Emotional intelligence can be described as something that is a learnable predictor of how intelligent a person will be. This means that over time, a persons emotional intelligence can improve over time and is not something that is set in stone. This includes having good self awareness that will allow you to see how your decisions or emotions may impact others as well as yourself. This type of emotional intelligence is important when deciding if a person is a good leader or not. Goleman describes how being a good leader does not solely rely on having good ideas or being authoritative but it requires that the person be able to make good decisions that allowed them to factor in how it would effect everyone as a whole. Goleman also described the individuals who were not good leaders as lacking these needed skills even though they might be knowledge of how these high positions are run. (Goleman, 2019).

It is very important for teachers to develop and reflect on their EQ because it allows them to see how they as a teacher are instructing their students. Teachers may be very knowledgeable of how to teach and instruct their students but can lack the simple emotional intelligence that would allow them to see how their instruction is affecting how their students learn. A good example of this would be a mad teacher not seeing why a group of students have failed a test when they should probably think of reasons as to why they didn’t do well or change up their instructional strategy in order to help them better perform the next time they take a test. This is also an opportunity for teacher to think deeper and reflect on how they can change their strategies because they ultimately affect the students that they are instructing. Teachers are the leaders that are probably in most need of emotional intelligence because it requires them to empathize with how their students perform. (Goleman, 2019).