Strengthen Emotional Intelligence in Leadership with Our Leadership EI Test

Curious how your emotional intelligence shows up in your leadership? Take our short quiz to gain self-awareness and start building the leadership presence your team needs.

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The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership

Check in on your level of emotional intelligence and start improving your leadership capacity with our short quiz.

If you want to be a better leader, there’s nothing more important than growing your emotional intelligence (E.I.). Research shows that E.I. accounts for 58% of your performance, making it one of the most critical factors in leadership success (Bradberry & Greaves, 2009).

But the benefits of emotional intelligence don’t stop at performance. It also plays a key role in the well-being of your team. One study found a significant positive relationship between emotional intelligence and employee general health, suggesting that emotionally intelligent leadership supports healthier, more resilient workplaces (Kohli & Tripathi, 2017).

That’s why we created the Leadership Emotional Intelligence Assessment—a quick, research-backed quiz that evaluates how you demonstrate the five core attributes of E.I. in your leadership. After you complete it, you’ll receive a personalized summary along with recommendations for development moving forward.

Whether you’re leading in a boardroom, on a Zoom call, or in a growing startup, emotional intelligence in leadership is the foundation for building trust, engagement, and sustainable impact.

The Five Pillars of Emotional Intelligence

To lead with emotional intelligence, it’s important to understand what it actually involves. These five pillars represent the core capacities that emotionally intelligent leaders practice every day. Together, they form the foundation of effective, human-centered leadership—helping you navigate relationships, regulate your responses, and build trust across your team.

  • Self-Awareness

The ability to understand what emotions you’re experiencing when you’re feeling them.

  • Other-Awareness

The ability to recognize emotions other people are experiencing and empathize without taking on the energy of their emotions.

  • Self-Management

Responding intentionally with words and actions aligned with your values instead of reacting to your emotions.

  • Relationship Management

Leveraging your self-and-other awareness to create healthy relationships and manage conflict.

  • Resilience & Motivation

The understanding that E.I. can be both learned and lost. It’s a lifelong practice that must be important to you at your core to sustain and develop it in others.

How Emotional Intelligence in Leadership Drives Team Success

Teams led by emotionally intelligent leaders aren’t just happier—they perform better. When leaders consistently practice emotional intelligence, teams experience clarity, higher engagement, and a deeper sense of shared purpose.

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Emotionally intelligent leadership means creating a team culture where:

  • Expectations are clear and aligned with goals.

  • Team members feel valued and respected for their individual contributions.

  • Openness, candor, and feedback are normalized, reducing misunderstandings.

  • People feel safe taking initiative and embracing challenges together.

In stressful or uncertain moments, emotionally intelligent leaders become models of resilience, showing teams how to adapt without panic. Their calm, compassionate presence inspires confidence, reduces burnout, and elevates engagement.

The results are clear:

Teams with emotionally intelligent leaders see up to 4x higher employee retention rates.
— TalentSmartEQ Research

Ultimately, emotional intelligence in leadership is not merely a “nice-to-have.” It’s essential to sustained team performance, engagement, and innovation. Without it, even brilliant strategic minds struggle. With it, leaders transform their organizations from the inside out.

Developing Emotional Intelligence Through Leadership Assessment

Improving emotional intelligence in leadership begins with self-awareness, and true self-awareness starts with insightful feedback.

At Humessence, we offer a specialized Leadership Emotional Intelligence Assessment that helps leaders clearly understand how their emotional behaviors impact their leadership effectiveness.

Here’s how this powerful process helps you grow:

  • Identify strengths and blind spots: Discover areas where you naturally excel and where emotional blind spots might limit your impact.

  • Understand team perceptions: Gain insights into how your actions and reactions are viewed by others.

  • Practical strategies for growth: Receive clear, actionable suggestions for improving everyday emotional leadership practices.

This assessment isn’t just a report—it’s a pathway toward becoming a more emotionally intelligent leader.

When you invest in understanding your emotional intelligence, you unlock powerful opportunities for personal and professional growth—changing the way your team experiences your leadership.

Why Emotional Intelligence in Leadership Matters Now More Than Ever

The workplace has evolved dramatically, making emotional intelligence in leadership critical in ways it never was before. Today’s workplace is more complex, diverse, and emotionally charged, driven by:

  • Remote and hybrid team structures

  • Increasing stress, burnout, and mental health challenges

  • Stronger demands for inclusion, authenticity, and psychological safety

  • Constant shifts in market conditions and organizational dynamics

In this challenging environment, technical skills alone aren’t enough. Employees expect empathy, genuine connection, and a sense of belonging. Leaders with emotional intelligence are uniquely positioned to meet these needs, recognizing emotional cues, managing uncertainty thoughtfully, and responding compassionately.

Emotionally intelligent leaders also:

  • Foster innovation by creating safe, inclusive environments

  • Successfully manage generational and cultural diversity

  • Strengthen teams’ resilience to burnout and change

📈 Did You Know?
Organizations prioritizing emotional intelligence experience up to 20% greater employee engagement (Workplace Intelligence Report, 2022).

In a world where adaptability, inclusivity, and genuine connection are now critical business competencies, emotional intelligence isn’t optional—it’s foundational.

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We hope you enjoy this exercise, and congratulations on taking the first step in becoming a people-centered leader. It takes humility to acknowledge your current state and become more aware of the behaviors creating it. Developing your emotional intelligence is essential to leading high-performing teams and enjoying the process.