For organizations: emotional intelligence in the AI era
When answers are instant and expertise is commoditized, the capabilities that decide a leader are the ones a model does not have: reading a room, holding composure under pressure, earning trust, having the conversation everyone is avoiding. Emotional intelligence is no longer the soft part of leadership. It is the part that is left.
The equation
The two multiply. A leader with the tools and without the emotional intelligence to use them in a room loses the room faster than before. A leader with both gets the analysis in seconds and spends the time where it counts: on the people who have to carry the change.
Summarizes, drafts, forecasts, compares, answers. The work that used to distinguish an expert leader from a capable one is now a prompt away, for everyone on the team.
Notice what the room feels before it says it. Stay composed when the number is wrong. Deliver the hard message so that people still trust you afterward. Decide, and carry the people who disagree. Every one of these is emotional intelligence, and every one of them can be measured and developed.
The four core skills
Emotional intelligence is made up of four core skills that pair up under two competencies: personal competence and social competence. The instruments below measure them; the coaching, the workshops and the EQ Gym develop them.
Comprehensive assessment
Anna Barnhill is an EQ-i 2.0 and EQ 360 certified practitioner. Every assessment below ends in a coaching conversation, not a report handed across a desk, and every engagement starts with one of them so progress is measured, not assumed.
The leader
The validated 133-item instrument: fifteen emotional intelligence competencies across five areas, self-perception, self-expression, interpersonal, decision making and stress management. The baseline for an individual leader, debriefed with Anna.
The EQ-i 2.0The people around the leader
The same fifteen competencies rated by manager, peers and direct reports, so the gap between how a leader sees themselves and how they are experienced becomes visible, dimension by dimension.
The EQ 360The team
How the team actually works together: trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, results, and the emotional dynamics underneath them. The starting point for the Emotionally Intelligent Team workshop.
Team and culture assessmentIn the moment, proprietary
Emotional intelligence measured in real, pressured conversations by voice or text in a browser, not in a questionnaire. About thirty minutes, or a ten-minute Snapshot. Built by Anna for the Leaderwired Institute, and run before and after development for an honest comparison.
The Institute assessmentsPractice, at scale
Knowing what emotional intelligence is has never been the problem. Doing it under pressure is. The EQ Gym is where the practice happens.
Part of the Leaderwired Institute, the AI-native learning platform Anna co-founded, the EQ Gym is a voice-first, scenario-based program that trains thirteen emotional intelligence skills through realistic workplace role-plays: an opinionated peer, a skeptical board member, a quietly struggling teammate. Each skill is introduced briefly, shown in a worked example, then practiced under pressure with an honest debrief, and the program ends with a report card across all thirteen skills.
Built on the work of Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee and mapped to the EQ-i 2.0 framework used for the baselines above, so the assessment and the practice speak the same language. That is how knowledge becomes sustainable behavior change: reps, feedback, and a leader who advances only on demonstrated mastery.
How it works
The EQ-i 2.0 for the leader, the EQ 360 when the question is impact on others, the team assessment for a team, the Conversational EQ Assessment for what happens under pressure.
A coaching conversation with Anna on what the profile means in this role: the strengths, the development areas, and the one or two that are worth the effort.
One-to-one coaching for executives, the Emotionally Intelligent Team workshop for a team, and the EQ Gym between sessions for every leader in the program.
Re-assessment at the close, and stakeholder feedback, so the change is quantified in the instrument and visible to the people who work with the leader.
Three ways in
For executives whose technical judgment is trusted and whose impact on the room is not yet what it could be: managing pressure, reading the room in hard conversations, connecting with diverse stakeholders, leading through uncertainty. Starts with an EQ-i 2.0 or EQ 360 baseline and a full debrief, with Anna.
Executive coaching and advisoryThe Emotionally Effective Leader workshop, run for a whole team: better decisions under pressure, stronger connection during hard stretches, and the emotional dynamics that block performance named and addressed together.
Team workshops and trainingThe Conversational EQ Assessment and the EQ Gym reach the leaders you cannot put in a room with a coach, inside the AI-native platform that advances a leader only on demonstrated mastery.
