Emotional Intelligence in Business: 5 Ways It Predicts Your Success

What is emotional intelligence?

Emotional intelligence (EI) is an individual’s ability to perceive, understand and manage their own emotions and the emotions of others. This insight and awareness can help you connect and communicate with others more effectively, allowing you to build bridges, not walls.

Dr. Margie Warrell, a bestselling author, leadership advisor and human development expert, emphasized that all humans are innately emotional — some are just better at managing their emotions than others. 

“What gets us in trouble is that, left unchecked, emotions can trump reason,” Warrell cautioned. “Unless we intervene to short-circuit that reactive response, our amygdala bypasses logic, rationalism and reason. Neural hijack ensues.” 

People who display higher levels of emotional intelligence have more awareness of their emotions and are better able to prevent this neural hijack. Dr. Richard Boyatzis, Distinguished University Professor at Case Western Reserve University, author, and one of the pioneers of the competencies movement in human resources, explained that emotional intelligence encompasses a handful of competencies or skills. 

“What I call competencies are underlying characteristics that can manifest themselves in a variety of specific behaviors and skills that research has shown actually predict effectiveness in some role or job,” Boyatzis said. 

Boyatzis explained that emotional intelligence competencies include:

• Self-awareness: The degree to which you recognize and understand your own emotions and behaviors.
• Empathy: The ability to recognize, understand and respond to the emotions and behaviors of others.
• Adaptability: The willingness to change course when your approach isn’t working.
• Emotional self-control: The ability to regulate your reactions for the sake of another person or group.
• Achievement orientation: The internal motivation to get something done better.
• Social intelligence: The way you build relationships with other people. 

What is emotional intelligence in the workplace?

Emotional intelligence in the workplace refers to the ability to recognize, understand and manage your own emotions — as well as those of others — in a professional setting. This skill helps you communicate more effectively with team members, customers and vendors, handle stress more effectively, and build stronger professional relationships. It’s important for every member of an organization but is particularly crucial for those in leadership roles. 

“In corporate environments, emotional intelligence allows people to feel heard, understood and validated, and it opens the environment to trust,” said Dr. George Vergolias, a workplace psychologist, PsyD, CTM and chief clinical officer at R3 Continuum. “With trust established, employees are more likely to take risks creatively and more able to innovate, which helps the business.”

Vergolias explained that emotional intelligence in the workplace is critical for:

• Team collaboration
• Managing workplace conflict
• Strong leadership
• Resilience under pressure
• Improving manager-employee relationships 
• Anticipating the needs of others
• Giving employees advice 
• Accepting and acting on customer feedback

How does emotional intelligence in business predict success?

Emotional intelligence is closely tied to effective communication and can help propel professionals toward higher levels of achievement and success. “Research has shown that where job roles rely on effective communication to be successful, emotional intelligence is a key differentiator in performance,” said James Woodfall, emotional intelligence expert and founder of Raise Your EI. 

Boyatzis emphasized that emotionally intelligent communication benefits all roles within an organization, not just those specifically focused on communication. “After thousands of studies, we’ve seen that there is hardly a job or role in life that doesn’t benefit from a person demonstrating more emotional self-awareness,” Boyatzis said.

Here are five ways emotional intelligence in business can predict success: 

1. Self-management supports flexibility and resilience.

Using emotional intelligence means managing your emotional response to situations so you stay flexible and positive as issues arise. Individuals with poor self-management skills tend to underperform in the workplace and often struggle with motivation and adapting to change.

Vergolias explained that emotional intelligence helps people identify emotional triggers and regulate their responses, especially in high-stakes or emotionally charged situations. “This emotional regulation supports more constructive conflict resolution, greater composure under pressure and quicker recovery from setbacks,” Vergolias said. “Individuals with higher EI consistently demonstrate more adaptive, solution-oriented behavior during organizational crises.”

2. Self-awareness and empathy strengthen workplace relationships.

Emotionally intelligent professionals possess self-awareness and empathy, traits that help them make better business decisions, communicate more clearly, and ultimately succeed in business.

• Self-awareness: Self-awareness is particularly critical to people management. “Emotional intelligence means we are more self-aware, often more self-compassionate, which in itself allows us to better self-regulate and calm the alarm centers, allowing us to better think and approach issues,” said Dr. Marie-Hélène Pelletier, workplace psychologist and executive coach. 
• Empathy: Empathy — the ability to connect with others on an emotional level while considering their thoughts and feelings — can strengthen a company’s culture by making everyone feel welcome and understood. “Empathy enables leaders and employees to tune into others’ emotional states, which is critical for building trust, strengthening collaboration and leading diverse teams,” said Vergolias.

3. Motivation drives persistence and performance.

Motivation is another key component of emotional intelligence. Emotionally intelligent professionals are driven by internal values and goals, not just external rewards. This type of self-motivation helps people stay focused, overcome setbacks and continue to improve, all of which contribute to long-term success.

“Emotional intelligence helps us connect with our values and protect our motivation from an intrinsic perspective,” Pelletier explained. “It has also been shown to influence job performance through its impact on job satisfaction and organizational commitment, both of which are often tied to motivation.”

Professionals who lack motivation often also lack this level of self-awareness, which can cause them to give up more easily.

4. Self-regulation improves focus and strategic thinking.

With so many distractions everywhere you turn, staying focused isn’t easy — but it’s essential. Whether you’re leading a business or working on a team, being able to concentrate and catch the details can make all the difference.

“Self-regulation and emotional awareness help filter out distractions and minimize cognitive hijacking, when stress overwhelms rational thinking,” said Vergolias. “High-EI individuals are less likely to ruminate or react impulsively, freeing up mental space for strategic thinking.”

