Emotional intelligence, also called emotional quotient (EQ), is an important leadership skill that impacts communication, trust, team performance and overall workplace health. However, not everyone has it naturally. Signs of low emotional intelligence include poor self-awareness, lack of empathy, defensiveness and impulsive behavior. These can have far-reaching consequences in the workplace, like damaging morale, productivity and retention. However, EQ can be developed through skills like active listening, self-reflection, empathy and coaching.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive, understand and manage emotions and relationships. Having strong EQ helps leaders guide the people on their team to success. They use their EQ awareness to build relationships and motivate the people around them. Emotionally intelligent leadership can ultimately boost team performance, trust and workplace health.
Understanding and appropriately expressing your own emotions is crucial. Being able to understand and respond to the emotions of others, however, is also important. Imagine a CEO with low EQ who loses their temper at the smallest provocation, or a graphic artist who blames the client for a poorly executed project. EQ helps people communicate better and build strong relationships. In addition, it also impacts how we handle the aftermath of mistakes.
In leadership, EQ is more than feeling empathy for your team members. Leaders with EQ work to understand what motivates the individuals on their team and what stresses them out. They can also spot subtle signs that they’re not at their best.
Emotional intelligence is vital for any leadership role. Let’s examine emotional intelligence, how developing it can help you and the warning signs of someone with low EQ.
Emotional Awareness and Leadership Performance
EQ and emotional awareness help leaders inspire, connect and lead with integrity. Their teams are often more engaged and productive. This is because leadership understands the emotions of others and responds in ways that foster trust.
Leaders With Good EQ Are Self Aware and Know How to Self-Regulate
You know the type: the leaders who express themselves clearly and handle stress like they were born for it. They are calm under pressure, avoid impulsive decisions and lead by example. These leaders have high expectations that their team clearly understands and works to achieve.
Managing stress isn’t always easy. The resulting strong emotions can overtake our common sense. Yet, emotionally aware, effective leaders have coping mechanisms that help manage stress and emotions. For example, a low EQ leader might react with frustration at a missed deadline. An emotionally aware leader might pause, figure out what caused it and address it constructively.
Leaders With Weak Emotional Intelligence Tend to Lack Self-Awareness
On the other hand, one of the signs that a leader has weak EQ is a general lack of self-awareness. These individuals may be oblivious to how their tone, body language and word choices affect others. They may come across as abrasive and uncaring.
Because they lack self-awareness, they also struggle with self-regulation. They tend to let their emotions control decisions instead of using them as part of the decision-making process. When leaders have poor EQ it can lead to hurt feelings, communication breakdowns and damaged trust.
For example, imagine a team is working on a high-priority project with a tight deadline. They have been working overtime for weeks and it’s starting to show. There’s a distinct lack of motivation, more call-outs for PTO days and several employees have expressed concerns regarding the workload.
That low EQ leader may display a complete lack of empathy and dismiss the concerns while telling everyone to toughen up. Then, they may even schedule weekend work in an effort to finish the project faster—without consulting the team.
There are many subtle and more obvious signs of low emotional intelligence. But when leadership lacks EQ, it can greatly impact teams and workplaces. The consequences can include everything from avoidable mistakes to reduced productivity. It can even lead to high employee turnover.
6 Signs of Low Emotional Intelligence in Leaders
Identifying the signs of low emotional intelligence is key to helping leaders who want to improve their effectiveness. Like it or not, humans are emotional creatures. A low EQ leader might be oblivious to or outright dismiss social cues that can tell them whether the individuals on their team are struggling. This can create a work environment where employees don’t feel valued.
Identifying signs of poor EQ is the first step in making lasting changes that improve relationships and increase productivity. While a lack of self-awareness is a key sign, there are others.
1. Lack of Empathy
One of the signs of low emotional intelligence is a lack of empathy. Leaders without empathy often dismiss or ignore the feelings of others. They may even treat emotions as a needless waste of time. For example, reacting negatively and without empathy when an employee’s child is sick.
That lack of empathy is more than callous. It makes people feel uncomfortable and devalued. It can also make them more likely to leave.
2. Difficulty Accepting Feedback
Accepting criticism can be tough, especially when you’ve put your heart into the project. However, accepting feedback is critical to growth.
So, that employee or supervisor who gets defensive when faced with a tough critique? This can be another one of the signs of low emotional intelligence.Their tendency to get testy can put everyone around them on eggshells. It stalls development and makes their team hesitate to communicate honestly.
3. Emotional Outbursts
Emotional outbursts, like defensive behavior, make people hesitate and check in before giving negative reports.
When those in leadership lose their temper or react impulsively under pressure, the team is left feeling unsafe. In turn, trust erodes and morale drops.
4. Blaming Others for Mistakes
“It’s not my fault!” This may be a common statement from kids, but shouldn’t happen in the workplace. A key part of leading a team is accountability and accepting responsibility for the mistakes you make.
Deflecting responsibility and pointing fingers creates a toxic culture, strained teamwork and a lack of accountability. These teams may also have a high turnover rate and develop a reputation for an unhealthy workplace environment.
5. Frequent Misunderstandings
Those with low EQ can misinterpret tone, intent and body language. They may see a neutral message as hostile and escalate minor problems, or exactly the opposite.
Ongoing, frequent misunderstandings cause unnecessary conflict.
6. Poor Listening Skills
Poor listening skills can be another one of the signs of low emotional intelligence. Team members who talk over one another in meetings can miss key ideas. They may even attempt to turn the focus back to what they want, even when nobody else agrees. However, even if discussions get heated, each team member should still feel heard.
Leaders with low EQ may dominate conversations, ignore other people’s points of view and tend to try to “one-up” others in every situation. The result can leave employees feeing unheard and emotionally invalidated.
