đ usncan Note: Vanessa Druskat On The Power Of Group EQ
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What separates good teams from great ones?
For Vanessa Druskat, the answer lies not in technical skill or strategic alignment, but in something far more elusive: emotional intelligence. She explores this in a new book she co-authoredâThe Emotionally Intelligent Team: Building Collaborative Groups that Outperform the Rest.
Druskat has spent decades studying how teams function under pressure, how they build trust, and how they sustain high performance. Her research reveals that emotional intelligence isnât just an individual assetâitâs a collective capability that can be cultivated, measured, and leveraged for long-term success.
In our conversation, Druskat shared how emotionally intelligent teams operate differently, why psychological safety is essential, and what leaders can do to foster the kind of culture that supports group EQ. Her insights offer a roadmap for leaders, coaches, and team members who want to move beyond surface-level collaboration and build deeper, more resilient connections.
The Collective Brain: Why Culture Beats Talent
Druskat, who teaches organizational behavior at the University of New Hampshire, challenges the conventional wisdom that team success hinges on individual brilliance. âA mediocre group of employeesâwho still have the skills required for the taskâcan outperform a group of genius-level skilled employees when the mediocre team has an effective set of norms and routines in place,â she explains.
The key lies in how team members interact. High-performing teams share ideas, integrate perspectives, and stimulate new thinking through mutual learning. âInteractions like these require a strong set of social norms to regulate them,â Druskat says. âWhen those norms exist, the team builds a superior collective brain.â
Rather than focusing solely on hiring top talent, she urges leaders to invest in the team environment. âWe need to teach leaders to hire the best team members they can, and then turn their focus and energy on building a team environmentâa container of sortsâthat enables the development of a superior collective brain.â
The Most Common Leadership Mistake
When assembling teams, Druskat sees a recurring error: overvaluing interpersonal skills without creating the conditions for those skills to be used. âLeaders often assume that hiring emotionally intelligent employees will automatically lead to better team dynamics,â she says. âBut self-awareness and empathy donât get used if the teamâs norms and processes donât support them.â
She cites uneven participation and poor listening structures as common culprits. âFar more important than hiring for emotional intelligence is building a team environment that uses the skills in the room.â
Her mentor, the late Richard Hackman, emphasized that teams should be composed of people with the skills needed to do the job. âSurely if there are two employees with excellent skills and one has interpersonal skills, select that person,â Druskat says. âBut the most common error leaders make comes from their assumption that good interpersonal skills make for better team members. Far more important for the effectiveness of the team is to build a team environment that uses the skills in the room. Very often I see leaders emphasize hiring emotionally intelligent employees, for example, but team membersâ self-awareness and empathy never get used in the team because of uneven participation, or because the teamâs norms and processes donât utilize empathy and good listening skills.â
Building Norms That Matter
Druskatâs research highlights the power of intentional norm-setting. She recalls working with a team of âmisfit but talented engineersâ who were struggling with cohesion. âWe convinced them to develop a team norm we labeled âdemonstrate caring,ââ she says.
This micro-intervention had a profound impact. It wasnât about changing personalitiesâit was about creating a shared expectation that people would show concern for one another. Over time, the teamâs emotional climate improved, and so did their performance.
Summary
Vanessa Druskatâs work on team emotional intelligence offers a compelling framework for building trust, resilience, and performance in todayâs workplace. By cultivating norms of empathy, constructive conflict, and self-reflection, teams can unlock a deeper level of collaboration. For leaders willing to invest in emotional dynamics, the payoff is clear: stronger teams, better outcomes, and a culture where people thrive.
