It’s a pretty common refrain around PowerToFly that the world has plenty of bosses, but not enough leaders. What’s the difference? It’s simple: leadership skills and emotional intelligence.
Attrition can be due to a lot of factors — better pay elsewhere, working style incompatibility, or shifting personal priorities. But there’s one reason in particular that takes a big piece of the cake, and we don’t talk about it nearly enough.
According to Gallup, 42% of employees who voluntarily left a job said the organization could have taken action to prevent it — often linked to poor leadership or management quality. Other surveys show that nearly 7 in 10 workers would consider leaving a role because of a bad manager.
So if your workplace is suffering from high attrition rates, a lack of leadership skills and emotional intelligence could be a major contributor — even if surface-level numbers, trends, and business trajectory look fine. After all, without good leadership, how would an organization stay in the positive?
How do leadership skills and emotional intelligence intersect?
So then what’s the key to good leadership? Good emotional skills. That’s right! Leadership skills and emotional intelligence go hand in hand. The old stereotype is that a leader needs to be firm, stoic, and strict to get the job done. But leaders who are all work and no heart might succeed at crushing goals, yet struggle to create a loyal, motivated team. Treating employees as people first, understanding their needs, and connecting with them as humans is what builds longevity.
Here’s how adding emotional intelligence to the mix can strengthen your leadership skills:
Empathy
There is a style of leadership that runs on orders, instructions, and commands, but a better style runs on respect, understanding, and kindness. Forbes reports that empathy is the most important leadership skill of them all, yet 52% of employees say their leaders aren’t doing a good job of demonstrating it.
Empathy in the workplace can look like small but meaningful efforts. For example, if an employee isn’t performing at their best, it can look like a PIP made with clarity and kindness instead of fear.
A real-world example: ongoing uncertainty — from elections to global conflicts — can impact employees on a personal level. Empathetic leaders understand that stress doesn’t stop at the office door, and they provide the support needed to stay balanced and productive.
Empathy doesn’t take going out of your way or losing assertiveness. It simply means leading with compassion, which also applies to leadership skills.
Feedback
What puts emotional intelligence to the test? How you give criticism. Feedback fails if it shuts people down instead of motivating them forward. If you’re a leader wondering how to improve productivity and boost morale, the “Yes, and…” model can help. This technique is borrowed from improvisational comedy, but it works because it encourages collaboration instead of rejection.
For instance, instead of saying:
“No, the design doesn’t work.”
Try:
“Yes, good effort here. The colors are strong, and if you experiment with a bolder typeface or scale up the text, it would be great.”
Feedback is a two-way street. Leaders with strong emotional intelligence accept criticism just as graciously as they give it. They understand that productive criticism is important, and they encourage it. An open-door policy encourages all your team members to have an honest conversation on what’s working and what’s not. It is a way to lead with more transparency and acceptance. Remember, good leaders are always active listeners.
Trust your inner voice
Intuition is not just for personal matters, it’s a powerful workplace skill too!
How many times have you known in your gut that a deal wasn’t going to go through, or sensed that a candidate wasn’t the right fit? The opposite is true as well: sometimes your gut says “yes” to a candidate who doesn’t check every technical box, but ends up being a great employee.
Intuition isn’t at odds with intellect. Emotional intelligence and professional intelligence can work together in perfect sync, giving you answers before the numbers catch up.
Want to dig deeper? Tune into this chat on key tips to foster emotional intelligence for leadership skills.
Why emotional intelligence matters even more in hybrid and remote work
The workplace has changed. With distributed teams, leaders can’t rely on hallway conversations or body language to understand how people are doing.
Emotional intelligence becomes a daily leadership tool:
- Reading tone and intent through email, chat, and video
- Checking in with employees about workload and burnout signals
- Ensuring quieter voices are heard on virtual calls
- Practicing patience and clarity when communication lags
- Creating psychological safety in digital spaces
Teams perform better when they feel seen, even from miles away.
Teamwork
How your team views you is a reflection of how you are doing as a leader. Do they feel comfortable coming to you when they’re struggling? Do they perform out of fear or out of purpose? The best teams perform well because of positive reinforcement and healthy dynamics — not pressure.
To mobilize and motivate your employees, you’ll need soft skills for managers. These soft skills don’t come from technical expertise alone. They’re rooted in emotional intelligence.
To make a team work, you have to work with each team member, and that’s not easy. Every employee brings different talents, communication styles, and motivations. (It’s a thing; read all about communication styles right here.)
How do you manage YOURSELF?
Last, but the most important! A manager is only as good as their management; of their team, and of themselves. Emotional intelligence brings self-awareness and self-regulation.
Great leadership can come from people who are talented, experienced, or even just lucky, but it can leave just as fast if you’re unprepared to step up to the plate. To lead well, we must first lead by example, so it should go without saying that if we want our employees to be disciplined and punctual, guess who’s the best person to show them how it’s done! If the manager themselves comes to work late on a daily basis, that message isn’t going to stick.
If you would like your employees to upskill and expand their learning base, a great way to encourage them is to provide them with the necessary resources to do so. However, to really enforce it, you should probably invest in some upskilling of your own!
Upskilling is one of the most effective ways to build leadership confidence and emotional resilience, and it sends a clear message to your team: learning matters here.
Our course on emotional intelligence for leaders is here to help you lead with more connection, kindness, and confidence. From self-management to relationship management with all stakeholders, this is your ultimate toolkit.
Start learning!
Note: Originally published December 24, 2024. Updated November 5, 2025 to reflect 2025 insights and updates to our course on Emotional Intelligence for Leaders.
