In business and leadership, emotional intelligence plays a significant role. Today, in the increasingly diverse world, EQ is necessary for providing personal and professional solutions to people of different circumstances and needs.
It is also said that, Some of the most successful and influential leaders in history have had high emotional intelligence, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill and Warren Buffett.
The connotation of leadership has changed in the recent years. And the emphasis on emotional intelligence has increased. Emotional intelligence, or EQ, has been identified for its correlation to success in professional and personal life, motivation, and overall well-being.
Key Takeaways
- EQ has four pillars, not one vague quality. Vasant breaks it down: self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy/compassion, and relationship management. Every leadership gap he sees traces back to one of these four.
- Hiring without an EQ assessment is expensive theatre. He asks HR leaders: you spend lakhs hiring, lakhs training, then fire misfits and restart. Why not screen EQ at the start? In the US, he notes, job evaluations weight EQ 30%, experience 30%, qualifications 30%, personality 10%.
- IQ is fixed, EQ grows until 55–60. Most people assume another degree raises intelligence. Vasant points out IQ stays constant from birth; emotional quotient is the one trainable metric — and keeps developing through middle age.
- Leadership coaching skips the fundamentals. He's spoken with "thousands of coaches" giving corporate leadership seminars. Almost none teach emotional intelligence. The rah-rah content doesn't change behaviour.
- Performance-only leaders miss the "why". Vasant's corporate prescription: when an employee underperforms, get below the surface of "you didn't hit the number." Empathy and psychoanalysis of the situation produce the solution; reprimand doesn't.
- Harvard's most popular course is about happiness. He uses this as evidence EQ is mainstream in elite institutions — while most Indian universities and mental-health degree curricula still barely touch it. The corporate India gap is real.
- An emotionally intelligent leader's success is measured in others. He won't claim every EQ-strong leader is personally successful — but says their reports will be, and the leader inherits that success.
In Vasant's Words
On the four pillars
There are four pillars of emotional intelligence. Self-awareness — who am I, what are my goals. Self-regulation — how to identify your emotions and manage them. Empathy and compassion — we lack it in how we deal with people. Relationship management — at home, at work, with the world around you.
Emotional intelligence is not about what you think. It's about how you think.
On hiring and corporate HR
You spend lakhs of rupees to hire somebody. Then lakhs to train them. Then you find they're not suited for the job. Then you fire them and hire somebody else and train them again. Why not do an EQ assessment profiling in the very beginning?
I've spoken to many executive vice presidents of HR and asked how they do employee evaluation. They said, "by experience and qualifications." Don't you do an EQ assessment? "No, we don't."
On leadership as inspiration, not instruction
Leadership is about inspiring people. You cannot motivate somebody and then inspire them. You have to inspire them first and then motivate them.
Many leaders are not interested in the well-being of their employees. They are interested in performance and output. How that's achieved is secondary. You have to get beneath the surface — understand why an employee is unhappy, why they're not performing. Then you'll find the solution.
On EQ as a lifelong asset
Your IQ remains constant all your life. It is your EQ, your emotional quotient, that develops. It picks up speed and improves rapidly — up to age 55, 60. So there is no one time to learn about emotional intelligence.
At the core of it all, it has to be happiness. Nothing else. That's all we want in life.
About the speaker
Mr. Vasant Agarwal is the Director at Discover My Mind, a Lifeskills platform, and the author of several books, including "The Power of Emotional Intelligence," "Parenting with Emotional Intelligence," and "The Accidental Addict and The Power of Positive Thinking."
Connect with him on LinkedIn.
Show Notes
(01:29) How would you define Emotional Intelligence in a leader? And why is Emotional Intelligence a matter of importance?
(10:18) How do leaders increase and use their Emotional Intelligence at work?
(12:23) What does Emotional Intelligence in leadership look like in a corporate setting?
(15:40) What is the role of an Emotionally Intelligent leader in creating a positive work culture?
(17:44) Can Emotional Intelligence leadership provide better corporate wellness solutions?
(18:24) Would you like to share some valuable suggestions with our listeners?
You can also listen to: Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence to reduce overwhelm by Amy McCae
