Building Emotionally Intelligent Teams: The Science-Backed Framework for Psychological Safety and Belonging with Vanessa Druskat

Discover Vanessa Druskat's research-backed framework for building emotionally intelligent teams through psychological safety and belonging. Learn practical strategies that work for remote and hybrid teams, even with low personal EQ.
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In this episode, Vanessa Druskat, author of The Emotionally Intelligent Team: Building Collaborative Groups that Outperform the Rest, reveals the three critical categories of actions that transform average teams into high-performing ones. Learn how simple rituals like demonstrating care and understanding team members build psychological safety and boost performance. Discover why your emotional intelligence might not matter as much as you think when building emotionally intelligent teams.

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TL;DR

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Q: What's the difference between individual emotional intelligence and team emotional intelligence?

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A: Individual emotional intelligence is about a person's ability to manage their own emotions and recognize emotions in others. Team emotional intelligence is about establishing team norms and routines that create psychological safety and belonging regardless of individual EQ levels.

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Q: Can I build an emotionally intelligent team if I have low personal EQ?

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A: Yes. Vanessa's research shows that building emotionally intelligent teams doesn't require leaders to have high personal emotional intelligence. Instead, it's about implementing specific team norms like demonstrating care, understanding team members, and solving problems proactively. These are practical actions that anyone can implement.

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Q: How do I measure whether my team has emotional intelligence?

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A: Vanessa recommends using anonymous surveys to assess team norms. She suggests using a five-point scale to measure how well the team is performing on various norms. The key is not just looking at the average score but also examining the range, some people might feel respected while others don't. This reveals where the team needs to focus its improvement efforts.

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Why Team Emotional Intelligence Matters More Than Individual EQ

When I sat down with Vanessa Druskat, associate professor at the University of New Hampshire and author of The Emotionally Intelligent Team: Building Collaborative Groups that Outperform the Rest, I discovered something surprising, the foundation of emotional intelligence in teams is about establishing specific team norms and routines that create psychological safety and belonging.

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This revelation fundamentally changes how we approach team building. While most leaders focus on developing their own emotional intelligence, Vanessa's research shows that high-performing teams implement three critical categories of actions regardless of individual EQ levels. What's particularly powerful is that these norms can be established through deliberate practices that anyone can implement, making them accessible to all team leaders, even those who might not consider themselves emotionally intelligent.

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Vanessa's journey to this insight began with her own experiences. She noticed that while she'd been on "fabulous teams" in her youth, workplace teams often fell short. As she explains, "When I got to the workplace, the teams seemingly were not what they could be. And it always seemed like the leaders, even though you'd give them feedback, they wouldn't quite take it in and they didn't know what to do with it."

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This realization drove her to focus her research on team building, specifically studying complicated teams across various industries. What she discovered through decades of research would transform how we understand team dynamics.

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Three Categories of Actions That Build Emotionally Intelligent Teams

High-performing teams consistently implement three critical categories of actions that build emotional intelligence at the team level. These are measurable behaviors that directly impact team performance.

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Within these three categories, Vanessa's research identifies nine specific norms, here we focus on the ones she highlighted most in our conversation. To explore the full framework, we encourage you to pick up her book, The Emotionally Intelligent Team: Building Collaborative Groups That Outperform the Rest, or visit vanessadruskat.com.

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Building Belonging and Psychological Safety Through Team Norms

The first category focuses on building a sense of belonging and psychological safety. Vanessa explains that, "The number one thing you need to do is build the esprit de corps of the team. If you feel like even one team member doesn't respect you, our brain is so sensitive to that message that we extrapolate it and we assume that it's coming around soon for everyone."

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It’s about creating team norms that ensure everyone feels valued and respected. What makes this approach so powerful is that it doesn't rely on leaders being emotionally perfect. Instead, it focuses on establishing routines that build this into the everyday behaviors of the team.

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One of Vanessa's favorite examples involves a team of engineers who scored low on demonstrating care for one another. They agreed to implement a simple routine. When someone spoke, they would nod their heads and look that person in the eye. This seemingly small change transformed their interactions. As Vanessa notes, "Feeling listened to opened up people's sharing of information. So people started sharing more information. We started building better ideas and solving problems in a better way."

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The Relentless Focus on Continuous Improvement and Learning

The second category focuses on creating a culture of continuous improvement and learning. High-performing teams don't just settle for good enough, they constantly assess how they're performing and look for ways to improve.

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This is where team assessments become critical. Vanessa recommends using anonymous surveys to understand what's really happening in the team. "The only way to really know what's going on in the team is to do an anonymous survey," she explains. "We don't teach leaders how to build teams. We teach them how to build their individual emotional intelligence. We teach them how to manage their own conflicts. We teach them a lot of things, but we don't teach them anything about building teams."

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One effective approach is the "plus delta" technique she recommends for the last five minutes of meetings. This involves creating two columns, one for what went well (plus) and one for what needs to change (delta). This simple practice builds a continuous improvement mindset into the team culture.

