There are people who seem naturally able to strike a chord with those around them, who navigate business and personal relationships with clarity and sensitivity, whilst maintaining boundaries and never compromising their own emotional needs. These individuals have high leadership emotional intelligence.
The qualities described above might already be present, or currently being developed. Alternatively, forming and maintaining those valuable, quality interpersonal relationships with direct teams or other members of the organisation might feel challenging. Wherever anyone currently sits in their ability to utilise emotional intelligence at work to resolve problems and lead teams effectively, understanding why leadership emotional intelligence matters is absolutely vital for career success.
Research from ChangingPoint’s 2024 study of UK managers and business leaders found that those with greater emotional intelligence experience 25% higher leadership wellbeing, particularly when managing organisational change and uncertainty.1 This demonstrates just how crucial emotional intelligence in leadership has become for navigating today’s complex business environment.
What Qualities Do Emotionally Intelligent Leaders Possess?
Emotionally intelligent individuals can usually be identified as those in any setting who mediate the emotions of a situation, both by expressing their own opinions sensitively and by seeking to understand the viewpoint of those around them.
Whilst this might sound like describing someone who simply avoids conflict, there are important differences between those who only want to keep the peace and those who can lead a group of people with different priorities and viewpoints to an end goal using leadership emotional intelligence.
Leaders with high emotional intelligence tap into the emotions of those around them to enable better collaborative working, by truly understanding and harnessing people’s drives and behaviours to find the best outcome in any scenario. Pulling a team in the same direction is not easy, and that’s why not everyone can make it as a successful leader.
One of the main priorities in leadership should be coherence, and an essential part of this is motivating teams to work to the best of their abilities. Emotionally intelligent leaders can deal with any negative situation that arises and create a strong foundation to anchor their teams.
Is Emotional Intelligence an Inherent Leadership Quality?
Whilst leaders tend to have more developed skills in certain areas than their colleagues in non-leadership roles, it is not a given that all leaders have well-developed emotional intelligence in leadership. Many leaders find themselves in leadership roles due to their expertise in their field or other hard skills, such as negotiation, stakeholder management, or developing and delivering technical strategies.
When issues occur within teams, it can be easy to look at outputs to assess team effectiveness or success. However, the true success of a team lies within the strength of its ability to ride out problematic periods and emerge stronger. An excellent leader will possess the right leadership emotional intelligence to genuinely people-manage employees when they need it most.
Research from Aston University demonstrates that emotional intelligence serves as a strong predictor of leadership effectiveness, particularly in managing subordinates’ emotions and building high-performing teams.2 This evidence reinforces why emotional intelligence is important for anyone in a leadership position, regardless of their technical expertise.
Core Skills for Developing Emotional Intelligence
Emotions are the foundation of everything people do. In personal lives and at work, individuals find it much easier to put more effort into a project when they have a positive emotional attachment to it. A great leader will find and nurture these positive connections between the individual and the organisation’s goals.
Organisations often look to improve team morale using arbitrary team-building exercises, when the underlying issues usually stem from a lack of true connections within the team, built on a foundation of mutual respect and understanding. Here are three foundational pillars of emotional intelligence to focus on developing.
Empathy
As a leader, time and resources can often feel stretched to the maximum, and delivering the aims of the business will always feel like the top priority. High expectations of teams exist because leaders know they are capable and want them to feel the same drive and reward that comes from a leadership role.
However, the reality of the situation might be quite different, and without frequent conscious mindful attempts to empathise with each team member and adapt where possible to accommodate their current needs, the gap can become increasingly large between what’s expected from teams and what is actually being delivered.
Empathy is essential to connect with people who have different priorities and viewpoints. It is a critical leadership skill that enables leaders to understand the challenges their teams face, respond with compassion, and make decisions that consider the human element alongside business objectives.
Self-Awareness
Like empathy, self-awareness is a skill that can be honed by consciously reviewing thoughts and behaviours to recognise potentially unhelpful traits. In high-pressured work settings, personal priorities can fill headspace, making it difficult to see the bigger picture and view things from colleagues’ perspectives.
Developing self-awareness in leadership means being able to view the overarching vision pragmatically. Being mindful during interactions is crucial. Consider how communication style could come across to others. Are presumptions being made about knowledge? Is correct context being given? Are the right questions being asked?
Perceptiveness
Actively observe team interactions, paying attention to things that others might overlook. Has someone’s communication style or tone changed, and if so, why might that be? Engage in conversations with genuine curiosity, aiming to learn as much as possible about the team, what they respond well to, and what they find challenging.
Perceptive leaders pick up on subtle shifts in team dynamics before they become major issues. This early awareness allows for proactive intervention, whether that’s a supportive conversation, adjusting workloads, or addressing underlying tensions that could impact team performance.
Why Emotional Intelligence Is Important for Leadership Success
Developing emotional intelligence in leadership takes time and sustained effort, but the investment delivers significant returns. Leaders with high emotional intelligence build stronger, more resilient teams, navigate change more effectively, and create workplace cultures where people feel valued and motivated to perform at their best.
The evidence is clear: leadership emotional intelligence isn’t a “nice to have” soft skill. It’s a fundamental capability that separates good leaders from great ones. Whether in science, technology, or any other sector, leaders who master emotional intelligence create lasting positive impact on their teams and organisations.
Frequently Asked Questions About Emotional Intelligence
Building Your Leadership Through Emotional Intelligence
Leadership emotional intelligence transforms how teams operate, how challenges are navigated, and ultimately, how successful organisations become. The journey of developing these capabilities might require effort and introspection, but the benefits extend far beyond individual leadership effectiveness.
Leaders who invest in developing emotional intelligence create ripple effects throughout their organisations. They build cultures of trust, psychological safety, and genuine collaboration. Teams led by emotionally intelligent leaders are more engaged, more innovative, and more resilient when facing challenges.
With the right support, structured approaches, and commitment to growth, leadership emotional intelligence becomes one of the most rewarding areas of professional development, enabling leaders to be the best versions of themselves whilst bringing out the best in their teams.