Outside the Comfort Zone: Strategies for Developing Emotionally Intelligent Leaders

A recent study of the Minnesota Agriculture and Rural Leadership (MARL) program set out to determine the relationship between andragogical program design and increased levels of emotional intelligence (EI). Members of two cohorts in the MARL leadership development program received different levels of focused effort, peer coaching, individual action plans, disorienting dilemmas, self-reflection, and training in the area of emotional intelligence. We examined four years of data, including participants’ results on the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) before and after undergoing leadership development training, as well as their individual reflections on the EI components of their training. The intention is that this research will encourage practices that seek to increase emotional intelligence in leaders.