Emotional Intelligence and Elementary Principal's Leadership

Emotional intelligence and elementary principals' leadership has been a topic of interest to me since many researchers focus on education leadership in general, and not on leadership at the elementary level specifically. I've witnessed elementary principals struggle at many schools. These struggles can be avoided by following some of the recommendations I made, inspired by researchers who focused on school leadership. This study was conducted to determine how emotional intelligence is perceived by elementary principals and how it affects their leadership. This study addressed elementary principals’ perceptions of emotional intelligence and its influence on their leadership. The study collected data through face-to-face interviews and surveys. Analysis of the data indicated that emotional intelligence, referred to as E.I. had a strong influence on principals’ leadership regardless of age, gender and years of experience. This study makes recommendations to improve principals’ programs by using the emotional intelligence framework to train future principals.