How emotional intelligence in leadership helps to create more efficient, collaborative teams

As a new vice-president of professional services at a U.S. technology firm, Percy Rotteveel was charged with leading a newly merged consulting team. For months, he led in a typical fashion, with structure and directives focused on imposing scale within a startup culture. 

It wasn’t until he walked into his annual review, polished slides and bold demands at the ready, only to be told that what his team needed was not a better version of the leader he presented himself as, but more the actual person underneath.

That moment, Rotteveel says, changed the way he saw himself as a leader. “Strategy stopped being a document I produced and started being a way I showed up,” he says.

In 2025, Rotteveel took part in the Strategic Leadership Development Program (SLDP) at the Haskayne School of Business, which features a module on emotional intelligence offered by Dr. Fred Jacques, PhD'02. 

Jacques, an adjunct associate professor, explains emotional intelligence is about developing an understanding of individual personal management style; how, as a leader, that person sees their role within an organizational structure, while at the same time cluing in to the personalities of the people on their team. 

Keeping the team from 'checking out' 

“As humans, we naturally impact each others’ emotions,” says Jacques. “A leader’s emotions have a more significant impact as their mood can quickly become the mood of the entire team.”

This can cut both ways, he says. “A leader in a positive emotional state can help to create a healthy, optimistic mood in their group. A leader prone to moodiness or negativity will likely see that reflected in the tone and interactions within their team," Jacques says. "This relates to a concept called ‘emotional contagion,’ which explains how we can ‘catch’ emotions from others. If the leader is stressed out, the team is, too. If the leader’s checked out, the team’s checked out.”

Rotteveel now understands that expressing vulnerability does not weaken authority; rather, it anchors it. 

“I had spent a career believing the opposite,” says Rotteveel, who today helms his own Alberta-based security consultancy. “Once I let a few imperfections be seen on purpose, the pressure to perform dropped, the decisions got faster, and the people around me got braver.

“I began opening meetings by naming the things I had not figured out yet,” he recalls. In short order, “the work got better. More tellingly, the consultants told me afterwards that they felt protected. None of my earlier frameworks had produced that.”

Jacques, who has been with Haskayne since the late 1990s, focuses his work on leadership and emotional intelligence and offers the module both SLDP participants, as well as those of other program at the School. SLDP program offers leaders at every level a straightforward, flexible way to enhance their leadership skills, either within a cohort or individually, custom designed to fit specific needs.

Emotional intelligence seen as a core leadership skill

Jennifer Tempro, also a participant in SLDP, says although she understood that emotional intelligence was important, she likely would have described it as a complementary leadership skill rather than as a core one. What shifted for her was realizing just how central it is.

Tempro, BComm'11, director in the president’s office at United Way of Calgary and Area, credits Jacques and the course with validating skills she had been practising instinctively, building confidence at a time when she needed it. 

“It pushed me to trust my gut more and to see that this is a skill not everyone naturally has," she says. "Instead of second guessing it, I am now much more intentional about leaning into it and putting it at the forefront of how I lead.”

Through the module, one-on-one coaching with Jacques, and the self-evaluation exercises, Tempro says she was also able to recognize the strengths she already brings to her role.

“In practice, emotional intelligence shows up in how I approach conversations and relationships at work," says Tempro. "Taking the time to understand where someone is coming from and how they are experiencing a situation can completely change the outcome. It builds trust, creates more honest dialogue, and ultimately leads to better decisions.”

Leadership a people-based skill

For Tempro, “leadership is about people, and if you cannot truly understand the people you are leading, it becomes much harder to be effective.

“Being an effective, present leader requires self awareness and self care. Taking that time is not selfish, it is strategic. To properly lean into your own emotional intelligence, and to use it to strategically lead a team, you need to be at your best. 

"You show up differently in conflict when you are in a good place yourself. You listen better, respond more thoughtfully, and keep the conversation productive.”