Leaders set the tone of their teams. As the backbone to team success, they are responsible for not only their employees’ productivity and performance, but also their employees’ mental health and well-being. Leaders who lack emotional intelligence (EQ) can negatively impact their direct reports’ well-being and sense of belonging, leading to lower engagement and higher turnover.

In the “State of the American Manager: Analytics and Advice for Leaders,” Gallup estimates that managers account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores, which reinforces the notion that people don’t quit jobs; they quit bosses. To retain a workforce, leaders must understand how to lead with EQ.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

EQ is the ability to understand and manage the emotions of oneself and others. This directly applies to leadership since they are charged with achieving results through their team. Research by Daniel Goleman, the author of “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Thank IQ,” shows that EQ is twice as important as technical skills and IQ for jobs at all levels: 85% of a leader’s success is based on EQ, compared to 15% for technical skills. Even if a manager is highly skilled and knowledgeable, without EQ, they can still risk losing employees.

EQ is an invaluable leadership skill because it can:

• Mitigate the risk of burnout. High-potential employees risk burnout if the work isn’t attuned to their personal needs. Burnout is a real issue in the workplace. The 2023 Aflac Workforces report found that more than one-half of American workers (59%) have at least experienced moderate levels of burnout, which can take a significant toll on workers’ physical and mental health.
• Enhance motivation. Unmotivated employees can cost the business and are more likely to leave the job. Leaders with high levels of EQ can connect with employees and identify ways to improve engagement morale.
• Build self-awareness. Awareness helps leaders identify their behaviors and the actions they have on others and gives them the opportunity to determine whether they want to modify their actions and/or words.
• Improve overall business performance. Leveraging EQ helps leaders drive higher levels of engagement and retention. Data from a Catalyst article, “The Power of Empathy in Times of Crisis and Beyond,” shows 76% of people with empathic senior leader’s report being engaged, compared to only 32% of people with less empathic leader. Organizations with high levels of EQ report more creativity, higher levels of productivity, significantly stronger customer experiences, higher levels of customer loyalty, advocacy and profitability.

Let’s examine the role of EQ in effective leadership and actionable tips to help leaders improve this skill.

Prepare Leaders to Lead With Emotional Intelligence

So, why do some leaders find leading with EQ challenging? It’s because there’s an unbalanced focus on “getting the job done,” and ensuring the team has what they need to execute the task. Leaders can unintentionally prioritize the practical needs of their team, versus personal needs.

Practical needs can include:

• Reaching a decision for the team.
• Resolving a conflict between cohorts.
• Developing a solution for the team or problem-solving.
• Planning how to approach a task.
• Planning the implementation of that change.

While these responsibilities are important for a leader to follow, they are task-focused, rather than human-focused. Leadership must add the same weight to addressing the personal needs of their direct reports.

Personal needs can include:

• Making employees feel heard and understood.
• Showing respect and value to the team.
• Cultivating trust with employees and being willing to trust them.
• Meaningfully involve each member of their team.
• Continuously show support.

An emotionally intelligent leader puts their employees’ personal needs first, acknowledging them as an invaluable asset to the business. Leaders must be agile so they can quickly provide this type of support to employees in their time of need.

So, how can organizations help leaders lead with EQ?

Organizations must educate their leadership team on DDI’s key principles, a set of practices and behaviors that address employees’ needs so that they can feel valued, involved and supported in their role and on the team.

With the five key principles in mind, organizations can also assess leaders’ current baseline of EQ skills so that they can begin analyzing their strengths and areas of improvement, as well as other core leadership skills. Let’s review the key principles to leading with EQ.

5 Key Principles

1.  Maintain or enhance self-esteem.

Employees want to feel valued in their work and safe to be their authentic selves. Low self-esteem can squelch creativity and innovative thinking.

Leaders can maintain and enhance employees’ self-esteem by acknowledging good thinking and ideas in the moment, recognizing individuals accomplishments to the team and company, expressing confidence with positive language and cues, and being sincere and specific.

This can look like thanking a team member for their agile approach to solving a pressing challenge amid time constraints or giving a shout out for displaying leadership skills after taking initiative for a team project.

2.  Listen and respond with empathy.

Empathy is the secret sauce to building personal connections and trust. It equips leaders with the ability to understand other people’s perspectives, feelings and emotions. The key to empathy is to show the other person that you are actually engaged and actively listening. The empathy formula can help guide these responses.

Empathy formula: “It sounds like you’re (feeling) because/about (fact).”

Example: “It sounds like you’re nervous about your upcoming presentation.”

3.  Ask for help and encourage involvement.

The best ideas are a culmination of diverse perspectives and experiences when everyone in the team is engaged and interactive. It also inspires a sense of accountability for the solutions they help create. Leaders must involve their teams by asking them for ideas and to share their opinions or points of view. Encouraging others to contribute can inspire a collaborative culture.

4.  Share thoughts, feelings and rationale to build trust.

For leaders to effectively influence, they must garnish trust. In DDI’s 2023 Global Leadership Forecast, only 46% of leaders report that they definitely trust their direct manager to do what is right. And only 32% say they trust senior leaders at their organization. Employees who trust leadership are more likely to be engaged and loyal to the business.

Leaders can establish trust and build a genuine relationship with direct reports by being open with their thoughts, feelings and rationale about different situations their teams are involved in. Here’s what this looks like:

Example: “I think this new technology will improve the quality of work and completion time because …”

5.  Provide support without removing responsibility to build a sense of ownership.

People want autonomy over their role and responsibilities because it builds ownership. Team members can develop ownership when leaders avoid taking over a task or assignment and giving them the breathing room to problem solve and innovate. This requires leaders to limit their role to providing support and staying focused on getting results through others, versus doing the work itself.

Keeping it Personal: Leading With EQ

Emotionally intelligent leaders consider the “whole” person coming into work or logging on remotely and make a conscious effort to support individual team member’s personal needs. This can motivate and engage employees, activating their creative juices and innovative side, improving business outcomes, and overall, encouraging sustainability into the future.