Emotional Intelligence: The Key to Effective Leadership

How often do you find yourself sitting in a meeting, physically there but mentally somewhere between your to-do list and the last email you hadn’t answered?

This makes you think: how often are we really here?

Not just showing up—but tuning in. Listening. Slowing down enough to notice what’s happening beneath the surface.

We live in a world that constantly pulls us away from the moment. Alerts. Deadlines. Demands.

We praise urgency. We reward speed.

But somewhere along the way, we’ve come to confuse presence with passivity—as if slowing down means falling behind.

It doesn’t.

We’ve seen again and again that the most grounded, trusted, and impactful leaders are not those who move the fastest… but those who know when to pause. To reflect. To choose.

Epictetus, the Stoic philosopher, once said, “No man is free who is not master of himself.”

Presence, in many ways, is a form of freedom.

The freedom to respond instead of react.

The freedom to hear what’s not being said.

The freedom to align with what matters, even in the middle of the noise.

A leader once said something simple and striking:

“I realized I’d been reacting more than I’d been relating.”

That kind of insight doesn’t come from reading a book or taking a course. It comes from turning inward. From getting honest with yourself. From practicing awareness—over and over again.

Presence isn’t a goal. It’s a practice.

And like all practices, it asks something of us:

To return. To pay attention.

To stop measuring value only by how much we produce, and instead ask: How am I showing

up? What’s the impact of my presence?

This month, maybe the invitation is just that:

To be here.

To be with what’s real.

To notice how often we leave the moment—and how often we have the chance to return.

As always, we’re curious:

Where are you being called to be more present?