The Coaching Cafe Podcast

Emotional Intelligence and Leadership

• Open Door Coaching

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So far in the Coaching Café Podcast 2026, we’ve explored the trends shaping coaching and leadership, the importance of strong performance conversations, and the role of psychological safety in building trust and engagement.

This week, we turn our attention to emotional intelligence—consistently identified as one of the most critical leadership capabilities in today’s workplaces.

As work becomes more complex, pressured, and human, leaders are increasingly expected to navigate emotions—their own and others’—with awareness, empathy, and skill. Emotional intelligence underpins how leaders communicate, build trust, handle performance conversations, and create psychologically safe environments.

This is where coaching plays a powerful role.

Coaching creates the space for reflection, self-awareness, perspective-taking, and behaviour change—key elements of emotional intelligence. It supports leaders to respond rather than react, and to lead in ways that strengthen relationships and performance.

Join Paula as we explore emotional intelligence through a coaching lens.

You’ll walk away with:

✔️ A clear understanding of emotional intelligence and why it matters now more than ever ✔️ How emotional intelligence shows up in everyday leadership and performance conversations ✔️ The role coaching plays in developing emotional intelligence ✔️ Practical ways to support leaders to build emotional intelligence at work

This is your space to stay informed, reflect on practice, and connect coaching to what’s happening in real workplaces—right now. 

Transcripts can be found here: 

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Watch the webinar of this episode on YouTube or read the blog by visiting our website.

