Q: I'd like to help my staff develop more emotional intelligence, but I don’t know if that’s even possible. Is emotional intelligence simply innate, or can it be taught?

A: Because emotional intelligence, or EQ, involves qualities like self-awareness and empathy, it can be difficult to teach. But fortunately, there are steps you can take as a manager to help your team members develop their emotional intelligence. The first thing you can do: Be a model for EQ yourself.

As a leader, you need to be self-aware and able to recognize your own emotional triggers so that you can stay cool in difficult situations. You also need to ensure that you set clear expectations and know how to handle difficult conversations and conflict effectively.

As a leader, you need to be self-aware and able to recognize your own emotional triggers so that you can stay cool in difficult situations.

Here are some things you can do to model EQ:

1. Develop a deep understanding of each of your employees. Get to know them as individuals so that you can see where they are lacking EQ.
2. Show respect to everyone you work with. Leaders with EQ treat everyone with courtesy and recognize their value.
3. Listen to your employees. Ask good questions and make sure that you’ve heard what the person you’re speaking with intended you to hear before moving on to the next topic.
4. Take responsibility for your work. Don’t make excuses for your own failures or mistakes.
5. Show passion for the work that you do.

Helping another person develop EQ isn’t as easy as just telling them what they need to do to change. What does help is getting people to see where they want their career to go and how their lack of EQ is interfering with that goal. For example, your employee will be more receptive to your suggestion that they need to be more self-aware if you can connect that need with a project they’re interested in or a promotion they’d like to earn.

This may sound like hard work, and it can be. But if you see potential in the employee and can help them see the value of working on their EQ, the payoff can be big for you, the employee, and your organization.