Emotional intelligence can help leaders build trust, psychological safety and more inclusive communication across office and remote settings. The evidence points to a useful advantage—not a guarantee of better performance, and not a substitute for clear goals, good systems or fair work practices.
What emotional intelligence can—and cannot—do in hybrid work
Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to notice and understand emotions, regulate one’s responses, and use emotional information when communicating and making decisions. In a hybrid team, those skills can help a manager spot concerns that may be harder to see across video calls or in a mix of office and remote interactions.
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The practical value is in how a leader responds: listening for unspoken worries, staying composed when plans change, and making it easier for people to raise problems. Those behaviors may support trust and psychological safety—the sense that someone can speak up, ask for help or disagree without being punished or dismissed. They are plausible ways EI can help, not proven interventions that guarantee results.
EI also has limits. It cannot compensate for unclear responsibilities, inaccessible technology, unequal access to information or policies that favor people who are physically present. Hybrid leadership therefore combines interpersonal judgment with sound operating practices.
#1 Best Overall
What the evidence says about hybrid and remote teams
Hybrid-work survey: a promising association, not a leader-EI trial
A 2025 time-lagged survey followed 1,055 hybrid workers at financial organizations in Portugal across three time points. Junça-Silva and Damas found that positive attitudes toward hybrid work were associated with better job performance through lower occupational stress, and that relationship was stronger among participants with higher EI scores. The measured EI belonged to the workers; the study did not test whether leaders’ EI caused better performance. Its one-country, one-sector sample also limits how broadly the result can be applied. Read the study by Junça-Silva and Damas.
Remote-work survey: leader EI predicted reported psychological safety
A 2025 cross-sectional online survey of 172 remote employees found that perceived leader EI significantly predicted employees’ self-reported psychological safety. The study considered leaders’ self-emotional appraisal, appraisal of others’ emotions, emotion regulation and use of emotion. Because it was observational and based on reported perceptions, it cannot establish that EI caused psychological safety; remote work is also not identical to a hybrid arrangement. The study reported a gender interaction in female leader–female follower pairs, while tenure with the leader did not moderate the relationship. Read Stroud’s Walden University dissertation.
Rank #2
Reviews and case studies add context, not a universal formula
A 2023 review examined 104 peer-reviewed articles and reviews indexed in Web of Science and Scopus, covering literature published from 1998 through 2022. It found positive relationships between emotional competence, team performance and team members’ work attitudes. The studies were varied and were not all about hybrid work, so the review does not show that every EI measure or workplace will produce the same result. Read the review by Coronado-Maldonado and Benítez-Márquez.
A 2026 qualitative case study interviewed 30 people across leadership and individual-contributor levels at a South African financial regulatory institution. Its nine competencies were grouped into three categories: human-centric skills such as empathy, well-being, trust and autonomy; strategic and operational skills such as digital proficiency, output-based management, agility and adaptability; and enabling and integrative skills such as communication, collaboration, inclusion and resilience. This is a context-specific framework, not a ranking of skills or a causal estimate. Read the South African case study.
Rank #3
Other evidence offers useful but bounded support. A 2025 qualitative study interviewed 20 managers from 13 multinational fast-moving consumer goods companies in South Africa about psychological safety in hybrid teams, identifying EI and accountability among relevant competencies. A separate article on remote leadership examined trust, communication, engagement and support during a crisis. Neither provides a population-wide estimate of the effect of leader EI. Read the South African hybrid-team study; read the remote-leadership article.
How leaders can put emotional intelligence to work
Notice concerns that do not surface in group meetings
Ask employees how a change, workload or new process is affecting them, and make room for one-to-one feedback as well as discussion in group calls. Some people will not raise a concern in a meeting, particularly if colleagues in the office dominate the conversation. Treat follow-up conversations as a way to understand the issue, not as a substitute for fixing it.
Regulate your response when someone disagrees or makes a mistake
A calm, curious response makes it easier for people to flag risks early. When a problem comes up, ask what happened and what support is needed before assigning blame. This does not mean avoiding accountability: it means addressing the work without turning every mistake or disagreement into a personal threat.
Make participation and information accessible in both locations
Invite input from remote and office-based colleagues, and use written follow-up to record decisions, owners and next steps. Clear documentation helps prevent location from determining who has context. Do not use camera-on rules or meeting attendance as a stand-in for trust, engagement or performance.
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Pair empathy with clear expectations and autonomy
Understanding an employee’s circumstances is most useful alongside explicit goals, agreed responsibilities and appropriate freedom over how work gets done. Manage for outputs where the role allows it, while ensuring people have the digital access and support needed to deliver.
Check whether people feel heard and safe speaking up
Ask directly whether team members can raise concerns, request help and disagree constructively. Look for patterns across locations and roles rather than relying on a single meeting or an informal impression. Use what you learn to adjust communication, access to information or team routines.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why emotional intelligence is only one part of hybrid leadership
The South African case study’s framework captures the broader picture: interpersonal capability matters, but so do digital fluency, output-based management, adaptability, collaboration and inclusion. A leader can be empathetic and still create an unfair hybrid environment if office-based employees receive decisions first or remote colleagues cannot participate effectively.
For organizations developing managers, it is more useful to treat EI as one capability within a wider set of practices than as a standalone cure for distributed-work problems. The evidence supports its relevance to relationships and team climate, but does not establish a guaranteed performance gain from EI training or from any single leadership behavior.
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