Emotional intelligence is traditionally not something you would expect to hear about in a leadership context. 20 or 30 years ago, it was a long way down the list of desirable leadership skills. But the working world has changed significantly since then. Now, emotional intelligence is a crucial part of the effective leadership of high-performance teams. Some experts even argue that organizations are doomed without it.

In today’s corporate landscape, employee well-being and other motivating factors are recognized as having a direct impact on performance. An Oxford University study found that happy workers are 13% more productive. So, to achieve positive outcomes and meet organizational goals, today’s leaders must prioritize the emotional health of their employees and teams.

What is emotional intelligence?

Emotional intelligence is the ability to express and regulate your own emotions and understand and influence the emotions of others. If you are emotionally intelligent, you can communicate with and relate to others constructively and effectively.

In a leadership context, emotional intelligence enables you to handle interpersonal relationships with team members empathetically and connect with them on their level. Many leaders used to expect employees to leave their emotions at the door. However, the reality is that an employee’s behaviors and decisions at work are driven by emotion, and that has a direct impact on organizational outcomes.

Why is emotional intelligence important for leaders?

Emotions are present in just about every workplace situation, including:

  • Reward and recognition
  • Change and uncertainty
  • Achievement and failure
  • Interactions with colleagues
  • Conflict and relationships

The most effective leaders help their teams come through challenging times while keeping them engaged and productive. But more than that, an emotionally intelligent leader can proactively manage the emotional work events their teams are exposed to. They also build bonds, create the culture, and set an emotional tone for the team that enables everyone to be productive.

Some organizations even prioritize emotional intelligence above IQ and technical skills. It’s not that those skills are irrelevant, but even with the best training in the world, a leader’s success will always be limited if they cannot get the best out of their teams.

What influences team emotions?

So far we’ve discussed how emotional intelligence helps organizations protect and engage each employee, but work is rarely an individual experience. Most people work as part of a team, and if you think about your own experience of working in a team, you’ll probably recognize how team members converge and can share feelings and moods at a collective level.

Team members share similar emotions because they are exposed to the same influences and events at work. Here are a few examples.

Situations that can generate positive emotions in teams include:

  • Being collectively praised by a manager
  • Work-free team building events
  • Receiving equal rewards and compensation
  • Encouragement for self-care
  • Trust and flexibility around telecommuting

Situations that may generate negative emotions include:

  • Unequal pay or recognition for similar work
  • Stress due to excessive or unequal workloads
  • Preferential treatment or promotion
  • Personal conflicts or personality clashes
  • Lack of trust in management and each other

Indeed, research also suggests that moods and emotions can spread between team members subconsciously. This phenomenon, known as emotional contagion, sees moods and emotions transfer between group members like a virus. Meaning if one team member is unhappy, it may spread to other members quickly via hallway gossip and ‘quiet quitting’ behaviors.

Some team members may also consciously alter their mood to match their colleagues. This sort of behavior is common among new starters, who may follow the emotions and behaviors of co-workers to help them fit in.

Elevating team emotions for success

Managing and elevating team emotions plays a central part in the organizational culture. Research reveals that the emotional culture of an organization influences factors such as employee satisfaction, productivity, and burnout. It also impacts ‘hard’ measures like absenteeism and financial performance. With that in mind, here are some steps you can take to shape and manage team emotions in the workplace.

Promote positive team emotions

Multiple studies have found that shared positive emotions in workplace teams deliver many benefits, including happiness, motivation, and engagement. When team members exhibit the same positive emotions, it leads to an increase in cooperation and performance.

Leaders have a crucial role in promoting these positive emotions. They must invest time and effort into understanding what motivates people in their working lives and pay attention to their happiness and wellbeing.

Team members frequently look to their managers and leaders to see what emotions they exhibit and mirror them. Therefore, leaders can also set the emotional tone by exhibiting the behaviors and emotions they want to see in their teams.

Create a safe psychological environment

Creating a culture of psychological safety plays a central part in building high-performing teams. In psychologically safe teams, employees feel respected and accepted, and they are free to be themselves and exhibit their emotions without the fear of negative consequences for their career or status.

Studies show that psychological safety contributes to more positive work environments where employees are more engaged, more productive, less stressed, and more likely to collaborate. Leaders with high emotional intelligence can create higher levels of psychological safety by managing conflicts effectively, communicating efficiently, and building stronger professional relationships.

Consider your team’s emotional composition

When building a team, you’ll need the necessary technical skills, but you should also think about the team’s composition from an emotional point of view. Diversity is generally considered a strength of professional teams, but when it comes to the way team members express and regulate their emotions, past research shows that too much emotional diversity can lower performance and damage relationships. Another reason to carefully consider team composition is the convergence of team emotions. Someone with emotional traits that are thought of as negative could detrimentally affect the rest of the team and diminish team performance.

Recognizing the signs and qualities of emotional intelligence makes it easier to identify individuals who will have a positive emotional impact on the team environment. Likewise, it’s not impossible to help team members improve their emotional intelligence, as emotional intelligence is a set of behaviors and attitudes that can be taught and developed.

Emotional intelligence is a non-negotiable

These days, emotional intelligence is a non-negotiable for leaders of everything from startups to international organizations. Not only is it central to enhancing the experience of each employee, but it also enables you to create an emotional culture that gives your teams the care and support they need to flourish.

The good news is that emotional intelligence is a skill that leaders can nurture and develop just like any other. Given the positive impact it has on employee wellness and engagement, and business objectives such as profitability and productivity, it’s a skill business leaders should work on with as much dedication and diligence as any other.

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