Why Emotional Intelligence Is A Superpower For Women Entrepreneurs

So you’ve got this great new idea. No one else has really done it the way you’re proposing to do it. You’ve written a great business plan. You’ve practiced your pitch. Your mentors and loved ones have all cheered you on and coached you. 

But after pitching to investors, the rejections are brutal and endless: “That is such a bad idea,” “They will crush you like the colorful cockroaches you are,” “The chances that this is a business is practically zero.”

With all of the no’s, you still continue scheduling meetings, posting online about your process and how great your product is, engaging with potential customers, and pouring more of your own money into the business.

You take the rejections with grace, thanking doubters for their time, pushing past the doubts and public shaming, and still showing up to pour into others via panels and events. You continue to pitch and eventually you get investment from sources like the New Voices Fund. Now your products are sold in large retailers like Target.

This is the story of the founder of The Lip Bar, a multimillion-dollar beauty company that expanded from lipsticks made in a Brooklyn, New York, kitchen to a full line of cosmetics.

The key here was not just resilience and belief, but a high level of emotional intelligence – something successful women entrepreneurs lean heavily into in order to reach their highest potential and continue to see sustainable success.

There’s been this ages-old stereotype that women are too sensitive, too catty, and too emotional, especially in workplace or business environments, but women leaders disprove this as a norm or hindrance to overall leadership effectiveness and impact. Data gives further fuel to this, showing that women entrepreneurs outperform their male counterparts — even with less investment and funding.

Women founders build businesses that generate more revenues, create greater job growth, and, more often than not, have proven track records for results. And since women exhibit more emotional intelligence than men, it’s no wonder the aforementioned is the true reality. It’s the valuable asset of emotional intelligence that sets a foundation for combating gender inequality, less financial resources, and sexism (among other barriers) that keeps women entrepreneurs among the best, creating, managing, and leading top ventures.

One key quote that embodies the full concept of emotional intelligence comes from Barbara Corcoran, a real estate powerhouse and investor. “Everything good happens to me after I get rejected… I learned from my salespeople over the years that the greatest salespeople [spend] less time feeling sorry for themselves.” 

Having a high emotional intelligence means you have mastered the ability to understand and manage emotions, and you are better able to make sound, smart decisions even in moments of crisis, failure, or disarray. The best leaders are able to do this, and in the fast-paced, often risky world of business (or simply the nature of life itself), it’s an important superpower in the entrepreneurial arsenal.

According to research, there are five factors that contribute to emotional intelligence: social skills, self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, and empathy. Women entrepreneurs who have seen tremendous success check each box as they go along, and they continue to nurture and inspire others within those realms.

Think about billionaire beauty brand boss Rihanna, who hosts events with fans, fellow celebrities, and investors for Fenty Beauty and Savage x Fenty with a special mix of swag, charisma, and authenticity that endears people to her. 

Rana Hajirasouli, founder of The Surpluss, a diagnostic program that identifies waste and recommends solutions, is living evidence of how empathy and business-savvy can be the winning combo for earning while changing the world.

“Success is knowing we’re creating resilient systems that actually address the climate crisis, helping communities take ownership over their resources, and genuinely provide a useful tool for small businesses to compete with the behemoths, like fast fashion brands, which are leaving no room for economies of scale,” she told BusinessWomen. “I believe in failure when we are just paying lip service to sustainability. For me, it is about integrity — knowing I didn’t cut corners to get there.”

In order to tap into and continue strengthening emotional intelligence, women entrepreneurs must, according to experts, really get to know themselves, start feeling the feels and naming emotions for what they are, and build relationships so that they can request (and get) honest feedback about how they lead and where they can improve.

Women should also gain further insight by reading and sharing stories of other women who have successfully overcome roadblocks to business success. Cultivating and putting emotional intelligence into action can help all of us continue to shift narratives, create life-changing opportunities for growth and prosperity, and elevate the path of world-changing initiatives that shift how humans live and work.