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 technical
• how limbic “hijacks” happen under pressure and how to recover
• the four core EQ skills and how they build on each other
• delivering feedback that creates learning, not defensiveness
• building habits through tiny experiments and simple cues
• scaling EQ through assessments, onboarding, and certifications
• navigating generational differences around emotions at work
• a simple five-minute morning and evening practice to strengthen EQ

If 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.