences limits us but focusing on common grounds such as improved patient outcomes, job satisfaction, job retention helps us to move forward with reduced friction.

Another strategy is using social- awareness to set boundaries.  The team can collaboratively set boundaries on what each member will and will not tolerate and how conflicts can be resolved as they arise.

What outcomes would you identify to measure the effectiveness of each strategy?

Outcomes I’ll use to measure the effectiveness of the strategies will still revolve around communication. Within 3-6months of the conflict resolution, I’ll speak to each member of the team to find out their opinion about the conflict resolution. This I can achieve by either speaking to them directly, having an anonymous survey box where each staff can freely share their anonymous opinions without fear of retaliation. If cost-effective, I can also have an outside entity conduct an employee survey. I can also measure outcomes through employee job performance, productivity, time and attendance, employee attitude, and relationships with one another.

Consider an adversarial relationship that exists between leaders and departments in your organization. How does the culture of the organization affect the situation? What knowledge, skills, and attitudes do you bring to the organization? What would others say are your leadership strengths? How can these strengths be used to reduce the adversarial relationship?

            Interdepartmental or intra-team collaboration is essential for the successful functioning of every organization, especially in healthcare. Collaboration helps promote productivity, teamwork, job satisfaction, job retention, and improved patient outcome. An adversarial relationship that existed between leaders and departments in my organization was when the facility attempted to implement an electronic medical record system (EMR) for anesthesia documentation in the operating room.  Sadly, without consultation with anesthesia leadership, or anesthesia staff adequate training, the hospital not only purchased a system-wide EMR for the hospital but also decided to implement its usage same day throughout the hospital. This of course was not well received by anesthesia leadership, causing significant obvious conflict between the anesthesia department and the hospital administration. The culture of the organization that helped resolve the conflict was both parties owned up to their mistakes with each assuming that the other had good intentions for either implementing the hospital-wide EMR or with anesthesia not going “Live” the same day as the rest of the hospital did. Both parties understood that the EMR was a requirement for reimbursement by the federal government, it was a necessary requirement for promoting patient safety however both parties had different opinions on the timing and the type of EMR to use. With negotiations and discussions, both understood each other’s perspective and after extensive training of the anesthesia staff, the EMR was implemented on a later date by the anesthesia team.

            I bring to the organization not only my job and technical skills as a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), but my emotional intelligence as well. I understand that we can all teach and learn from each other therefore I’m always open and receptive to others’ opinions, suggestions and ideas. I believe as healthcare providers; we all inherently want what is best for our patients though we may differ on how to accomplish such goals. I am honest, trustworthy, empathetic, passionate, and relate well with others. Some of the leadership strengths others may say about me include, my ability to respond instead of reacting to situations. I like to acknowledge other people’s emotions and with empathy and mindfulness, I ask clarifying questions as conflicts arise instead of reacting to the actual situation. Another strength is my transparency. I believe that with honesty, truthfulness, and transparency, I’m able to gain trust from my team, therefore, giving me the ability to influence their opinions while allowing me to lead. I respect and value each member of the team understanding that though we have different roles, each role is vital for the success of the organization. These are some of the strengths that can help decrease adversarial relationships in a workplace and promote unity

References

Chamberlain College of Nursing. (2021). NR-703 Week 2: The Emotionally Intelligent Leader [Online lesson]. Adtalem Global Education

 Krén, H., & Séllei, B. (2021). The role of emotional intelligence in organizational performance. Periodica Polytechnica: Social & Management Sciences, 29(1), 1.

Sadeghi, T., Ali Kiani, M., Saeidi, M., Moghaddam, H. T., Ghodsi, M. J., & Hoseini, R. (2018). The relationship between emotional intelligence with administrators’ performance at mashhad university of medical sciences. Electronic Physician, 10(3), 6487-6493. doi:10.19082/6487

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