Emotional Intelligence at Work and the Cost of Weak Leadership
When leaders lack emotional intelligence, the consequences reach beyond their behavior. The damage ripples throughout the entire organization. Poor EQ often causes weak leadership and comes with high costs to company culture and its financial future. Whether it involves dysfunctional teams, missed opportunities or breach of client trust, leadership with weak EQ undermines the organization’s overall health.
In a review of scientific literature, some researchers suggest that not only is EQ “essential for an individual’s success within an organization but that it becomes increasingly important as said individual moves up the ranks into [a] leadership position.”
It goes even further, with a study on health care leadership stating that EQ is “especially important for surgical leaders who must interact constructively with teams, administrators, patients, colleagues and the community.”
Weak leadership and low EQ affect employee morale, team cohesion and employee retention rates. So it’s not a reach to say that companies whose leadership has weak emotional intelligence may struggle. When the leadership lacks self-awareness and empathy, team members become guarded and avoid difficult conversations. They may also stop contributing new ideas, so innovation stalls out.
When that same weak leadership slows progress by damaging morale, employee engagement and retention rates, it can lead to increased costs associated with constant hiring and training.
Improving Workplace Communication Through Strong Leadership EQ
Effective communication in the workplace doesn’t happen overnight, nor does it need a new policy manual. It’s about people, so that’s where you start. Begin by modeling emotionally intelligent behaviors. Leaders with high EQ can create environments where people feel safe to speak openly, understood when they speak and motivated to collaborate productively. Emotional intelligence is the foundation of clear, meaningful communication.
By taking a few consistent steps, leaders can practice emotional awareness so their communication helps foster trust and clarity. Here’s how:
- Listen to understand, not just to respond. This helps team members feel heard and respected.
- Regulate your tone and body language to avoid mixed signals that cause confusion.
- Adjust your approach to different personalities and emotional states to reduce conflict and improve alignment.
Related: DISC Communication Styles and Leadership
5 Strategies to Build EQ and Strengthen Communication
If a person shows signs of low emotional intelligence, it’s not the end. EQ skills can be honed and developed, especially for those willing to embrace a growth mindset. Building emotional intelligence is a process, part of a journey to better communication. Leaders who embark on it can develop stronger teams with better cohesion where individuals feel valued. Here are a few strategies to get started:
1. Practice Active Listening
Give your full attention to the person speaking and try not to interrupt. Ask questions that clarify what they’ve said and repeat what you heard to confirm you understand them.
2. Develop Self-Awareness
Make time regularly to reflect on your emotional response. Ask yourself what you are feeling and why. Learning to understand your emotional patterns and triggers will help you respond calmly instead of reacting under pressure.
3. Seek Feedback
Ask your colleagues, friends and mentors for honest feedback on your communication style and how it affects others. Accept it with openness, even if you need to take a breath to avoid becoming defensive.
4. Cultivate Empathy
Work to see things through the eyes of others, especially when discussions become heated or during performance reviews. Having empathy doesn’t mean you agree, it means you understand before reacting.
5. Respond, Don’t React
Take a breath before responding when emotions run high. It gives you a chance to form a thoughtful response instead of the knee-jerk reactions that can make tensions rise.
Daily Practices to Strengthen Your Self-Awareness and EQ
Small, consistent steps toward emotional awareness can make a big difference. Here are a few practices to include in your day:
- Begin the day with an emotional check-in. Take five minutes to reflect on how you are feeling and how those feelings might affect your leadership.
- Practice taking a three-second pause before replying to challenging emails or conversations. That brief moment will help you shift into responding, instead of reacting.
- End the day with reflection. Take a few minutes to reflect on what went well and what you could have handled better.
- Keep a leadership journal. Track your emotional triggers, communication wins and the lessons you learn each week.
How to Spot and Support Leaders With Weak Emotional Intelligence
Leaders with weak EQ don’t always understand how their behavior impacts their team, but the signs are often clear. They include frequent misunderstandings, poor team morale, defensiveness or difficulty managing stress. They may struggle with empathy or avoid addressing conflict altogether.
However, that doesn’t mean they can’t or won’t improve. Rather than criticizing, organizations and HR teams can focus on support and development. Begin with constructive feedback, leadership coaching and EQ assessments to raise their awareness. After all, if they don’t know there is a problem, how can they fix it?
Also helpful is training on communication, self-regulation and empathy—while pairing them with emotionally strong mentors. With guidance, honest feedback and practice, even struggling leaders have the potential to grow into more self-aware, trusted individuals.
Building a Culture of Strong Emotional Intelligence in Leadership
Emotional intelligence is more than just “nice to have.” It is a powerful leadership skill that directly affects team dynamics, workplace culture and an organization’s bottom line. When the leadership team is emotionally aware, they can regulate their responses and communicate clearly with empathy. This can help them build teams that are more engaged and motivated.
On the other hand, weak emotional intelligence leads to weak leadership. It shows up in poor communication, low morale, high turnover and missed opportunities. While a person’s technical skills may get them into a leadership role, their EQ (or lack thereof) determines how far their team is willing to follow.
However challenging, the good news is that EQ can be cultivated through intentional practice with appropriate support. By investing in emotionally competent leadership, organizations can benefit. They can build stronger, more inclusive teams that foster innovation and growth. Ultimately, they will be positioning themselves for long-term success.
Assess your own emotional intelligence. Seek feedback, reflect honestly and identify a few areas for growth. Then, encourage your organization to invest in EQ development through coaching and leadership support. This can help struggling leaders grow.
When leaders commit to developing their emotional intelligence, they build trust and inspire performance. Developing your EQ is a cultural game-changer—start today.
This article was updated October 2025. Photo courtesy fizkes/Shutterstock
