The Transcript

Why Leaders Need Emotional Intelligence Now

This conversation with emotional intelligence executive coach and international speaker Jamelle Lindo dives deep into how EQ helps leaders thrive in a disruptive world shaped by rapid change and AI. He shares how he empowers executives to understand their inner world, regulate their emotions, and positively influence the emotions of others so they can lead with more clarity, calm, and confidence instead of running on empty.

Jamelle’s Journey: From Insecure Teen To EQ Executive Coach

Jamelle traces his path from growing up in a single parent home, battling social anxiety and insecurity in high school, to landing a leadership role at a major Canadian telecommunications company at just 17 or 18 years old, responsible for people far older than him. Feeling over his head, he discovered the world of facilitation, leadership development, and emotional intelligence through a mentor, and later had his worldview shaken by one life changing idea from a book: you are not your thoughts. That realization sparked his practice of observing his own stories, separating identity from inner dialogue, and noticing that great leaders were defined less by what they knew and more by how they showed up and made people feel.

Emotional Self Awareness, Burnout, And The Power Of Tracking Triggers

Jamelle offers a counterintuitive perspective on burnout, arguing that it comes less from workload and more from a lack of emotional self awareness that leaves feelings in the blind spot until they overwhelm us. Many high performing executives he coaches are outwardly successful yet quietly struggle with low internal self worth because they tie their value to volatile external outcomes rather than to inner qualities like resourcefulness that created those outcomes in the first place.  He teaches leaders to treat emotions as data, like a fuel gauge, and introduces a practical tool: logging 2 or 3 emotional triggers a day for 30 days, noting the event, the specific emotions, and the story they were telling themselves, which he has seen transform lives by revealing patterns, resentment, boundary issues, and the need for new behaviors like saying no, delegating, and asking for help.

Leading Others: From Emotional Avoidance To Emotional Engagement And Skill

When Jamelle talks about managing the emotions of others, he reframes it as a positive influence that starts with our own emotional regulation and example. Leaders who sprint from task to task at highway speed miss what is happening in the present moment, including the mood, body language, and unspoken stress of the person sitting across from them. He encourages slowing the pace, being genuinely curious, and asking simple, human questions like whether someone is okay when something feels off, which builds trust and makes performance conversations more effective, not less. He describes a progression from emotional avoidance to emotional engagement to emotional skill, including empathy and regulation, and explains how his programs use tools like EQ i 2.0 plus a focus on specific observable behaviors, so that colleagues can feel the change in how a leader listens, asks questions, and responds under pressure.

Relationship Lessons And The Infinite Journey Of EQ

In one of the most personal parts of the conversation, Jamelle shares how engagement and marriage revealed new levels of emotional work he did not even know were there, as intimate relationship triggered old insecurities from growing up without a father and brought both partners deepest fears to the surface. With a shared commitment to emotional intelligence and similar values, he and his wife used those challenges as opportunities to heal, integrate, and deepen their connection, reminding him that even as an EQ expert he is still very much on the journey. He closes by inviting leaders to see emotional intelligence as an infinite game rather than a box to check, and to start simply by shifting from avoiding emotions to engaging with them, using tools like the trigger log and daily self reflection so they can lead with more presence, humanity, and sustainable energy.