How to use emotional intelligence to strengthen our health systems

Emotional intelligence is an essential yet often underestimated competency that has potential to improve leadership and health outcomes.

Research by organisational psychologist Tasha Eurich highlights a critical gap: while 95 per cent of people believe they are self-aware, only 10–15 per cent actually are. This disparity underscores the importance of self-awareness, the cornerstone of emotional intelligence, in fostering effective leadership and team success, particularly in high-stakes environments such as healthcare.

Emotional intelligence is built around four key domains—self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management—each encompassing competencies such as emotional self-control, adaptability, empathy, and conflict resolution.

These competencies enable individuals to regulate their emotions, empathise with others, and build strong, collaborative relationships, which are essential for effective leadership.

In healthcare, where challenges like disease outbreaks, resource shortages, and team conflicts are commonplace, emotional intelligence is critical for navigating pressure-filled situations.

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Leaders who are self-aware are able to recognise their emotional responses and understand how these might influence their teams. They manage their emotions effectively, maintaining composure, optimism, and adaptability even in high-pressure situations.

Leaders who are socially aware use empathy to connect with their teams, inspire trust, and resolve conflicts constructively. This approach not only nurtures positive relationships but also creates an environment of psychological safety, flexibility, and collaboration.

Receiving and responding to tough feedback is another area where emotional intelligence plays a crucial role. Difficult feedback can be emotionally challenging, but how leaders process and respond to it impacts their teams and organisations.

Reactive responses, such as defensiveness or blame-shifting, undermine trust and team cohesion, while constructive and open responses foster growth and collaboration.

Leaders who model the value of feedback through mechanisms such as 360-degree evaluations create a culture that embraces learning and improvement, strengthening the organisation as a whole.

Health systems are inherently interconnected, with multiple functions like workforce management, governance, service delivery, and digitisation requiring seamless collaboration to achieve optimal outcomes. 

Emotional intelligence facilitates adaptive leadership, enabling leaders to engage stakeholders inclusively and foster collaborative decision-making.

Kenya’s maternal health challenges, where high facility-based delivery rates coexist with significant maternal mortality, illustrate the need for such an approach.

Leaders who apply empathy and inclusivity can address gaps in care quality by encouraging dialogue, fostering learning, and promoting system-wide solutions. These efforts ensure that health systems function as cohesive units capable of addressing complex challenges effectively.

Stakeholder conflicts in the health sector can have severe consequences, as evidenced by Kenya’s 56-day doctors’ strike in early 2024, which led to a rise in maternal mortality.

Leaders with emotional intelligence are better equipped to navigate such conflicts by understanding diverse perspectives, communicating openly, and addressing concerns proactively.

Empathy and a calm demeanour enable leaders to manage stakeholder demands diplomatically, fostering trust and goodwill. In contrast, a lack of emotional intelligence risks escalating conflicts into unproductive disputes that can derail progress and compromise health outcomes.

The transformative potential of emotional intelligence in leadership cannot be overstated. As Daniel Goleman emphasises in his work on emotional intelligence, successful leadership extends beyond logic and strategy; it involves managing personal emotions and understanding the emotional states of others.

Emotional intelligence empowers leaders to operate effectively under pressure, build trust, resolve conflicts, and foster collaboration.