If you can block out literal and figurative noise and focus on the task at hand, you’ll be more productive and, in turn, more successful.

5. Emotional insights build customer trust and loyalty.

Emotionally intelligent professionals look beyond the sale and understand the importance of growing customer relationships and nurturing vendor and stakeholder partnerships. This skill is critical to business success, particularly when personal customer connections lead to customer loyalty. 

“Emotional intelligence helps us better connect with ourselves and everyone around us, specifically our customers, for whom we want to be present and attentive to,” said Pelletier. “EI helps us build connection and trust, read between the lines when it comes to their needs, ask better questions and respond with calm and perspective.”

Vergolias noted that emotionally intelligent professionals are more likely to earn repeat business by forming personal connections with customers. “Clients and customers remember how they feel more than what was said,” Vergolias said. “This emotional insight often makes the difference between a one-time sale and long-term loyalty.”

How do you measure emotional intelligence?

Emotional intelligence is a combination of self-awareness, empathy and social skills. If EI is important to you when recruiting new employees or weighing internal promotions, consider the following ways to gauge a candidate’s emotional intelligence level. 

• Formal EI assessments: Vergolias explained that EI can be measured through validated assessments and self-report questionnaires. “Self-report questionnaires, such as the EQ-i 2.0 by Multi-Health Systems, assess how individuals perceive their own emotional and social functioning,” Vergolias said. “Ability-based tests, like the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), evaluate a person’s actual ability to identify, understand and manage emotions.”
• 360-degree analysis: Direct observation is a valuable method for assessing someone’s emotional intelligence. Dr. Ashwini Nadkarni, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, recommends using a 360-degree performance evaluation. “A 360 analysis in the workplace is one which gathers information about an individual’s performance, areas of strength and opportunities for improvement, not only from their manager, but also from the entirety of their team,” Nadkarni explained. “The goal is to provide a more holistic assessment to enable professional development.”
• Ask the right questions: Even without the time or resources to conduct extensive evaluations, you can still get a feel for someone’s emotional intelligence by asking the right interview questions. Notice whether candidates seem defensive or open, appear able to keep their ego in check, and show awareness of other people’s emotions. Here are a few common interview questions to assess someone’s emotional intelligence:
  • What bothers you most about other people?
  • Who do you look up to and why?
  • What kind of people do you like to work with and why?

How do you boost emotional intelligence?

The good news is that emotional intelligence is something you can build at any age or stage of your career. 

“If you look at emotional intelligence at the behavioral level, you can dramatically improve your behavior in a way that sticks,” said Boyatzis. “There are neural networks you can develop over time that will enable you to tune in unconsciously to your emotions, the emotions of others and relationships.”

Here are a few tricks for boosting your emotional intelligence:

• Engage your vision: Boyatzis explained that the key to changing your emotional intelligence in a meaningful and lasting way is to focus on your vision for the type of person you want to be. “The research shows activating your big picture, meaning your dreams and your sense of purpose, activates the neural networks that make you open to possibilities, and our research has shown that those are the characteristics that enable us to sustain an effort,” Boyatzis said.
• Be intentional: Pelletier emphasized that you must be intentional about increasing your emotional intelligence. That means understanding why emotional intelligence is important and approaching it from a place of openness, not obligation. “As soon as the words ‘should’ or ‘ought to’ enter your mind, the change process stops. You close down,” Boyatzis cautioned.
• Practice self-awareness and observation: Warrell said tuning into and acknowledging your emotions is the first step to managing them. “Being able to ‘short-circuit’ your amygdala’s primitive ‘fight, flight or freeze’ response, and channeling the destructive impulses that some emotions give rise to in more constructive ways will make all the difference in how you deal with the challenges and challenging people that come your way,” Warrell explained.
• Build your emotional vocabulary: A vital part of understanding your emotions is being able to name them. “Identifying your emotions helps you understand your needs, values and triggers,” explained Erica Schwartzberg, a psychotherapist and LMSW at Downtown Somatic Therapy. “When you can name how you feel, people can actually respond to you. Misunderstandings diminish, while vulnerability increases.”
• Consider whether you’re reacting or responding: Pay attention to whether you react impulsively or respond intentionally to situations. When you react to the world around you, you often end up making decisions that aren’t the best choice. When you slow down and consciously decide how to respond, the result is usually better for everyone involved. “Pause to reflect before you react,” recommended Nadkarni. “Whenever you’re placed in a decision-making situation, ask yourself how people feel, how they might react and what’s at stake.”
• Don’t let adversity hold you back: Sometimes, at work and in your personal life, the going gets tough. Do you bounce back from adversity or let it keep you down? Next time you’re faced with a difficult situation in business or at home, ask yourself what lessons you can learn, and look for the best path to change your situation instead of letting it hold you back.
• Participate in training: Various training programs can help enhance your emotional intelligence competencies. “They involve learning the theory of emotions and how they motivate our behavior and thinking,” said Woodfall. “This gives a solid foundation, which leads to self-understanding and an understanding of others. The best programs involve coaching to support the behavior changes and feedback loops that lead to performance increases.”
• Find a mentor: Sometimes the best thing you can do to improve your emotional intelligence is to surround yourself with emotionally intelligent people who consistently make good decisions and intentional choices. You become the five people you spend the most time with, so choose wisely — and learn from them. 

Working on how you respond to the world and others is the first step in building a life and a business that runs smoothly. While others are busy learning new tricks of the trade, the time you spend investing in your emotional intelligence will pay off significantly.

Blair Nicole Nastasi and Sean Peek contributed to this article.