Higher ed is living through overlapping inflection points: shifting enrollments, new learner profiles, rapid advances in technology, intensifying scrutiny on value, and strained cost structures. In moments like this, reactions tend to move in familiar waves—what the Kübler-Ross change curve describes as denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, and (eventually) acceptance. It’s not a prophecy; it’s a helpful map of what people often feel on the way to a new steady state. (To be clear, even people going through positive change still work their way through the model.) Leaders who can recognize those emotional currents—and meet them with emotional intelligence keep their teams thinking while it feels.
We recently created a three-part leadership series—Lead Yourself → Lead Others → Leadship Culture—using EQ-i 2.0 to ground the behaviors leaders need during and after change. The topic is important and timely, and we wanted to provide an overview in the hope it may help others navigate a change of their own.
I. Lead Yourself Through Change (before you lead anyone else)
Change reveals leaders; it doesn’t crown them. The first assignment is internal because people borrow their stability from you. In moments that shape the future, the leader’s inner game becomes everyone’s outer experience. Do the inside work first: acknowledge where the choice tugs at legacy or status (Emotional Self-Awareness), return to a balanced sense of worth that doesn’t need the room’s approval (Self-Regard), and clarify what’s evidence versus interpretation (Reality Testing). Then protect the integrity of the decision with Impulse Control and Assertiveness—so the actions reflect the mission, not the mood. If you take only these few steps, everyone benefits:
- Know what the decision presses in you. Say out loud where the decision tugs at your identity, status, or sense of legacy. That move—rooted in Emotional Self-Awareness and steadied by healthy Self-Regard—lowers defensiveness in the room and raises the quality of thinking.
- Separate what’s known from what’s guessed. Put the three strongest facts on one page and mark the assumptions. That’s Reality Testing in practice—refusing to let anecdotes or hopes masquerade as evidence—then using Problem Solving to ask, “Given what we truly know, what follows?”
- Protect the decision boundary under pressure. When adjacent issues try to hitch a ride, restate the exact question on the table, park add-ons with owners and dates, and return to the call at hand. It’s a triad of Impulse Control (don’t chase tangents), Stress Tolerance (stay steady as heat rises), and Assertiveness (name the line and keep it).
Payoff: Calm clarity becomes the institution’s center of gravity—because you modeled it first.
II. Lead Others Through Change (people first – trust, voice, momentum)
People don’t resist change so much as being changed. Turn your focus outward. Your job is to support the people living the consequences—naming the real trade-offs (Emotional Expression), keeping the mission in view (Social Responsibility), and listening precisely enough to hear what’s actually at risk (Empathy). Adjust where it helps without losing direction (Flexibility), and convert worry into workable safeguards (Problem Solving). Then show your work so rumor can’t outrun reality—credibility scales when relationships are tended (Interpersonal Relationships) and the evidence is clear (Reality Testing). Use your voice to keep the space honest and moving (Assertiveness). If you take only these few steps, everyone benefits:
- See the person before the role. Start by naming what the change pressures for them (belonging, workload, identity) and what it might protect. That stance—rooted in Empathy and Emotional Expression—keeps dignity in the room and lowers defensiveness.
- Give people a why they can carry. Share the simplest, truthful rationale and link it to the mission. Reality Testing keeps it honest; Social Responsibility keeps it oriented beyond any one team. People won’t all agree, but they can repeat it without eye-rolls.
- Create agency, even in constraints. Offer meaningful choices where you can—timelines, piloting, guardrails. Flexibility and Problem Solving turn “done to me” into “done with me,” and Assertiveness makes the boundaries clear without drama.
Bottom line: EQ is the discipline of honoring people while you act—so trust survives hard calls and momentum lasts. With EQ, leadership isn’t something you do to people; it’s something you do with them—the difference between a decision that sticks and one that frays.
III. Create a sustained culture of effective leadership
As the saying goes, culture eats strategy for breakfast. And culture is what decisions feel like over time. As teams move into a new normal and the next wave of change appears on the horizon, leadership and how the collective leadership team operates become repetition. The four pillars of transformational leadership—authenticity, coaching, insight, and innovation create a new lens to leverage emotional intelligence; they don’t live on posters, they live in habits you can feel.
- Authenticity is moral steadiness you can see. It’s the alignment of word and deed, anchored by Self-Regard and Emotional Self-Awareness, checked by Reality Testing, and oriented to the public good through Social Responsibility.
- Coaching grows judgment rather than dependency. It pairs precise listening (Empathy, Interpersonal Relationships) with forward pull (Assertiveness, Self-Actualization), and keeps development concrete with Reality Testing.
- Insight makes purpose repeatable. It frames a believable future with Optimism, says it plainly through Emotional Expression, and ties it back to who we are with Social Responsibility, steadied by Self-Regard and Self-Actualization.
- Innovation keeps experimentation tethered to mission. It starts with Problem Solving and Independence, pivots with Flexibility, decides with Assertiveness, and sustains energy with Optimism.
Use these as your cultural foundation—simple, repeatable moves a leadership team can use to turn change from a one-off into a practiced capability.
Why Emotional Intelligence Belongs at the Center of Higher Education
Universities run on judgment, trust, and mission clarity—not just budgets and plans. Emotional intelligence is the leadership substrate for all three. It steady-hands decisions when the stakes are high, keeps people in the conversation when they don’t get their way, and turns abstract values into daily behavior that students, faculty, staff, and the public can feel. In a sector where legitimacy matters as much as velocity, EQ is the difference between compliance and commitment.
EQ also future-proofs the culture. It builds leaders who can name what a decision pressures and protects, who can say hard things without theater, and who can listen precisely enough to convert concern into workable safeguards. That combination sustains shared governance, protects academic standards, and keeps student outcomes front and center—even when programs evolve and resources tighten.
Bottom line: Put emotional intelligence at the core of leader development in higher education. It’s how institutions change without losing themselves.
Explore how we support higher-ed leaders with coaching and EQ workshops: Leadership Development for Higher Education