Emotional Intelligence

Higher education is facing a serious challenge: keeping its amazing faculty and dedicated staff. We're seeing more people leave, and it's not just a blip – it's a trend that impacts everything from campus stability to the quality of education we offer. But what if one of the most powerful tools to fix this is already at our fingertips: how leaders communicate.

Duolingo’s AI-first shift sparked backlash. Learn why AI without Emotional Intelligence erodes trust—and how leaders can balance tech with humanity.

In public service, growth can bring more than just economic development. It can bring pressure. Friction. Fear of change. And when civic leaders miss the emotional undercurrent of that change, they don’t just risk pushback. They risk losing trust.

Whether you’re leading a university through shifting enrollment patterns, guiding a municipal team through budget cuts, or managing a nonprofit merger, organizational change is unavoidable. What sets thriving organizations apart these days is the presence of emotionally intelligent leadership.

he DISC framework is a simple but powerful way to understand how different people prefer to communicate, make decisions, and engage with others.

If you’ve scrolled TikTok or Instagram lately, you’ve probably seen the viral Veronica workplace videos by @therealveronika_. They’re hilarious, and they land hard because they expose how bad leadership and poor communication sound from the outside.

Silence almost always creates more damage than the hard message itself. When leaders avoid the tough conversations — about layoffs, about budget realities, about cultural conflict, about change that will unsettle people — the vacuum fills itself.

When leaders hold their stress in, their teams may sense something is off but not know what it is. When leaders bring more self-awareness and emotional presence to their work, they open the door to stronger relationships, better decisions, and more resilient teams.