EQ whitepaper
Tech sector’s ‘emotional intelligence gap’ poses risks to innovation and remote collaboration
Key research findings
This new survey suggests 90% of IT leaders value high emotional intelligence (EQ) as an innovation-driver. The importance of EQ in high-horsepower IT teams has never been more evident. Explore how members of these teams — from executive leadership to hands-on software developers and engineers — implement EQ best practices to better inform their work and create cohesive team environments.
94%
of surveyed IT leaders view EQ as a mission-critical workplace priority.
88%
of IT leaders believe in a positive correlation between EQ, innovation, and problem-solving.
81%
of IT professionals believe high EQ positively impacts the adoption of new technology or methods.
58%
of survey respondents blame strict deadlines and project demands for declining emphasis on emotional intelligence in the workplace.
FEB. 17, 2025
24 Min Read
This report presents findings from a proprietary survey of IT professionals on how they implement EQ best practices into their daily work. Pros at every level — from emotional intelligence for leaders to hands-on software developers — weighed in on what makes EQ work and why it’s a crucial skill set for the modern IT team.
Survey responses indicate that EQ drives innovation, client satisfaction, and team cohesiveness. In addition to the external parties surveyed, Lumenalta conducted internal interviews with various stakeholders to better understand how the company prioritizes emotional intelligence during the onboarding and review processes and the daily work the company performs.
IT professionals say EQ positively impacts client happiness.
IT leaders say diverse teams have better conflict resolution skills.
Lumenalta emphasizes EQ as part of its team development, with positive results
Lumenalta shares many positive sentiments around EQ, so much so that the organization has baked EQ-boosting practices such as coaching and regular check-ins into its talent development process.
In addition to face-to-face communication, the technology leader recently built a chatbot to help facilitate communication outside of person-to-person check-ins and open lines of communication between employees. This helps teams better understand their emotions and how they can impact collaboration.
Lumenalta isn’t the only organization that thinks so, either. Google’s 2011 Project Aristotle was an effort to understand how its best teams function. The results are a prominent endorsement for teams with high EQ, revealing that psychological safety — the ability to feel safe taking risks and expressing ideas — was the key to their success.
If you want to learn more about how emotional intelligence at the workplace can impact IT performance and client satisfaction or how to develop best practices for building EQ on your own team, download our report today.
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FAQs
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