Emotional intelligence in leadership

Claimed to be one of the keys to success in life and in business, many people (including recruiters) also believe that our “emotion quotient” (EQ) is even more important than our “intelligence quotient” (IQ). And this seems to be a continuing trend, with the World Economic Forum citing emotional intelligence as one of the top 15 skills for 2025 in their Future of Jobs report.

Emotional intelligence (EI) is often defined as the ability to “perceive, use, understand, manage and handle emotions”. People with high emotional intelligence can typically “recognise their own emotions and those of others, use emotional information to guide thinking and behaviour, discern between different feelings and label them appropriately, and adjust emotions to adapt to environments”.

Having EI is also particularly valuable for those in management positions. According to Indeed, emotional intelligence in leadership can help leaders:

• Collaborate and communicate more effectively.
• Build stronger relationships.
• Form more effective teams.
• Understand the emotion of others to help achieve team goals.
• Relate well to others and help them be recognised for their contributions.
• Decrease employee turnover.
• Demonstrate empathy and communicate effectively when addressing conflict.
• Assess challenging situations calmly, respond appropriately and inspire others to take positive action.
• Set the tone for leadership within an entire organisation.

This emotional intelligence in leadership course will teach you how to develop and apply EQ for personal and professional success. In our Certificate of Emotional Intelligence, you will also learn about the biology and physiology of EQ, how to measure it, and its crucial applications in marketing, management, education and relationships.

Learning Outcomes

Outcomes achieved by undertaking an emotional intelligence in leadership course include:

• Learning about IQ or intelligence quotient, social intelligence and emotional intelligence.
• Exploring how to understand emotions and the definition of emotion.
• Gaining an understanding of mood versus emotion, models of emotions, the wheel of emotions and the function of emotions.
• Studying emotional development; motivation, cognition and emotion and the elements of emotional intelligence.
• Examining self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills.
• Understanding why studying EI is valuable and which type of intelligence is more important.
• Attaining knowledge of the biology of emotions, emotions as feelings and the development of emotions.
• Gaining insights into emotional intelligence in infancy, toddler to early childhood, middle to late childhood and adolescence.
• Learning about the nervous system and emotions and the theories of emotion.
• Gaining an understanding of facial feedback theory links to emotional intelligence, unusual sensory states, highly sensitive people and synaesthesia.
• Studying models of emotional intelligence, including EI models, the Salovey & Mayer ability model and Goleman’s performance-based model.
• Examining self-awareness, social awareness, self-management and relationship management.
• Understanding the Bar-On competency-based model, five dimensions and intrapersonal and interpersonal skill
• Attaining knowledge of stress management, adaptability and the 15 competencies contributing to an individual’s overall emotional intelligence.
• Gaining insights into measuring emotional intelligence and why to measure intelligence in leadership.
• Attaining knowledge of low EI and the ethical considerations of using EI in recruitment.
• Gaining insights into EI applications in terms of managing employees.
• Learning about how EI can be applied to leadership and workplace management?
• Exploring the five EI competencies, social skills, motivation and self-awareness.
• Gaining an understanding of empathy, leadership training, training employees, the limitations of training programs in EI and empirically-based training programs.
• Exploring how to recognise and define self-awareness; self-awareness, emotional intelligence and well-being and negative self-talk.
• Gaining an understanding of major problems with negative self-talk, procrastination, the procrastination management framework and stress.
• Studying EI and romantic and other relationships and building relationships.
• Examining arguments and discussions, conflict management, EI and relationship strategies and setting goals.
• Understanding how to consider alternate perspectives, writing redirection phrases and feeling statements ahead of time and tools for developing self-awareness.
• Attaining knowledge of emotional observation and how to recognise and channel strong emotions.
• Gaining insights into EI applications in education and training, and how our emotions affect our attention and emotion.
• Learning about EI and studying, EI an academic performance and teaching and emotional intelligence.
• Exploring the self-assessment of EI, how teachers model emotional intelligence in classroom settings and classroom tools for developing emotional intelligence.
• Gaining an understanding of resilience, social and emotional learning, mood monitoring, journalling and reflection.
• Studying education at work, communication, facilitation and engagement and motivation.

And more!