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[Music] Well, it is a very good morning, good afternoon, good evening, from wherever you are dialing into today, and welcome to everybody on our podcast. Today's coaching cafe is all about emotional intelligence, the leadership capability that matters the most. Natalie was meant to be here today, unfortunately she is unavailable, and she really does not like missing the coaching cafe. So, who you have today is me, I'm Paula, James Hunt, and I'll be taking you through the session today. So, as we begin, I would like to acknowledge the traditional odours and custodians of the lands on which we meet today, and their continuing connection to the land, waters and communities of Australia, and the lands from all around the world, upon which you might be joining us. We pay our respects to them, and their elders passed present and emerging, and elders from indigenous communities from all around the world. So, what's on our agenda today? We are going to look, we're continuing our conversation around 2026 trends, and the most important leadership capability. So, it's understanding emotional intelligence, and why it matters more than ever, the role of coaching in emotional intelligence, and as always, these are all about creating a shared learning experience, having thought-provoking conversations, and for those of you who are looking to collect your ICFCCEs, they will be available after the session. Now, as I'm on my own today, I'm going to rely on you all to pop your comments into the chat box to continue the conversation, so that it's not just me talking for the whole time. All right. So, please pop your comments in the chat box. The 2026 trend number three was building leadership capability is more important than ever, and emotional intelligence is at the top of that list. So, there was the Harvard Business Impact 2025 Global Leadership Development Study, found fast, fast, fluid, and future-focused, building the collective intelligence of humans and machines. You can actually find this report if you would like to go and have a look at it. And the leadership capabilities are more important in 2025, which we're heading into 26. At the very top is demonstrating emotional and social intelligence. And I think it's actually a really interesting one, particularly as we've had lots of conversations about AI, and the impact that AI is going to be having on us, is that even with all of those impacts, I think even more now that the emotional and social intelligence is going to become really important. In fact, I was having a conversation with someone about, you know,"Oh, we won't need HR people moving into the future, because people will be able to just check GPT and get the answer." And I said to them, "Yes, I agree that going forward managers are going to be able to get more preparation from that perspective." I said the one thing that you can't guarantee though is that the person will respond in the way that AI thought that they would respond. And so you are still going to need people to help build that emotional and social intelligence. So on this list is also managing polarization in the workplace, synthesising and interpreting complex information, leading change and transformation, producing AI related skills and knowledge, fostering innovation and creativity, collaborating effectively, building agility and resilience, promoting diversity and inclusion in the workforce and strategic thinking and decision making. But at the top, at 47%, most important is demonstrating emotional and social intelligence. Okay, so then let's head into what is emotional intelligence, and Daniel Goldman populised the concept which is 1995 book Emotional Intelligence and why it can matter more than IQ. I think it sits hand in hand. I don't like the idea that one is more important than the other. I think they have both important. And he defines it as the ability to perceive, understand and manage one's own emotions and those of others. And I think this is a really important definition because it talks about the two different signs. There is the how do I manage my own emotions and then how do I consider and think about the emotions of others. And in the workplace it refers to an individual's capacity to recognise and regulate their own emotions, understand the emotions of others, and use this awareness to manage interactions successfully. And if we think about what happens in the workplace, this is where someone doesn't read a queue for someone around how they're feeling or what impact something might be having on them and then it causes some other problem. Or you might be sitting in a meeting and someone says something that really upsets you and it's your ability to regulate that emotion and how you respond in that particular moment. So when we're talking about emotional intelligence, it's understanding your own emotions and understanding emotions of others. Okay, so why is emotional intelligence considered a critical leadership capability? So if we're thinking about emotionally intelligent leaders, we're thinking about people who create positive emotional climate that drive performance. We're thinking about people who can inspire and motivate others. We're thinking about building psychological, psychological safety and trust. This one I actually think links in with the positive emotional climates that drive performance. It's so important and we've talked about trust over the last few coaching cafes about when you are building that trust, it means that people, we create a space where people can perform at their best. So I think that the positive emotional climate that drives performance links into building psychological safety and trust. And if you are an intelligent, emotionally intelligent leader, then what will be happening is you create this space where people can bring their best to work where they can challenge ideas, where they can be creative. And then what you get is that drives the performance. Emotionally intelligent leaders embrace self-leadership and personal mastery. It's that strive to improve and be better and grow and develop in themselves. And I think if you're embracing that for yourself, you're also embracing that for your team. So if you're demonstrating that self-leadership and personal growth is important and you're demonstrating to your team that is something that is important, then they are going to want to do it as well. And then what will be the positive emotional development that is going to be done is that the positive emotional development that is going to be done is going to be done and then what will be done is going to be done. And then what will be done is that the positive emotional development that is going to be done is going to be done. And then what will be done is that the positive emotional development that is going to be done is going to be done. And then what will be done is going to be done. And then what will be done is going to be done. And then what will be done is going to be done. And then what will be done is going to be done. And then what will be done is going to be done. And then what will be done is going to be done. And then what will be done is going to be done. And then what will be done is going to be done. And this is where if someone who rocks up and is generally a bubbly person and