288: Emotional Intelligence As Leadership’s Operating System, with Maggie Sass, Ph.D.

Most leadership breakdowns are not failures of intelligence or strategy. They are emotional failures.In this episode of the Leadership AI Podcast, Maggie Sass, Ph.D., Executive Vice President of Product, Research, and Professional Services at TalentSmart EQ, explores how emotional intelligence functions as the operating system beneath strategy, coaching, and decision-making.Together, we unpack what it really means to treat leadership as daily emotional behavior, especially in high-pressure environments like healthcare.In this conversation, we discuss:why leadership is fundamentally emotional, not just technicalhow limbic “hijacks” happen under pressure and how to recoverthe four core EQ skills and how they build on each otherdelivering feedback that creates learning, not defensivenessbuilding habits through tiny experiments and simple cuesscaling EQ through assessments, onboarding, and certificationsnavigating generational differences around emotions at worka simple five-minute morning and evening practice to strengthen EQIf you care about leadership performance that holds under pressure, this episode is for you.Be sure to follow Maggie Sass, Ph.D. on LinkedIn for practical insights on emotional intelligence and organizational performance.