Dr. Manish Pratap Singh Chandel is the head of human resources at Fabtech International Ltd.
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An organization’s emotional quotient (OEQ) is its collective ability to understand, manage and positively influence emotions within teams, across functions and in relationships with employees, customers and stakeholders. It can be a powerful bridge between trust, performance and belongingness. But while we can certainly teach the concepts of emotional intelligence, can we truly teach emotional maturity?
Much of what we call emotional intelligence is developed through lived experiences: the difficult manager we once worked with, the employee we failed to understand, the conflict we handled poorly, the feedback that changed us or simply the wisdom that comes with learning that not every reaction deserves a response. But there is another dimension that I find equally interesting: What happens when empathy begins to challenge accountability?
Balance Is Key To Emotionally Intelligent Teams
As leaders, many of us consciously try to balance empathy, emotional intelligence and operational excellence. But interactions are not one-sided. For example, the other person’s listening ability may not be mature enough to receive developmental feedback positively. So they might perceive respectful comments as criticism. There’s also a concern that empathy may be interpreted as weakness or that patience may be mistaken for tolerance. But perhaps the most important question is how we can remain empathetic without diluting accountability.
To me, true emotional intelligence gives us the courage to have difficult conversations without losing our humanity. It allows us to say, “I understand your perspective, but I still need to hold you accountable,” and “I am giving you this feedback because I believe you can do better, not because I have given up on you.”
So how can this critical aspect of managing a motivated team be achieved? Training can give us the vocabulary, but it is experience that provides the lessons.
5 Best Practices For Improving Organizational Emotional Quotient
To build up an organization’s emotional quotient, leaders can adopt the following practices.
1. Build A Culture Of Psychological Safety
People perform better when they feel safe to be honest. So it’s vital to create an environment where people can speak up without fear. That includes training managers to listen before responding; encouraging employees to share ideas, concerns and mistakes; and making respectful disagreement acceptable. Psychologically safe cultures replace “Who is responsible?” with “What can we learn?” and they ensure employees who raise genuine concerns are never punished.
2. Develop Emotionally Intelligent Leaders
OEQ starts with leadership because employees experience the organization through their managers. A leader’s emotional maturity becomes the team’s emotional climate.
Organizations must develop leaders who can recognize their emotional triggers, demonstrate empathy without compromising accountability, manage difficult conversations maturely and adapt their leadership style to different people and situations. They should be able to give feedback without humiliating and appreciate effort, not just outcomes.
Let’s say a project manager is facing significant client pressure to meet a critical delivery milestone. A technically competent but emotionally immature leader may publicly criticize team members, escalate emotions or create unnecessary stress across departments. But an emotionally intelligent leader would acknowledge project realities, clarify priorities, focus discussions on solutions and maintain accountability with dignity.
3. Make Listening A Management Habit
Organizations with high OEQ don’t merely communicate; they listen. Most importantly, they close the loop with action. That helps improve trust within teams and organizations.
Here are a few examples of listening opportunities:
• Daily and weekly employee connect sessions
• Coffee with HR
• Skip-level discussions
• Pulse surveys
• Stay interviews
• Open-door forums
• Structured exit feedback analysis
4. Institutionalize Recognition, Appreciation And Belonging
What gets appreciated gets repeated. Employees want to know that their contribution matters. Build recognition into everyday culture by celebrating small wins, recognizing behaviors aligned with organizational values and providing opportunities for peer-to-peer recognition.
However, generic recognition does not lead to a stronger culture. Appreciation needs to be specific and personalized. For example, if a procurement executive proactively secures critical long-lead materials, instead of simply saying, “Good job,” a peer could say, “Your proactive supplier engagement ensured uninterrupted fabrication activities and protected the project schedule. Thank you for demonstrating ownership.”
5. Make Empathy And Accountability Work Together
High OEQ does not mean becoming a soft organization. It means being humane without becoming permissive. Compassion explains behavior, while accountability protects standards.
Build a culture where empathy and accountability are integral to performance. In this environment, managers should learn to distinguish between a person’s intention and the impact of their behavior, a mistake and negligence, a capability gap and an attitude issue, and a genuine personal difficulty and an avoidable performance problem. That will allow them to conduct their teams with dignity, fairness and emotional maturity.
A great organization is not one where people never experience pressure, disagreement or difficult emotions. It is one where people know that, even during difficult moments, they will be treated with dignity, heard with respect and held accountable with fairness. An organization’s emotional quotient is determined by its ability to ensure that every interaction reflects dignity, fairness, empathy and professionalism. When people work in an environment of trust, they collaborate better, innovate faster and perform at their best.
I would genuinely love to hear from fellow leaders and HR professionals: What has been your experience? Do you believe emotional intelligence can be taught, or is it primarily learned through one’s personal and professional journey? And how do you balance empathy with accountability when the recipient of feedback is not emotionally ready to receive it?
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