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Proactively Seeking External Information for Enhanced Performance

The third category focuses on recognizing that there's valuable information outside the team that can help improve performance. High-performing teams consistently send team members out to gather information from stakeholders, clients, and others who can provide valuable insights.

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"Great leaders consistently send team members out to get that information and bring it back in so that this relentless focus on improvement and assessment includes information from stakeholders," Vanessa explains. This proactive approach ensures teams don't operate in isolation and remain connected to the broader organizational context.

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Simple Rituals That Transform Team Dynamics (Without Requiring High Personal EQ)

One of the most liberating insights from Vanessa's work is that building emotionally intelligent teams doesn't require leaders to have high personal EQ. As she explains: "Team emotional intelligence is about a set of routines that check in with people and don't leave it to the individuals. One of my favorite routines that we have is called "demonstrate caring."

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This is particularly important for leaders who might feel they lack emotional intelligence. Vanessa provides specific norms that don't require high personal EQ but create significant impact:

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Demonstrate caring: Simple actions like nodding and maintaining eye contact during conversations

‍Understand team members: Creating opportunities to learn about colleagues' expertise and interests

‍Solving problems proactively: Focusing on addressing issues before they become problems

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These are practical actions that any team can implement. Vanessa shares how one team of engineers who initially "almost yelled us out of the room" transformed their culture through these simple practices. The key was making their invisible culture visible through measurement and creating a shared understanding of what needed to change.

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Practical Strategies for Building Your Emotionally Intelligent Team

Creating Effective Team Charters

Vanessa strongly recommends team charters as a powerful tool for establishing team norms. "I love team charters. I think they're really good. I think that they keep the information in one spot." However, she emphasizes that team members should take ownership of these charters: "I would put two team members in charge of the charter. I'm a huge proponent of sharing things like this with team members."

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The most effective charters include:

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  • Clear roles and responsibilities
  • Goals and objectives
  • Aspirational norms that the team agrees to implement

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Building Connection Through Structured Activities

For teams that feel "fake" during team-building exercises, Vanessa offers practical alternatives:

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Check-ins at meetings: Short check-ins where team members share what they're nervous about and excited about

‍Object sharing: Bringing in objects or photos that tell something about themselves

‍Gallery walks: Having team members answer questions about what they need from the team and what they want the team to know about them

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These activities are about creating structured opportunities for meaningful interaction that builds the foundation of psychological safety.

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Managing Sidebar Conversations in Remote and Hybrid Teams

One of the biggest challenges in remote and hybrid teams is managing sidebar conversations that happen after meetings. Vanessa explains that these often occur because team members haven't had their questions answered: "People leave the room and they haven't had those questions answered. They don't just drop it, they're still motivated to find answers. They still need to vet their assumptions, and that's where the sidebar conversations come from."

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Bring these conversations into the team discussion. "Some teams that I've worked with have decided to have a monthly meeting just set aside for that, or a quarterly meeting set aside specifically for vetting our deepest questions or surfacing our deepest conflicts, whatever it is, and getting them out in the open together."

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The Critical Role of Intentionality in Remote and Hybrid Work

Vanessa emphasizes that remote and hybrid work requires even greater intentionality. "Everything has to be more intentional. People feel psychologically distant from one another. And in my experience, they often think they're the only one that's psychologically distant."

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This means:

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  • Setting clear expectations about meeting behavior
  • Creating intentional connection opportunities
  • Being more deliberate about establishing norms

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As Vanessa notes: "The biggest hit that remote teams take is on connections and collaboration, it increases silos. So you have to anticipate that you can call that out."

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The True Power of Emotionally Intelligent Teams

The ultimate goal of building emotionally intelligent teams is creating an environment where people can truly be themselves and do their best work. As Vanessa explains: "You can't feel a sense of belonging if you don't feel known. And you can't connect with people if you don't know anything about them that you can connect with."

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When teams implement these practices consistently, they create what Vanessa calls "the check boxes of what people need in order to let their guard down so they can leap into this relentless focus on the task and the improvement and the assessment and the candid discussions of union teams. Psychological safety."

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The Path to Exceptional Team Performance

The journey to building emotionally intelligent teams begins with understanding that it's about creating the right team norms and culture. As Vanessa's research demonstrates, high-performing teams consistently implement three critical categories of actions that build psychological safety, foster continuous improvement, and connect with external information.

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The beauty of this approach is its accessibility. These are practical routines that anyone can implement. Whether you're leading a fully remote team, a hybrid team, or an in-person team, these principles apply universally.

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The most important takeaway is that building emotionally intelligent teams requires intentionality and consistency. It's not about dramatic transformations but about implementing small, consistent practices that gradually build psychological safety and belonging.

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The most successful teams are deliberately created through thoughtful practices that prioritize psychological safety and belonging. When you create an environment where people feel valued and respected, you unlock their full potential and create a foundation for exceptional team performance.

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Ready to Build Emotionally Intelligent Teams?

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‍Did you like this article on Building Emotionally Intelligent Teams? Does it help you become a better leader? Then check out these articles to help hone those skills even further:‍

Craig Dowden

CEO
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