The EQ Return on Impact

Nadella’s message reflects what many CEOs are emphasizing as leaders navigate relentless change. Whether the mandate is AI adoption, enterprise transformation, or culture under pressure, executives are clear: emotional intelligence is a critical leadership capability. The challenge for many CLOs is turning that belief into a scalable strategy. Too often, EQ shows up as a standalone module—important, but disconnected from how leaders are actually developed and measured. In this session, we’ll show how to position EQ as the foundation that strengthens other leadership skills for greater impact. You’ll learn how to develop EQ not just as a set of behaviors, but as a leadership capacity. You’ll leave with ideas to then embed across leadership journeys, align them to business priorities, and make smarter investment decisions when time and budgets are constrained.

Learning Objectives:

• Diagnose where EQ will create the biggest lift in your current leadership development ecosystem (roles, moments that matter, and business priorities) and identify 2–3 high-leverage integration points.
• Map EQ to key leadership skills, positioning emotional intelligence as the foundation.
• Build a scalable implementation plan designed to test, measure, and deliver across the organization.