The Five Components of Emotional Intelligence

Although the term “emotional intelligence” first appeared in the mid-1960s, it gained popularity in the book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, written by psychologist Daniel Goleman in 1995. Goleman defined EI as the array of characteristics and skills that drive leadership performance, including emotional intelligence in leadership, and he cited five different components.

#1. Self-awareness

• The capacity to recognise and understand emotions.
• Have a sense of how actions, moods and the emotions of others take effect.
• Keeping track of emotions and noticing different emotional reactions.
• Being able to identify emotions correctly.
• Recognising that how we feel and what we do are related.
• Having awareness of our own personal strengths and limitations.

#2. Self-regulation

• The appropriate expression of emotion.
• Coping with change, being flexible, and managing conflict.
• Diffusing tense or difficult situations.
• Being aware of how actions affect others and taking ownership of them.

#3. Social skills

• Interacting well with other people.
• Applying an understanding of the emotions of ourselves and others to interact and communicate with others.
• Verbal and non-verbal communication, active listening, developing rapport, and emotional intelligence in leadership.

#4. Empathy

• Being able to understand how other people are feeling.
• Respond appropriately to other people based on recognising their emotions.
• Understanding power dynamics and how these affect behaviour and feelings.

#5. Intrinsic motivation

• Being driven to meet personal goals and needs rather than being motivated by external rewards such as fame, money and recognition.
• Being action-oriented and setting goals.

Models and Frameworks of the EI Concept

The three major models of emotional intelligence have been developed from analysis, research and scientific studies. And as you’ll discover below, many of them have similar components.

Goleman’s EI Performance Model

In addition to the five components of EI, Goleman also suggests twelve sub-scales of EI.

1. Emotional self-awareness
2. Emotional self-control
3. Adaptability
4. Achievement orientation
5. Positive outlook
6. Influence
7. Coaching and mentoring
8. Empathy
9. Conflict management
10. Teamwork
11. Organisational awareness
12. Emotional intelligence in leadership,including being inspirational

Bar-On’s EI Competencies Model

Psychologist Reuven Bar-On suggested that EI is a system of interconnected behaviour that arises from social and emotional competencies that influence behaviour and performance. His model consists of five scales — self-expression, self-perception, decision-making, interpersonal and stress management. He also proposed fifteen sub-scales:

1. Self-regard
2. Self-actualisation
3. Emotional self-awareness
4. Emotional expression
5. Assertiveness
6. Independence
7. Interpersonal relationships
8. Empathy
9. Social responsibility
10. Problem-solving
11. Reality testing
12. Impulse control
13. Flexibility
14. Stress tolerance
15. Optimism

Mayer, Salovey and Caruso’s EI Ability Model

This model, developed by academics John D. Mayer, Peter Salovey and David R. Caruso, suggests that “information from the perceived understanding of emotions and managing emotions is used to facilitate thinking and guide our decision making”. The framework emphasises a four-branch model of EI in terms of the ability to:

1. Perceive emotion — including the ability to identify emotions in the postural and facial expressions of others. It reflects emotional expression and non-verbal perception to communicate via the face and voice.
2. Use emotion to facilitate thought — including the ability to use emotions to aid thinking.
3. Understand emotions — including being able to “analyse emotions and awareness of the likely trends in emotion over time, as well as an appreciation of the outcomes from emotions. It also includes the capacity to label and discriminate between feelings”.
4. Manage emotion — including managing an individual’s personality with self-knowledge, goals and social awareness shaping how emotions are managed.

The branches are ordered from “emotion perception” to management via more basic skills through to more sophisticated skills. Branches one and two represent the separate parts of information processing that are thought to be bound in the emotion system. Branch four is integrated into an individual’s plans and goals.

This model can be measured using the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). It measures four aspects of EI. The ability to:

1. Accurately identify the emotions of people and symbolised by objects in pictures. Question types: identifying and reading emotions in landscapes, people and designs.
2. Use emotions and solve problems with emotions. Question types: comparing and matching emotions to sensations such as light, colour and temperature.
3. Understand the cause of emotion. Question types: multiple choice emotion vocabulary (scenario presented) questions.
4. Be open to emotions and fuse emotions with thinking. Question types: answering which emotional strategy would be best in social relationships, as well as managing one’s self.

Learn valuable knowledge and skills that will help you apply your knowledge of emotional intelligence in your personal and professional life with our Certificate of Emotional Intelligence.