Squiggly Careers Podcast:

Episode Summary – “Team Emotional Intelligence: The Secret to High-Performing Teams”

Hosts: Helen Tupper & Sarah Ellis
Release Date: November 4, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, hosts Sarah Ellis and Helen Tupper explore the concept of Team Emotional Intelligence (EI)—what it is, why it matters, and how it can be harnessed to create high-performing teams. Drawing inspiration from academic research and hands-on experimentation (including an AI-generated team quiz), they break down the practical routines and habits that emotionally intelligent teams share, and offer actionable advice for listeners to assess and improve their own teams.

Key Topics & Insights

1. What is Team Emotional Intelligence? [01:03–05:49]

• Simple Definition:
  • “Team Emotional Intelligence is when a group of people working together are good at understanding everyone's feelings and using that understanding to help each other and work better as a team.” – Sarah [01:03]
• It's More than Individual EI: Focus shifts from just individual performers to how the team functions collectively.
• Awareness & Action: Being attuned to team members' feelings and acting on this awareness is central.

“The whole being bigger than the sum of the parts...all of us is bigger than any one of us.” – Sarah [05:04]

Notable Research:

• Vanessa Druskat’s article in Harvard Business Review inspired the episode’s approach.

2. The Three Pillars of Team Emotional Intelligence [07:49–09:43]

Sarah created a quiz—using AI—to assess these core pillars:

1. Understanding Each Other Better
2. Routinely Assessing Strengths & Opportunities
3. Routinely Talking to Stakeholders

Both Helen and Sarah completed the quiz and shared their scores (Sarah: 3.19/5, Helen: 3.39/5), highlighting similar strengths and areas for growth.

“Routinely talking to stakeholders would not be one of the things that I would think made you an emotionally intelligent team, but I'm curious to learn more.” – Helen [08:50]

3. Deep Dives: The Three Pillars

a. Understanding Each Other Better [09:43–17:23]

• What it Means: Knowing team members' strengths, treating each other with respect, and facilitating feedback that promotes growth.
• Strengths in Practice:
  • Example: Team members often support each other both collectively and individually, even as a remote team (e.g., working together at someone’s house, meeting up at coffee shops). [11:54–12:24]
• Feedback Ritual:
  • “Challenge and Build” – a structured way to give constructive feedback framed around one word that describes something and one change you’d suggest.
• Building Rituals:
  • For routines like “challenge and build” to be useful, they must move from tasks to embedded language and regular rituals.

“When some of these activities—just the team identifies with them—I guess that's when it becomes part of what makes the team emotionally intelligent.” – Helen [14:49]

b. Assessing Strengths and Opportunities [17:23–26:57]

• What it Means: Not just individual strengths, but how the team as a system continuously improves processes, anticipates problems, and reacts swiftly to challenges.
• Team Strength: The team is highly supportive and reacts quickly to solve problems.
• Growth Area: Proactive identification of potential problems is less natural due to an optimistically inclined team culture.
• Proposed Ritual: Integrate scenario planning—imagining best, worst, and average case outcomes—to build anticipatory awareness.

“The really emotional, intelligent ones spot the problems before they need sorting.” – Helen [25:15]

c. Routinely Talking to Stakeholders [27:13–37:06]

• What it Means: Building relationships beyond the team, both internally and externally, to avoid silos and understand interdependencies.
• Current Practice: The team has some mechanisms (e.g., the flywheel model for role clarity, regular check-ins), but sometimes misses key connection moments—even within their own company.
• External Focus: Being proactive with external partners and learning stakeholders; not just reacting to regular meetings, but initiating meaningful conversations.
• Practical Exercise: Stakeholder mapping and defining what matters to them.

“No team is an island...part of being emotionally intelligent is being empathetic, and you can only be empathetic if you understand what's happening for other people.” – Sarah [29:47]

Practical Tools & Actions

1. Creating & Using the Team EI Quiz [07:26, 16:16]

• Transform research articles into actionable tools (e.g., quiz using AI or platforms like Typeform).
• Use anonymous scoring and discuss as a team, not just individually.

2. Embedding Feedback Rituals [14:49–15:25]

• Insert short “challenge and build” segments into existing agendas, establish as part of team language.

3. Scenario Planning for Growth [21:44–23:53]

• Use AI to generate scenario prompts: Best, worst, and okay case outcomes for projects.
• Make it playful for optimistic teams (e.g., “What could sink the sprint?”).

4. Stakeholder Mapping & Curiosity [35:32–36:19]

• Map stakeholders (internal/external).
• Identify what matters to each; if unclear, set up meetings to learn.
• Share learnings in a team space (e.g., a Teams channel).

“If they're on your map but you don't know what matters [to them], that's a bit of a red flag.” – Helen [36:04]

5. Balancing & Refreshing Rituals [37:23–39:33]

• Don’t overload the team: Experiment with new rituals and let the useful ones stick organically.
• Reassess every ~6 months for a healthy cadence.

Reflection & Takeaways

• Emotionally intelligent teams require ongoing, structured reflection—not perfection.
• Borrowing external ideas (from research, AI, articles) and making them actionable and relevant to your team culture is key.
• Team EI is as much about empathy, feedback, and support as it is about seeking new perspectives and openly mapping stakeholder needs.

“The teams that are really good are the ones that just continually improve and continually keep learning.” – Sarah [39:20]

Memorable Quotes

• Sarah: “Team Emotional Intelligence is when a group of people working together are good at understanding everyone's feelings and using that understanding to help each other and work better as a team.” [01:03]
• Helen: “When some of these activities...the team identifies with them, I guess that's when it becomes part of what makes the team emotionally intelligent.” [14:49]
• Sarah: “No team is an island...part of being emotionally intelligent is being empathetic.” [29:47]
• Helen: “The really emotionally intelligent ones spot the problems before they need sorting.” [25:15]

Recommended Resources & Next Steps

• Vanessa Druskat’s HBR Article (linked in show notes)
• “The Emotionally Intelligent Team” by Vanessa Druskat (book)
• Squiggly Careers in Action – Weekly newsletter with tools and templates shared by the hosts.

For more episode resources, quiz templates, and further reading, sign up for the Squiggly Careers in Action newsletter (link in show notes).