We often hear that leadership is about vision, strategy, and results. While that’s true, the leaders who truly stand out today are the ones who also lead with heart. That’s where emotional intelligence in leadership becomes a game-changer.

Simply put, emotional intelligence in leadership is about understanding and managing emotions—both your own and those of the people around you. It’s about leading with empathy, staying calm under pressure, and creating trust across teams.

Name many of the top traits that come to mind when you think about a successful CEO and words like strategic, emotionally intelligent, and flexible may fit the bill.

But according to experts, one of the biggest indicators of success for CEOs—first-time leaders and veterans alike— is their ability to build a following, and fast. That’s become a critical factor in CEO searches in recent months as more employees are “job hugging” and staying put, while the rate of CEO turnover continues to rise, thanks to pressure to perform amid market volatility and geopolitical uncertainty.

I was 16 years old when I got my first “real” job at a local Jack-in-the-Box. It was not a great gig, for sure, working over a hot grill and dealing with rude, demanding customers. But I was saved from misery by my work buddies—friends who’d crack jokes, commiserate, and pitch in if I fell behind.

Since then, having a work buddy has always been important to me, which is why I’ve cultivated friendships throughout my work career. Those special friends have helped me maintain my focus and commitment to the job and increase my sense of safety and belonging.

Leadership grows clearer when you grasp how influence vs authority shapes the way people respond to your direction. Many leaders feel the push to deliver strong outcomes and recognize that real commitment rises when they build trust, connection, and shared purpose with their teams.

In the Maxwell Leadership Podcast episode “Leader Change: From Position to Influence,” Perry Holley and Chris Goede explain how leadership strengthens when influence sets the tone for the relationship.

Leadership is fundamentally an ability to create synergy or an aligned mission; it’s developing stewardship where people feel strong enough to disagree, brave enough to fail, and supported enough to grow. Leadership is about creating a space where people feel safe, appreciated, and can see a glimpse of the future. Good leaders create careers, not just jobs.

At the start of every new year, many of us think about how to make our lives better going forward. Perhaps we want to lose weight or stop drinking or stay off of our cell phones. If only we had more willpower, the thinking goes, we could meet our goals and become happier and healthier people.

But a new study suggests that we could have that backwards. Instead of self-control or willpower leading us toward greater well-being in the future, greater well-being increases our ability to have more self-control for meeting our goals.

At the Greater Good Science Center, one of the online courses we offer is Mindfulness and Resilience to Stress at Work.
This course includes articles, videos, interactive surveys, and activities and exercises that learners can do to strengthen skills that enhance and sustain their happiness at work. Featured as “Learning by Doing” sections of the courses, these activities include things like engaging in a variety of self-reflection and mindfulness practices.

One of the nicest things about the holiday season is that you’re able to sneak in some me time. That gives founders a chance to unplug and catch up on their reading.

The right book for you depends on your interests, your tastes, and your mood. But with so many options on shelves, where should you start? Inc. surveyed an assortment of founders and business leaders and dug through dozens of lists to find recommendations of some of the best business books around today. If nothing in your backlog of books is calling to you today, any of these could be a good place to start.

Most professionals spend years working toward a promotion. It is seen as the ultimate marker of progress, a clear sign that your efforts have been recognized. Yet for many employees, the moment of moving up does not feel like success. It feels like a setback. A promotion that is supposed to bring pride can instead bring exhaustion, isolation, or even regret.

The truth is that not every career step forward is designed with the individual in mind. Organizational needs often outweigh personal fit. When the two collide, what looks like opportunity can feel more like a punishment.

“Three words—continue building legacy.” That was the unequivocal response of Richard Ferry, one of our firm’s pioneering founders, when I asked him a few weeks ago, “Do you have any advice for me?”

His words have stayed with me ever since—particularly now, as we end the first week of the twelfth month of another year coming to a close. It’s a natural time to become more reflective—not only about what’s behind us, but also what lies ahead. Whether our thoughts go to milestones met, challenges overcome, or opportunities awaiting us, we inevitably arrive at what matters most.

Most businesses still treat this invisible force as a soft skill — when, in truth, it has become the most powerful competitive advantage.

