Assessing and Developing Emotional Intelligence: Tools and Approaches for Sustainable Organisational Growth

Emotional intelligence (EQ) rarely improves on its own. While most leaders now accept its importance, far fewer organisations treat it as a skill set that can (and should) be systematically measured and strengthened. When assessment and development are approached with structure and consistency, the payoff shows up in stronger leadership presence, more cohesive teams, higher engagement scores, and greater organisational agility during periods of change.

Starting with Reliable Assessment

Development begins with clarity. Without accurate measurement, efforts remain guesswork. The most effective organisations use a combination of self-report instruments and multi-rater (360-degree) feedback to capture both how leaders perceive themselves and how others experience their behaviour in real situations. Among the most respected and widely used tools are the the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory (ESCI), rooted in Daniel Goleman’s model and focused on observable workplace behaviours and the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), an ability-based assessment that evaluates how well individuals perform emotional reasoning tasks rather than how they rate themselves. Many organisations pair one of these formal tools with structured 360-degree feedback and follow up with individual debriefs or coaching conversations to turn data into actionable insight.

Building Emotional Intelligence Through Deliberate Practice

Once baseline data exists, development should be ongoing, multi-faceted, and tied to everyday leadership moments rather than isolated training events. The process almost always starts with deepening self-awareness. Leaders benefit from simple but powerful habits such as keeping a brief daily journal to capture emotional triggers and reactions, practising mindfulness to increase moment-to-moment awareness, or using an emotion wheel to build a more precise vocabulary for what they feel and why.

From there, development targets the core components of EQ in practical ways. Self-regulation improves through techniques like intentional pausing before responding in tense conversations, regular stress-management practices, and reflective debriefs after high-pressure interactions. Empathy grows when leaders consciously practise active listening without jumping to solutions, ask open questions to understand others’ perspectives, and use structured exercises such as empathy mapping to step into colleagues’ experiences.

Social skills strengthen through deliberate focus on inclusive communication, giving specific and timely recognition, and practising constructive approaches to conflict. While motivation aligns when leaders regularly reconnect their work to a larger sense of purpose and maintain realistic optimism even during setbacks.

These individual practices become far more powerful when embedded in broader organisational routines including leadership workshops, executive coaching cycles, peer learning groups, and regular feedback conversations. When senior leaders visibly model emotionally intelligent behaviour (e.g., openly acknowledging their own learning edges or naming difficult team emotions) the cultural signal is unmistakable and accelerates adoption at every level.

Sustaining Progress Over Time

The biggest risk is treating EQ development as a one-time initiative. Sustainable growth requires treating it as an ongoing priority. Securing visible sponsorship from the executive team, linking EQ progress to meaningful business outcomes such as faster change adoption or reduced interpersonal friction, and tracking both individual and team-level indicators (e.g., engagement survey trends, voluntary turnover, qualitative feedback from skip-level meetings). Starting with a pilot group, such as the senior leadership team, often generates early credibility and momentum before scaling more broadly.

Conclusion

Investing in the assessment and development of emotional intelligence is one of the highest-ROI decisions an organisation can make. Validated tools provide the necessary clarity, while consistent, practical approaches (that are grounded in reflection, feedback, skill practice, and cultural reinforcement) produce lasting behavioural change. The outcome is not only more effective leaders but also teams and organisations that are better equipped to handle complexity, build trust quickly, and turn change into shared opportunity.

Goleman, D. (1998). What Makes a Leader? Harvard Business Review.

Boyatzis, R. E., & Goleman, D. Emotional and Social Competency Inventory (ESCI).

Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. R. MSCEIT User’s Manual.