The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Leadership

Johannsen said, “It does impact the bottom line when you work more collaboratively,” citing L’Oréal’s ability to gain $90,000 more in annual sales from each salesperson who was hired for and trained in emotional intelligence and the US Air Force’s reduction in dropout rate after first screening recruits for emotional intelligence.

SAN DIEGO—Emotional intelligence, or EQ, can determine a leader’s likelihood of success, and a high EQ is a trait of 90% of top performers in the workplace, Dr. Rebecca Johannsen told attendees at a recent ULI San Diego-Tijuana District Council breakfast event. The event, entitled “Building Sustainable Leadership,” pointed out that especially in a collaborative business like land planning and real estate development, emotional intelligence is highly predictive of outcome.

Johannsen said that a study by Talent Smart revealed that 90% of top performers in the workplace are high in emotional intelligence, which she explained to be “the ability to recognize and regulate emotions in oneself and others to guide thinking and behavior or to manage relationships.” Conversely, just 20% of low performers scored highly in emotional intelligence. Fortunately, unlike intellectual quotient (IQ), emotional intelligence is not a fixed score and can be improved with practice.