Career NorthStar News - Issue 8: Emotional Intelligence
- jessica9071
- Dec 22, 2025
- 3 min read
Career NorthStar Newsletter • December 22, 2025 • Issue 8
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional Intelligence, often known as EQ, circles around one common theme: awareness. This accounts for both self awareness and awareness of the people around you so you can meet people where they are.
Mastering the Mindset: Emotional Intelligence
The key to cultivating successful workplace relationships isn't just about what you know, but how well you understand people around you and how you understand yourself.
Our recent roundtable discussion explored the critical component of professional success: Emotional Intelligence or EQ. While IQ is something you can't really teach, EQ can be taught by an informed leader who wants to help grow their team, and it can be learned by a willing team member. Emotional Intelligence is the foundation for not only effective connection but perpetual career growth and success.
Emotional Intelligence in Practice: Meeting People Where They Are
Meeting people where they are means understanding their backgrounds and how they come to their decisions regarding an idea, a project, or a problem that they or the team are trying to solve. Meeting people where they are also means having empathy for others in the workplace. Meeting people where they are can be as simple as acknowledging that the task at hand is difficult, but you are in this together. Understanding that your teammates have different goals, motivators, and things they want out of work and life makes it easy to meet them where they are and reach conclusions that are likely to benefit all parties and help solve the problem at hand.
Growing your Emotional Intelligence
The human level of connection and understanding separates us from AI. The qualitative observations and the gaps that we fill are how we collaborate with AI to be successful and advance progress as a society.
For those early in their careers, there are a few ways you can supercharge your emotional intelligence skills and sharpen the empathy or understanding you already possess.
Exposing Yourself to Diverse Personalities: Talk to as many people as you can and set up one on one meetings, especially outside of your direct team, to get comfortable with communicating and understanding perspectives of the people you will work with in the future.
Feeling and Processing Your Own Emotions: You must be able to feel the range of your own emotions (the good, bad, and ugly) and understand how to best regulate yourself so you do not let emotional situations get the best of you at work. This self-regulation of emotions is critical so you only build your personal brand as you continue to develop in your career.
Lead By Example: Whether you are a leader or a team member, people value those who can stand shoulder to shoulder with them and can understand where they are coming from. Use your emotional intelligence skills as a way to influence without authority. This shared mindset motivates your team and builds relationships organically.
Emotional Intelligence in the Age of AI
The human level of connection and understanding separates us from AI. The qualitative observations and the gaps that we fill are how we collaborate with AI to be successful and advance progress as a society.
The final point when discussing Emotional Intelligence is a critical one: when everyone else on your team gets what they want, you will get what you want.
Take those Emotional Intelligence skills you already possess and grow them with these tips and tricks so you can be the leaders of tomorrow!
-Bridget (AL and Jessica)
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Career NorthStar is dedicated to helping early career professionals and leaders build the skills, confidence, and connections they need to thrive. We believe in purposeful leadership, proactive ownership, and creating opportunities for all professionals to succeed. https://www.careernorthstar.net/
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