Emotional intelligence in leadership and company culture

What sets great leaders apart isn’t just experience or technical skill—it’s emotional intelligence. The ability to understand and manage emotions often plays a crucial role in creating a company culture that drives team engagement and, ultimately, business success.

Emotional intelligence has traditionally been defined as a combination of four attributes: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management. Together, these attributes can help leaders foster trust, collaboration and resilience in their teams.

At a recent Capital One Business event in NYC—Rise to the Challenge: Wellness for Mind, Body and Business—Dr. Deepak Chopra, a leading expert in personal transformation, shared insights on how emotional intelligence often helps leaders build stronger, more resilient teams. We’ve compiled some of Dr. Chopra’s key insights from the event in this article.

For founders and business owners, developing this skill isn’t just about personal growth—it can be a powerful way to strengthen your business from the inside out.

What you’ll learn:

• How leaders handle their emotions and respond thoughtfully in the moment can shape team dynamics, influence company culture and drive better business outcomes. 

• Leaders who take the time to understand their own emotions—and the emotions of those around them—are often better equipped to build trust, navigate challenges and lead with empathy.

• Implementing tools like Dr. Chopra’s soul profile can help leaders connect with employees on a deeper, more authentic level—fostering stronger relationships, trust and a shared sense of purpose.

• Capital One Business offers a wealth of resources and experiences to support founders and leaders as they navigate the challenges of building stronger teams, fostering wellness and growing their businesses with purpose.

Emotional intelligence isn’t just about noticing your feelings—it’s about how leaders handle their emotions and respond with thoughtfulness in the moment. Dr. Chopra shared valuable insights on effectively managing emotions for successful leadership. He explained:

Demonstrate mental clarity. Dr. Chopra said, “Most people think of mental clarity as something above the neck. It’s not. It’s your whole body that contributes to mental clarity.”

Being clear-headed at work requires tuning in to your entire being, not just your thoughts. When leaders connect mind and body, they’re often better equipped to stay focused and make sound decisions under pressure.

Observe your emotions. Dr. Chopra also shared that regulating emotions is less about controlling them and more about observing them: 

“With emotions, you don’t have to manipulate them. Just observe them. When you observe them, you get insight.”

That pause to observe often brings valuable perspective and helps prevent impulsive reactions. When there are disagreements—which are inevitable in any workplace—Dr. Chopra believes in using a simple but powerful strategy:

“Before you react to anything, press the pause button. Observe your reaction to react. That one second, you observe your reaction to react. Then you choose the response with awareness. ‘Do I want to be happy, or do I want to be right?’ It takes one second.”

By taking that moment, emotionally intelligent leaders choose responses that foster connection and collaboration—not conflict.

The takeaway: Emotional intelligence often gives leaders the tools to stay centered, respond with awareness and create a work environment where clarity and calm lead the way.

While often seen as a soft skill, emotional intelligence can have a real, measurable impact on your business.

As Dr. Chopra shared:

“In the United States, we lose $300 billion every year because of disengaged people. This has actually changed the way many corporate leaders are trained now. I do work with various corporations—we train leaders in teams of five to seven, where everyone takes the responsibility for a shared vision … creating an emotional bond and ultimately creating effective teamwork in the same way as a sports team would.

“Sharing an emotional bond and a shared vision—that’s the formula in business.”

So what does it look like to build an emotional bond at work? It’s not about company picnics or trust falls. Emotionally intelligent leaders focus on making sure each team member feels seen, valued and connected to a larger purpose, and recognition plays a big role in that. According to Dr. Chopra, it’s not just good practice—it drives real results:

“If the manager or the supervisor or the team leader ignores an employee or somebody on the team, the rate of disengagement goes up by 45%. If they criticize their employee, it drops to 20%—because you’d rather be criticized than ignored. But if you notice a single strength authentically, such as sales or building relationships, the rate of disengagement falls to less than 1%.”

The takeaway: Authentic recognition matters. Leaders who take time to call out what their team members do well often create a stronger sense of connection—and that can help boost morale, retention and performance across the board.

Emotional intelligence and genuine care for employees don’t just improve your bottom line—they can create a ripple effect throughout your entire business ecosystem. In Dr. Chopra’s words:

“In the business ecosystem, there are employers, employees, customers and investors. In that ecosystem, it turns out if you take care of your employees, your customers will be happy. If your customers are happy, investors are happy. If investors are happy, employers are happy. So the first thing is: Take care of your team.”

The takeaway: Prioritizing employees’ well-being can have far-reaching benefits that extend beyond your team—happy employees often lead to happy customers, satisfied investors and, ultimately, stronger businesses.

Whether you’re leading a team of five or 500, strong connections often start by understanding the people you work with—including employees, job candidates and even customers. But in fast-paced environments, decisions often need to be made quickly—and with limited information.

That’s where the soul profile comes in. Developed by Dr. Chopra as part of his leadership course, The Soul of Leadership, the soul profile offers a simple yet powerful way to go beyond résumés and surface-level conversations.

Unlike traditional bios, which often reflect how others see a person, the soul profile helps uncover what truly drives them—from purpose to personal values. Dr. Chopra recommends using this approach in interviews, team check-ins and even customer discovery work.

Here are some of the reflective questions that make up a soul profile:

• What are your peak moments in life?

• What are your memories of childhood?

• What is your life purpose?

• What are you contributing to your family, to your business, to the world?

• What does a good friendship mean to you?

• What do you contribute in your personal relationships?

• Who are your heroes or heroines in history and mythology?

• What is your sense of self?

• What do you want?

• What’s your purpose?

• What are you grateful for?

Leaders don’t need to ask every question at once—but weaving even a few into conversations can reveal values, motivations and strengths that might otherwise go unnoticed. Over time, this insight can lead to better hiring decisions, stronger relationships and a more connected team culture.

The takeaway: Leading with emotional intelligence means taking the time to truly understand the people around you. Tools like the soul profile can help you build trust, strengthen relationships and make more informed, human-centered decisions.

Whether you’re looking to strengthen leadership skills or improve workplace culture, Capital One Business provides valuable resources to support your entrepreneurial journey every step of the way.

Capital One Business is proud to host distinguished speakers, such as Dr. Deepak Chopra, to share cutting-edge ideas on workplace wellness. You can find more articles, as well as in-depth audio and video presentations on that topic and more, at the Capital One Business Hub.