For organizationsIn their words
Proof
A major U.S. financial institution, 2026
Anna is an incredible career coach, bringing together sound and strategic professional advice with a high degree of emotional intelligence. She has a way of helping you find the answers that are right for you.
Erika SmakulaExecutive Director, Event Experience
She has given me the necessary tools to allow me to be mentally aware and be as present as possible in order to navigate any situation at hand. Her guidance in how to use these tools and how to navigate mental traps has been fundamental and have helped me reduce stress, approach life with a much simpler outlook, and balance my time in ways I was not able to do before.
Daniela M.President and COO
Initially my goal was to improve Executive Presence under Pressure and I am really thankful that I got in touch with Anna.
Siddharth SodhaniSr Software Engineering Manager, LinkedIn
Leaderwired Institute, the AI-native engine
Benjamin Bloom proved it in 1984: a learner with a tutor outperforms 98 percent of a classroom. Forty years later, leadership development still runs on the same trade-off. The offsite and the course scale; the coach does not. Leaders attend, absorb, return to their desks, and revert.
Leaderwired Institute is the answer Anna and Justin built: an AI-native engine, trained on the method you meet in this practice, that evaluates every leader, develops them through unscripted practice against live scenarios, coaches them between conversations, and advances them only on demonstrated mastery. Every engagement with Anna can include it, so the work continues after the session ends and progress is measured, not assumed.
Questions
Because the work AI absorbs first is the analytical work: the summary, the draft, the forecast, the comparison. What remains for the leader is the human part of every decision, and that part runs on emotional intelligence. A leader who cannot read the room, hold composure or earn trust is exposed faster in the AI era, not protected by the tools.
The EQ-i 2.0 is a self-report: your own view of your emotional intelligence across fifteen competencies. The EQ 360 adds the views of the people around you, such as your manager, peers and direct reports, on the same scales, so the gaps between how you see yourself and how you are experienced become visible. Most engagements begin with the EQ-i 2.0; the EQ 360 fits when the question is your impact on others.
A questionnaire asks a leader to describe themselves in the calm of filling out a form. The Conversational EQ Assessment measures what a leader actually does when a conversation gets hard, in real, pressured conversations by voice or text, with results grounded in the leader’s own words. Run before and after development, it shows whether the practice held.
Yes. The competencies the EQ-i 2.0 measures are skills and habits rather than fixed traits, and they respond to deliberate practice with feedback. That is why the work pairs a measured baseline with coaching, a workshop for the team, and reps in the EQ Gym between sessions, then measures again.
Coaching sessions are where the thinking changes; the days between them are where the behavior does, or does not. The EQ Gym gives a leader realistic practice on the exact skill they are working on, with an honest debrief, so the next session starts from what actually happened. It also reaches the leaders an organization cannot put in a room with a coach.
Usually inside an AI adoption or culture engagement, where emotional intelligence at the manager layer decides whether the change holds. The assessments set the baseline across the bench, the workshops move the teams, and the Institute carries the practice to everyone else. It is scoped after the strategy session, to the complexity and scope of the organization.
From the leaders who endorsed Leaderwired
A comprehensive, multi-layered system that moves from personal transformation to team culture to the unique challenge of leading through AI. This book is a companion to a complex and challenging leadership journey, and Anna is the sherpa you want by your side.
Ronan DunneFormer CEO, Verizon Wireless
Drawing on academic rigor, neuroscience-informed insight, and deep experience developing senior leaders, Anna Barnhill offers a clear framework for why so many transformation efforts fall short in the AI era. A timely and substantive contribution to how we prepare leaders for the future of work.
Jill BruningChief Technology Officer, Amentum
Transformation begins with the ‘me’ — and LeaderWired gives leaders the mirror and the map to see clearly and move forward with purpose.
Claus Torp JensenFormer Chief Innovation Officer and EVP of R&D and Technology, Teladoc Health
Thirty minutes with Anna on which assessment fits the question, and what the work would look like for you, your team or your bench.
