When asked to define strong leadership, hard skills like strategic thinking or project management tend to make the list. Although these capabilities are valuable, they don’t fully account for why some leaders bring out the best in their teams while others do not. More often than not, emotional intelligence is the difference between a competent leader and a great one.

In this guide, we answer commonly asked questions, such as:

• What Is Emotional Intelligence in Leadership?
• Why Is Emotional Intelligence Important for Leaders?
• What Are the Benefits of Emotional Intelligence for Leaders and Their Teams?

We also offer practical strategies to help improve emotional intelligence and apply these skills to achieve individual, team, and organizational goals.

What Is Emotional Intelligence in Leadership?

Emotional intelligence, often abbreviated as EI or EQ, is one of the most sought-after leadership skills in modern workplaces — often over measurable “hard skills” relevant to the job description.

Experts define emotional intelligence as the ability to recognize, understand, and manage one’s own emotions and those of others. In a leadership context, EI means being aware of how emotions influence team dynamics and decision-making.

Why Is Emotional Intelligence Important for Leaders?

To better understand why leading with emotional intelligence is essential, visualize this scenario: 

A rank-and-file worker is promoted to manager after years as a junior developer at a technology company. Their promotion was based on their ability to solve complex technical problems and deliver on project deadlines. However, once they were promoted, their priorities and required skills changed.

From focusing on their own success as a developer, they are now tasked to prioritize their team’s performance, career growth, and psychological safety in the workplace. This is on top of the day-to-day responsibilities of a leadership position.

This is a common situation experienced by many newly promoted professionals who feel ill-equipped to handle the emotional side of being a leader. In the scenario above, the employee likely didn’t have many opportunities to mediate and resolve conflicts or communicate feedback as a junior developer. But as a leader, they’re now expected to perform these tasks as part of their daily realities.

While technical skills and experience matter, scenarios like these highlight the need for leadership with emotional intelligence. Without a strong foundation in emotional intelligence, a new leader may simply micromanage the technical work they know well, rather than empower their team to learn and grow. This usually leads to team issues like burnout and low morale, impacting performance metrics like quality and productivity.

On the other hand, having high EI allows you to manage your responsibilities better while fostering a positive work environment (and without neglecting your own mental health).

Here are some ways emotional intelligence empowers you to become a better leader:

Enhanced Effectiveness

In leadership, “effectiveness” refers to the ability to influence or guide a team or organization toward achieving its goals, all while creating a positive, supportive, and psychologically safe environment.

Emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness are fundamentally intertwined. Achieving effective leadership requires strong EI, because managing people well requires more than just giving orders. Instead, it involves skills like:

• Building trust and psychological safety
• Providing constructive feedback and coaching
• Mediating conflict and fostering collaboration

When you lead with emotional intelligence, you can better support others the way they need to be supported. And this is incredibly important for team members. In an EY Americas survey, empathy — a hallmark of an effective, high emotional intelligence leader — results in improvements in creativity, job satisfaction, idea sharing, innovation, and even company revenues. The same survey also found that an overwhelming 86% of employees believe empathetic leadership boosts morale, while 87% state empathy is crucial for an inclusive workplace environment.

Employee Engagement and Retention

An engaged employee is a loyal employee. Research consistently shows that engagement correlates positively with retention. Workers who are emotionally committed and enthusiastic about their work and their organization’s mission are more productive, creative, and innovative than their unengaged peers. What’s more, employees who feel valued and psychologically safe are less likely to look for opportunities elsewhere.

High EI is arguably one of the most important leadership competencies for cultivating a workforce that is dedicated to what they do and emotionally invested in the success of their teams and organizations. Through emotionally intelligent leadership, you can inspire dedication and encourage employees to remain with the company longer.

Conflict Resolution and Culture

Emotionally intelligent leaders aren’t fazed by conflict. Instead of running from it or sweeping it under the rug, they handle it constructively. They notice when tension is building and know how to mediate in a way that ensures everyone feels heard. High EI leaders facilitate compromise when necessary and redirect the focus from personal disagreements to the team’s shared objectives.

