Should Army Leadership Doctrine Include Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence, also called EI or EQ, is the ability to evaluate emotions of oneself and others and to use knowledge of emotions to affect social interactions and reach desired end states. It was originally proposed as an additional type of intelligence to help explain lower achievement in highly intelligent people who lacked social and emotional competence. EQ differs from the emotional characteristics included in Army leadership doctrine in that it is thought to be a comprehensive ability that includes all emotionally-relevant characteristics. Here, we argue that there is little evidence to support this unitary conceptualization of emotional abilities. While EQ is a popular concept among Army leaders and some proponents claim it is the key to effective leadership, there remains little to no research evidence to support this relationship, despite decades of research. The conceptualization of EQ remains contested in terms of definition, measurement, and utility, which limits its real-world application.