Team Emotional Intelligence: The Secret to High-Performing Teams episode artwork

EPISODE · Nov 4, 2025 · 42 MIN

Team Emotional Intelligence: The Secret to High-Performing Teams

from Squiggly Careers · host The Squiggly Career

This week on the Squiggly Careers podcast, Sarah and Helen borrow brilliance from Vanessa Urch Druskat’s research on team emotional intelligence, first featured in Harvard Business Review. While emotional intelligence is often talked about at an individual level, this episode explores what happens when you apply it to teams — and how emotional awareness can build motivation, trust, and high performance together. Sarah shares how she used AI (Claude) to turn Druskat’s research into a practical team emotional intelligence quiz, helping teams assess their habits and find simple ways to improve. Episode 508 
 🦞 Pre-order Learn Like A Lobster: PRH US - https://bit.ly/3KxTeBn Amazon UK - https://amzn.to/3KcRZaR ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 01:35 What is team emotional intelligence and why it matters 03:41 Awareness + action: how teams build emotional understanding 06:30 Sarah’s experiment 09:20 The three key dimensions of team emotional intelligence 10:50 Understanding each other better 13:30 Action idea: Challenge & Build feedback ritual 21:40 Action idea: Scenario planning made simple 33:45 Action idea: Mapping and Mattering*to stay connected 38:00 How often should teams check in on their emotional intelligence? 🎯 What You’ll Learn - What team emotional intelligence means and why it drives performance - How to assess and improve your team’s emotional awareness - Practical tools to create more connection, curiosity, and collaboration - How to use AI to help your team learn and reflect together - Ways to turn feedback, reflection, and stakeholder mapping into routinely rituals For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email [email protected] More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 📩 Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 🏃‍♀️ Join the Skills x AI Sprint: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNQl9gsac8BXnWe2qoGuHkLKwsygjP_Ma&si=l7kODG3JpopH0Irz 📮 Get Squiggly Careers in Action in your inbox: https://bit.ly/SquigglyCareersInAction 📚 Read our books: The Squiggly Career and You Coach You: https://www.amazingif.com/books/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week on the Squiggly Careers podcast, Sarah and Helen borrow brilliance from Vanessa Urch Druskat’s research on team emotional intelligence, first featured in Harvard Business Review. While emotional intelligence is often talked about at an individual level, this episode explores what happens when you apply it to teams — and how emotional awareness can build motivation, trust, and high performance together. Sarah shares how she used AI (Claude) to turn Druskat’s research into a practical team emotional intelligence quiz, helping teams assess their habits and find simple ways to improve. Episode 508 
 🦞 Pre-order Learn Like A Lobster: PRH US - https://bit.ly/3KxTeBn Amazon UK - https://amzn.to/3KcRZaR ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 01:35 What is team emotional intelligence and why it matters 03:41 Awareness + action: how teams build emotional understanding 06:30 Sarah’s experiment 09:20 The three key dimensions of team emotional intelligence 10:50 Understanding each other better 13:30 Action idea: Challenge & Build feedback ritual 21:40 Action idea: Scenario planning made simple 33:45 Action idea: Mapping and Mattering*to stay connected 38:00 How often should teams check in on their emotional intelligence? 🎯 What You’ll Learn - What team emotional intelligence means and why it drives performance - How to assess and improve your team’s emotional awareness - Practical tools to create more connection, curiosity, and collaboration - How to use AI to help your team learn and reflect together - Ways to turn feedback, reflection, and stakeholder mapping into routinely rituals For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email [email protected] More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 📩 Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 🏃‍♀️ Join the Skills x AI Sprint: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNQl9gsac8BXnWe2qoGuHkLKwsygjP_Ma&si=l7kODG3JpopH0Irz 📮 Get Squiggly Careers in Action in your inbox: https://bit.ly/SquigglyCareersInAction 📚 Read our books: The Squiggly Career and You Coach You: https://www.amazingif.com/books/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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This episode was published on November 4, 2025.

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This week on the Squiggly Careers podcast, Sarah and Helen borrow brilliance from Vanessa Urch Druskat’s research on team emotional intelligence, first featured in Harvard Business Review. While emotional intelligence is often talked about at an...

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