By shifting the conversation away from blame and toward solutions, emotionally intelligent leaders keep the team focused on goals, not grudges. They help team members name their frustrations without attacking each other, creating space for accountability while ensuring the work moves forward.

The Link Between Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Effectiveness

To expound on a previous section, emotional intelligence is often more predictive of success than IQ or technical skills. Top performers tend to exhibit high EI. According to research from Harvard University, 71% of employers value it even more than technical skills when assessing potential hires. This is likely due to their ability to stay calm under stress, resolve conflict better, and exhibit empathy.

Emotionally intelligent leaders are better equipped to guide their teams through setbacks, manage day-to-day tasks, and create the kind of work environment where people feel safe. More than just being aware of their own actions and their impact, they can anticipate how others might respond and adjust accordingly.

Emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness are intertwined: Research from TalentSmart shows that EI contributes to more than half of job performance across roles, and 90% of top performers have high EI. Leaders with high emotional intelligence make better decisions, communicate more thoughtfully, and strengthen collaboration among team members, especially when pressures arise. 

The Five Core Components of Emotional Intelligence

The term emotional intelligence was coined by two psychologists, John Mayer and Peter Salovey, but it was popularized by Daniel Goleman, a psychologist. Writing for the Harvard Business Review, he listed five components of EI.

These form the backbone of emotionally intelligent leadership; understanding them is the first step toward applying them in real-life situations.

1. Self-Awareness

Self-awareness means recognizing your emotions and understanding how they influence your behavior, decisions, and interactions. For instance, self-aware leaders know what triggers their frustration and where their strengths lie.

Self-awareness helps leaders stay honest with themselves and others. It also makes feedback easier to receive and act on, because self-aware leaders know that it’s not a means to threaten but a path to improvement. Teams also notice when leaders can own their impact and adjust without defensiveness. Over time, that builds credibility and trust.

2. Self-Regulation

Emotional self-regulation is the ability to pause before reacting, especially when emotions run high. It’s what allows a leader to stay steady and calm regardless of what they’re up against, whether it’s an upset client or an employee threatening to resign.

When you self-regulate, you do not suppress emotions. Instead, you acknowledge what you’re feeling but do not let it drive your decisions. Leaders who self-regulate well make better, more grounded decisions and help keep the team grounded when things feel uncertain or overwhelming.

3. Motivation

Motivation in this context refers to an internal drive to lead that isn’t money or recognition. Leaders who are motivated find meaning in the work they do and the successes of their teams.

Motivated leaders are resilient despite setbacks and excellent at helping others stay connected to purpose. They bring energy into the room and keep the focus on long-term goals.

4. Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand and share others’ feelings. For leaders, this also means adjusting how they communicate with and support different people based on their individual personalities, challenges, needs, and objectives.

Empathetic leaders help build psychological safety and reduce conflict. They can handle difficult conversations by placing themselves in each stakeholder’s shoes. Empathy also drives inclusive leadership because people feel valued not just for what they contribute, but for who they are.

5. Social Skills

This final component includes the practical side of emotional intelligence: the ability to build and maintain relationships. Socially skilled leaders can influence without dominating, hold boundaries without being rigid, and give feedback without hurting feelings or eroding trust.

These leaders bring people together around shared goals, even when personalities or preferences differ. They help teams move through disagreement and stay aligned, not just with strategy but with each other. Over time, strong social skills support a healthy culture where people feel connected to their leaders and each other, and motivated to do their best work.

Benefits of Emotionally Intelligent Leadership

When emotional intelligence becomes part of a leader’s everyday behavior, it can change the way a team functions for the better. Below are some benefits of emotionally intelligent leadership for leaders and their teams.

Job Satisfaction

Employees are more satisfied when they feel respected and supported. Leaders with strong EI adjust their approach based on the team’s needs. This creates a work environment where people feel heard and more connected to their roles.