really interacts with people and loves that connectivity turns up on a Monday morning and they're extremely flat. And you can recognize that something is not right for them and respond and check in with them. That's the emotionally intelligent leader. It's also if someone's a high performer and all of a sudden their performance is dropping. And then what is going on for them? What's happening in the workplace in their workload in the outside of work that's having this impact for them. That's where emotional intelligent leaders pick up this information. And if you think about it, it links in with it might resolve a conflict. You might be able to resolve something early on before it gets into a much bigger space. And then what is the reason why it is such a critical leadership capability? And if we think about that leadership role, it does sit in me. It's not about the manage the day to day management of things. It's about creating an environment where people get to come and bring out their best and do their best work. And so that's why it is a really critical leadership capability. And also the idea of yes, AI is going to be in our workplace. No question about that. It's here. It's already here. But it's not going to take away from people being able to manage their emotions in the workplace and to also to lead people through that space. If there's anything that you want to add in at this point, please chuck it into the chat for me. And we'll have a chat about it. Anyone who thinks there's another reason why critical leadership capability is going to be even more important now. Or if there's another reason why another characteristic you think of emotionally intelligent leaders, please pop that in there. OK, so how does coaching enable emotional intelligence? So this is so we are always wanting to link it back to what does it look like from a coaching perspective. And we've got in here Daniel Goldman's four domains and there's a link to that the Daniel Goldman emotional intelligence.com. If anyone wants to connect in with that. And we've included the expanded fifth domain of sustaining EQ over time. Shilpa has popped in and said, e.i. has a direct link to mental health and mental health issues that on the rise. I absolutely agree with you that managing your own emotions, six in mental health in the mental health space. And as we know, there's lots of neurodiversity that has difficulty in this space, so helping people understand that and how that links in. And also when you're emotional intelligence, when you're not accessing it, you are more likely to have a mental health issue. So thank you. I think that's a really good point to add in there. So how does coaching enable emotional intelligence? So one, the first one is developing self awareness. We know that during our coaching conversations that one of the key core competencies in the ICF is around self awareness and helping the person identify what's going on for them and. What mechanisms are in play for them? So lots of those questions around, and so what does that mean for you? And how does that, what impact is that having on you? The other is around enhancing self regulation. So thinking about our coaching questions about, you know, what was the response that you gave? And, you know, thinking about that, what would be the response that you would give now? And how might you do this differently the next time knowing that you've now got this self awareness? And what difference and changes can that make for you? You're listening to the Open Door Coaching Coaching Cafe podcast. And for more information on programs run by Open Door Coaching, head to our website at opendoorcoaching.com.au Now back to the podcast. It also comes in from a strengthening empathy and social awareness. So thinking about what impact that might have had on somebody else. So in the coaching conversation, you know, what would the, what did other people say and what were their thoughts and how you, how did you contribute in that particular space? What might you want to do differently? It's all, it's strengthening and helping people to tap into empathy when they might not be. I think is one of the really big gifts around the coaching is if I haven't thought about that, how is the coach? Can we help the person think about who are the other players in what's going on? What might be the impacts for them? How might that change their approach? Improving social skills and relationship management. And I think they kind of go hand in hand. This is the thinking about how am I interacting with people? What impact is that having on people? Whether it's a great impact or not good impact, it's about developing itself for winners. I've gone back to number one as I talk this through. I've gone back to that number one that says, how am I? And coaching for me is about really helping people think about what are the choices that I'm making and what choices do I want to make? And in this, what do I want to bring into relationship? The social into the relationship management? So Rebecca's added, I've noticed coaching around EQ has often given the client choice and control about how they may manage future interactions. And you hit the nail on the head, Rebecca, I honestly, I think this, when you're thinking about the emotional intelligence and the link with coaching, it does really come into the fact that you are making conscious choices. The coach is making conscious choices about who they want to be, how they want to show up, what impact they want to have, what how they want to be influencing a particular situation. And all of that builds confidence in how they're presenting, which is improving their performance and where they want to go. So I agree, I think it is that you get to choose how you want to respond to something. You get to choose what approach you want to take and how that will work. And as you're going, you are building your skills in your social skills, your relationship management skills, in decision making, in critical thinking, in innovation, they're all building from the work that you're doing in those coaches. And then we're going to add in sustaining EQ over time. And I really love this one because it's talking about it, not just being about it's a one off. And you can tick that box and say, yes, I was able to do that. Great. It's about how do you sustain it and learn and grow and develop your EQ on a regular basis? How are you tacking into it? How are you making sure that that one great conversation that you had isn't the one hit wonder? It's something that you are doing on a regular basis and coaching enables that because we have that space in there for you to analyze what happened, what went really well, what didn't go so well, what would you do differently next time? How would you change your approach to get a different outcome? What information did you not have that you wished that you have had had had? And by doing that analysis work in the coaching sessions, it really helps to grow the skill base and build that that sustaining EQ over time. So the emotional intelligence and coaching to me, it's kind of a no brainer that they're really linked because and it sits in the core competencies around that building self awareness understanding yourself. And then the link edge from a coaching perspective is how we ask really great questions