In an age where artificial intelligence writes emails, predicts consumer behavior and even paints portraits, the one advantage still exclusively human is emotional intelligence. Yet most businesses still treat it as a soft skill — when, in truth, it has become the most powerful form of competitive intelligence.

That morning, the manager reminded himself to wish Joe, his subordinate, a happy birthday. But the workday started with a crisis, and the manager spent the day in meetings, only coming up for air at 6 PM. Two days later, when he stopped by Joe’s desk with a small gift, Joe thanked him—but he was actually a little bothered: How could his boss entirely forget his 40th?

Most leaders would not even register such a misstep as a significant problem. But according to new research, even seemingly mild slights by managers can lead to shocking results—such as a 50% increase in employee absenteeism or a drop of two working hours per month.

Walk into any boardroom right now and you’ll hear some version of the same update: We’ve launched pilots. We’re training employees on GenAI. We’re exploring use cases. All of that is fine. None of it tells you whether AI is actually changing the trajectory of the business. Boards don’t need more AI demos. Boards need better questions. Here are ten questions boards should use to move AI from “interesting” to “material.”

Gary Burnison is CEO of Korn Ferry and the author of Love, Hope & Leadership: A Special Edition.

My favorite college professor taught geology, with a true passion for taking ancient rock formations and bringing them to life. Obsessively scrawling notes and diagrams on the blackboard, he practically consumed chalk—covering his clothes, hands, face, and mouth. And every time he said the words “metamorphic rock” or “tectonic shifts,” a sea of white dust showered the first row of students.

What’s one thing every leader can do to make sure employees are happy at work and engaged with their jobs? Make sure they can trust in you, your organization, and one another. That’s the finding in a 2024 meta-analysis of studies with more than one million participants. When leaders seek to improve employee well-being, they typically think about things like remote work, flexible schedules, and wellness offerings such as gym memberships. But trust may be the most valuable perk of all.

We are living in turbulent times and there is no reason to expect that things will become less so in the future. During such moments our emotions become strained and pushed to their limits. Stress increases as emotions are stretched, making it increasingly important that we are able to recognize the effects of it in ourselves as well as others in our environment.

Becoming acutely aware of ourselves and others we are interacting with in this type of environment is paramount to building healthy relationships in the workplace and all areas of our lives. In my book, Emotional Intelligence Game Changers, I delve into how to navigate difficult times.

Have you ever missed a major deadline? Botched a massive product rollout? Lost a big sales account? We all make mistakes at work—and they’re sometimes major ones that can cost us professionally in the short term.

High-powered executives certainly aren’t perfect. According to a Harvard Business Review survey of 2,600 senior executives, nearly half, 45% experienced at least one career blowup. But mistakes, even big ones, are almost never career killers, experts say. For instance, some executives in the HBR study who admitted to making big mistakes eventually became top bosses.

Winston Churchill once said that “true genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.” He might as well have been describing today’s best teams. They aren’t waiting for perfect clarity, but are learning how to make confident calls in the fog.

Research from Harvard Business Review backs that up. A study by ghSMART found that the most successful leaders make decisions faster and with less complete information than their peers, and as a result are up to 12 times more likely to be high performing.

If you’re a fashion model or a professional athlete, you’ll probably reach your professional peak before age 30. Research confirms genius wunderkinds in fields like math tend to reach the pinnacle of their careers early too. But how about leaders? At what age do leadership abilities peak? 

It’s a question that doesn’t lend itself to a clear answer. Sprint speeds are simple to measure, and we all have first-hand evidence of the toll time takes on our bodies. But leadership excellence requires a complex bundle of skills, including raw intellectual horsepower, emotional intelligence, wisdom, and accumulated experience. 

Let’s talk about the awkward truth most leadership books won’t touch with a ten-foot performance review: good managers fail all the time.

They fail not because they’re bad at their jobs, but because they confuse competency with leadership. They follow playbooks, hit KPIs, conduct polite one-on-ones, and yet. . . . their teams underperform, their top talent walks, and their culture flatlines.

Here’s the rub: being good is no longer good enough.