Better Communication

Emotionally intelligent leaders listen carefully and communicate in ways that reduce confusion and tension. They know when to step in, when to pause, and how to keep information flowing in both directions.

Higher Performance

Supportive leadership helps teams stay focused and productive. Leaders with high EI reduce friction, give timely feedback, and make it easier for people to do their best work even during setbacks or periods of change.

Less Conflict

Few people are willing to continue working in a toxic environment. When leaders can identify simmering tension early, they can nip conflict in the bud by facilitating open communication and presenting solutions. This prevents the stress and resentment that come from unresolved conflict, which often leads to absenteeism, loss of productivity, and, eventually, attrition.

How To Lead With Emotional Intelligence: Practical Strategies

Emotional intelligence isn’t a trait you either have or don’t. While some people appear to naturally have high EI, it is a competency anyone can cultivate and strengthen through deliberate practice and a commitment to self-awareness.

Here’s how to improve emotional intelligence in leadership so you can create a positive culture and lead your team toward sustainable success.

Practice Active Listening

Give people your full attention when they speak. That means putting away distractions, listening without interrupting, and reflecting on what you hear. This helps others feel respected and makes it easier to understand concerns before jumping to solutions.

Respond Instead of Reacting

In stressful moments, take a short pause before speaking or making a decision. Regulate your emotional response by grounding yourself with a breath or brief silence. This helps prevent defensiveness and promotes better judgment.

Understand What Motivates Your Team

Talk to people about what they care about at work — not just tasks, but also their values and future plans. When you align responsibilities with individual motivation, people feel more invested and engaged.

Build Personal Connections

Learn how your team prefers to communicate and be recognized. Some may want direct feedback, while others may respond better to private check-ins. Adjusting your style shows that you pay attention and take people seriously.

Ask for Feedback

Invite your team to share how your leadership approach is working for them. You don’t need a formal 360 process to ask, “What’s one thing I could do differently to support you better?” Then act on what you hear.

Reflect Often

Set aside time at the end of each week to review what went well and what felt off. Consider how your responses affected others. Over time, this will improve your self-awareness.

How To Improve Emotional Intelligence in Leadership

Leading with emotional intelligence takes practice, not perfection. While it might not always be possible, or necessary, to be the most emotionally attuned person in the room, it is important to build habits that help you respond with awareness and lead with purpose.

To get you started, here’s how to improve emotional intelligence in leadership through daily actions:

Strengthen Self-Awareness

Pay attention to how you respond in difficult moments. If something triggers frustration, identify what caused it and how it made you behave. You can journal, reflect at the end of the day, or even ask a mentor or trusted peer to help you spot patterns in your behavior.

Develop Empathy

When someone behaves in a way you don’t understand, pause and ask yourself why. Consider what pressure they might be under or what they’re trying to accomplish. You don’t need to agree with them, but perspective-taking helps you respond with more respect and fewer assumptions.

Learn To Regulate Emotions

Practice techniques that help you stay grounded under pressure. These might be as simple as pausing before replying to a tough message or taking a short walk before a high-stakes conversation. Over time, this will help you stay calm and measured when it matters most.

Create a Feedback Loop

Ask people you trust to tell you what they see. This could include how you show up in meetings, handle conflict, or be approachable when things go wrong. Thank them for their honesty, and use their input to make minor, steady improvements.

Invest in Training

Leadership development programs often include emotional intelligence tools. A structured workshop or team-based session can offer practical frameworks and space to practice real-world scenarios.

Explore HPWP Group’s Leadership Training Solutions

Building emotional intelligence is a continuous process. It requires feedback from team members and other leaders, time, and the space to apply what you learn. However, leaders who commit to the process see lasting, impactful results, from more engaged teams to wiser decision-making.

HPWP Group offers leadership development programs that strengthen emotional intelligence. From team-based workshops and events to one-on-one coaching, our services focus on developing the skills that shape strong leaders.

Call 877.774.HPWP or send a message for more information about our events and programs. You can also read our book, Creating the High Performance Workplace, which outlines our unique approach to building leadership habits that support both people and performance.