that enables the coach to really dig in a little bit deeper and enhance their learning in this space. All right, any other comments that people have in regards to coaching enabling emotional intelligence? So let's have a think about we always like to give you some a tool to take away or something that you can work with. And we've put together a little three steps to three steps that you can take to build emotional intelligence. Now, you know, we love self coaching as much as we love coaching other people as well. So you can have a look at this from the perspective of this is something that you could do for yourself around building your emotional intelligence. It's also a tool that you could share with your coach is around ways to build your emotional intelligence and it starts with you can that choosing a tracking method. So there are hates of apps or that there's hates of apps that that you can use on your phone that allow you to check to track mood. So if you have an apple that in the on your app, the health apps that you've got it's free. It's on there already. It's one that you can just go in and track your how you are feeling and what what's impacting you how it is at what is at work. You've got a feeling about work, you've got a feeling about what's happening in your personal life and track it and track it for a couple of weeks to see what's impacting your mood. So you can have a look at what how is it impacting it just get you really good base for analysis. You can of course do it the old fashioned way as well which there's lots of people who love their journal so choose a tracking method, your app or your journal and start tracking your moods and emotions. So record things like what was the emotion that you were feeling when did you experience it? Who were you with when you experienced it? Where were you? I also like to add in the what impact did the mood have on what you were doing what impact did it have on the work that you were doing? What impact did it have on the relationships that you have what impact did it have on how you were showing up and then you get the next step is to analyze your results. So thinking, you know, questions like what emotional patterns did you notice? What what triggered positive on negative emotions? What impact did those emotions have? What did you do when you noticed that impact? What changes did you make as a note of noticing that impact? So this is really thinking about your own emotional intelligence and how you how you're managing your emotions as you're going through. And this I've actually done this myself. It's one of the activities that we one of the assessments we have in the diploma of leadership coaching. And I actually undertook this process and I found it really interesting and what I loved about doing it was that when it happens and you recorded it gives you the ability to then choose your next adventure. So if you're tracking in your journal and if you determine that something's happened and your emotions is had a negative impact on your emotions, the fact that you've noticed it then allows you to say to yourself, so what's the next step for me? How do I want to do it? Do I want to stay here? Do I want to do something different? And as Rebecca said, it's that choice and control about how you manage it next. So I could look at it and go, okay, well, I'm not feeling great about this. Well, what are my options here? What can I do differently? What might I like to change with this? Rebecca asked how frequently do you track, for example, every hour or four times a day? I was generally tracking about three times a day, how am I feeling in the morning, how am I doing at lunchtime, and then how am I doing in the evening? Unless something big happened and I wanted a track in there. So if there was a big emotion that I was having, I added it in as an additional one. But overall, and the analysis piece, it was my favorite part of this, it says, when I'm having a great morning, what difference does this have on the rest of my day, on the work that I'm doing, on the relationship that I've got on how. How likely am I to do the things I don't like doing if I'm having a good morning versus I'm not having a good morning, how likely am I to do the things that I'm not not wanting to do. So it's actually a really fascinating activity to do, and something that you can definitely work with your coaches on. If it's emotional intelligence is something that they are specifically working on at this point, then it's a really great opportunity to share a tool and see how that works for them and what they can bring back into that coaching session and helping them in that analyst, that analytical piece. And then thinking about, so what are the next steps, what are you going to take forward now that you've analyzed is what, what might you change moving forward. Because you can also record, you know, if someone's having a problem with a particular person, they can record what, what, what was said or what happened at that particular time and what was the initial feeling that they had. And then what did they do from that perspective and then how did they change that what impact did they make, what did they do differently so that that didn't have the same impact on them. Claire has added that she loves the idea of doing this throughout the day and that journaling in the evening is reflective, but it's great doing this in real time. I would feel would be really valuable and make days and decisions so much more purposeful and deliberate correct. It's like I agree the reflection piece is great, but if you are in it in that moment, there were moments where I feel like this is I'm not having a great day. And then the question for myself is so, so where do you have impact on changing, how can you change this to be, to be having a better day and you do it in real time. So it's a really, really great tool to use for yourself, for your coaches, for leaders in the workplace. Imagine you walk out of the meeting and go, well, how did that feel and what could I have done differently and what do I need to do now? There might have been things that come out of that meeting. How can I change the trajectory of where this project is going so that it's going in the direction that works best. So I got excited about it and I think it's one of those things it's it's have a go see what you think and if you have a go and you really like it, please send us a little note because I'd love to hear how that went. Okay, so we're at the end. I can't believe I've talked for that long without taking very many breaths. I absolutely appreciate everybody who jumped in because every time someone jumps in it makes it. I feel connected with everybody as always. We have our certificate for own workplace and business coaching our diploma in leadership coaching and executive senior leader coaching. And if you want to find out anything click on our QR code. It's up there for you. Thank you, Carina. She loved it. I'm always excited, particularly when I'm not with Natalie. So I am going to stop the recording. I wish everybody a really lovely Friday and have a great weekend. Thanks for listening to this episode of the coaching cafe podcast. You can watch the full video of this podcast on our website. I'll put a link in the show notes. We'll see you at the next coaching cafe.[Music]