Developing Leaders in Public Affairs and Administration: Incorporating Emotional Intelligence Training into the Core Doctoral Leadership Course

Educators arc increasingly aware of the importance of emotional intelligence (EI) in successful leadership. This paper details the implementation of a suite of El training and assessment tools into a Ph.D.-level leadership class. The suite of El training and assessment tools includes poetry-reading, an emotional intelligence test, a behavioral-assessment tool and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Students produce a personal leadership-development plan that incorporates knowledge obtained from the El tools. The suite of tools is detailed and mapped to Goleman's (2001) framework of emotional intelligence competencies. The paper provides lessons from the experience of the innovation.