Article

The 4 Pillars of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership

March 05, 2025

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Emily May

Emotional intelligence isn’t just another corporate buzz phrase. Emotional intelligence is crucial for leaders because it enables them to build strong relationships, navigate challenges with empathy, and effectively inspire and motivate their teams. You can read all the quotes and books on emotional intelligence, but building these skills takes practice and dedication. 

This article explores four essential skills for emotional intelligence in leadership.

What Is Emotional Intelligence? 

Emotional intelligence is the ability to accurately read and appropriately respond to emotions in ourselves and others. While everyone has different levels of emotional intelligence, we can improve this skill set through self-development and practice. Building emotional intelligence starts with the self, using personal reflections to inform interactions with others. 

The concept of emotional intelligence and its core components was widely popularized by Daniel Goleman, author of the 1995 best-seller Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. Goleman's research continues to inform our understanding of emotional intelligence today.

Emotional Intelligence and Leadership

Emotionally Intelligent leaders are often more successful at inspiring outcomes and promoting harmony in the workplace through their ability to read, understand, and work with team dynamics. These soft skills are also useful in managing business relationships with key stakeholders such as business partners, customers, and investors. 

The Benefits of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership

Have you ever heard the term “toxic workplace”? By elevating emotional intelligence among leaders, we can prevent the behaviors we associate with these work environments. 

The benefits of emotional intelligence in leadership include:

The 4 Pillars of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership

This section explores the four main components of emotional intelligence that leaders should develop to have a more significant and positive impact on their teams. 

1. Self-Awareness

A black icon of a person looking at their reflection in a framed mirror, with a speech bubble containing a gear symbol, representing self-awareness and personal reflection. The background features a pattern of hexagonal shapes in blue, yellow, and turquoise.

Developing self-awareness is the first step to building emotional intelligence. Self-awareness refers to our ability to be conscious of our emotions and actions and how they impact the people around us. It also involves understanding our strengths, weaknesses, and values so that we can begin to manage our emotions effectively. 

A self-aware leader will tune into their current state and self-knowledge to make better decisions, regulate their emotions, and lead from a state of empathy. Because leadership heavily relies on personal interaction, self-awareness builds a foundation for healthy team conversations and relationships. 

Example: Lucy, a project manager, notices her patience decreasing as a project moves slower than she would like–even though her team is still on deadline. Through previous self-reflection, she knows that her project timeline expectations aren’t always reasonable, which can cause her team to feel pressured. With this in mind, Lucy reviews the agreed-upon milestones before her team meeting to reassure herself that her team is on track. 

2. Self-Management

An illustration of five circular icons, each depicting a person with different facial expressions, symbolizing self-management and emotional regulation. The background features a geometric pattern of interconnected hexagons in shades of blue.

Once we have developed self-awareness, we can use that knowledge to practice managing our feelings and behaviors. Self-management refers to our ability to regulate our emotions effectively. Emotional regulation is critical to ensuring we behave in a way that aligns with who we are and how we want to be in the world. 

Self-management is an essential skill for all leaders. Self-management helps leaders balance their emotions with logic to inform their decisions. This regulation ensures that leaders don't act impulsively on emotion but instead use their emotions as valuable insights. Through effective self-management, leaders can communicate clearly, navigate challenges, and make solutions-oriented decisions that best serve their teams.

Example: Lucy, the project manager from the previous example, learned in a team meeting that two team members would not be able to meet the initially agreed-upon milestone due to technical issues. She knows that unmet deadlines can be an emotional trigger in her professional life. With this understanding, she concentrates on remaining calm and asks the team members how she can help resolve their technical issues, encouraging them to inquire with the IT department.

3. Social Awareness

A black icon of a person in a suit with a light bulb as a head, symbolizing ideas or knowledge, with arrows radiating outward. The background features a mix of hexagonal shapes in blue, yellow, and white.

Social awareness refers to the capacity to understand and recognize the perspectives of others. It also involves the ability to read others’ emotions and social cues. Empathy is essential to social awareness, allowing a person to understand why someone has a specific opinion or is showing a particular emotion. 

Leaders need social awareness to gauge team feelings and respond appropriately, which can be tricky in group dynamics. This skill is critical to navigating conflict effectively so that team members can continue to collaborate in a healthy manner. When leaders demonstrate social awareness, they foster meaningful connections, boost morale, and create an inclusive, engaged workplace.

Example: During a recent meeting, Lucy noticed that one of her top-performing team members, Sam, was quieter than usual and displayed withdrawn social cues. She didn’t pressure Sam to contribute and later checked in with him privately. This strategy supports a positive work environment by ensuring Sam knows he has a safe space to communicate challenges if needed.

4. Relationship Management

An illustration of four interconnected people icons, representing relationship management and collaboration. The background features a blue hexagonal pattern with a central yellow circle highlighting the connection.

Relationship management combines self-awareness, self-management, and social awareness to inspire, influence, and develop others by building trust. This process involves promoting effective communication, conflict resolution, and collaboration. 

Leaders rely on relationship management to inspire and influence their team members. Building collective trust fosters engagement and alignment. Relationship management is critical to maintaining a healthy work environment and retaining talent. Leaders must work to develop relationships within their team, and ensure everyone has a place to contribute and thrive.

Example: Lucy notices tension between two team members due to a miscommunication about project responsibilities. To address the conflict, she facilitates a conversation where both parties can express concerns and find a resolution, encouraging transparency and teamwork. She then follows up with each team member to ensure they are satisfied with the outcome and feel confident moving forward.

Next Steps

Emotional intelligence is a crucial skill set for today’s leaders, enhancing collaboration, communication, and team engagement. Its core components include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. Seeking development in these areas opens opportunities for deeper relationships, improved team results, and career growth and satisfaction. 

Check out our Building Emotional Intelligence micro-credential course, which will help you develop all four core skills outlined in this article–in only 2-4 hours! You can explore the entire Leadership Essentials Skills Collection for related course offerings, including authentic leadership, coaching conversations, impactful feedback, and more.

We look forward to joining you on your leadership development journey. 

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TAGGED AS:
Agile Team Facilitation, Agility in Leadership, Leading with Agility, People Development

About the author

Emily May | ICAgile, Marketing Specialist
Emily May is a Marketing Specialist at ICAgile, where she helps educate learners on their agile journey through content. With an eclectic background in communications supporting small business marketing efforts, she hopes to inspire readers to initiate more empathy, productivity, and creativity in the workplace for improved internal and external outcomes.

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