Emotional Intelligence – The Most Underrated Skill in Finance

Emotional Intelligence – The Most Underrated Skill in Finance

Influencing skills for Finance teams

Finance has traditionally been strong in IQ – data, logic, and analysis. But today, it’s EQ – emotional intelligence – that increasingly makes the difference when it comes to Finance’s influence over the business. And the good news is that EQ can be learnt.

Research shows that EQ is more strongly correlated with leadership success than cognitive ability, especially in today’s complex, decentralized and matrix organizations.

Finance professionals

At Threshold, we help Finance professionals build EQ as a strategic skill – not a soft skill, but a core capability that drives business impact.

Finance now works at the intersection of logic and emotion – navigating strategy, politics, risk, and people.

At Threshold, we teach Finance professionals how to:

• Read the room.
• Sense when to speak and when to listen.
• Apply empathy – without losing clarity or authority.

And here’s the thing: These are trainable skills.

A recent example underscores the importance of EQ. It was the same story every annual planning or quarterly forecast cycle.

Finance kept pushing back on what they saw as overly optimistic revenue targets set by Sales or Product teams.

The conversations had become tense. Finance, presenting evidence, was met with:
“You’re just being negative.”

Finance started to feel shut out – their advice ignored, their influence slipping.

That’s when we were brought in.

We helped the Finance team step back and ask a different question:

“Why are smart people pushing forecasts that don’t align with the data?”

So, they stopped telling and started listening. Genuinely listening. What they discovered changed everything.

It wasn’t just ambition. It was pressure – to hit targets, to impress investors, to prove momentum.

Once Finance understood where the push was coming from emotionally, they shifted their approach.

The Finance teams had to strt by working on themselves first. This meant being aware of their own preconceptions and leaving them at the door (something that takes work.) They asked open questions. Genuine questions to seek understanding. They invited dialogue and named the pressure without blaming anyone.

The result? A different kind of conversation – rooted in trust, not defensiveness.

And from there, Finance was able to guide the business to more credible forecasts, without confrontation.

Emotional Intelligence — The Most Underrated Skill in Finance

Brain scans show that when people choose to cooperate, the parts of the brain linked to emotional intelligence are most active.

In other words, if we want to work collaboratively with the business, we have to cultivate EQ – continuously.

And the good news?
Unlike IQ, EQ is learnable.

At Threshold, we teach practical methods for building emotional intelligence—turning theory into real-world capability.

We deliver:

• Immersive practice – in emotionally charged business scenarios.
• EQ coaching – grounded in behavioural and neuroscience research.
• Strategic reflection – helping Finance see how their delivery affects their impact.

The Opportunity

Finance professionals with strong EQ:

• Influence faster.
• Navigate conflict without escalation.
• Build long-term credibility in high-trust environments.

Practical EQ Tips for Finance

• Notice emotional cues – even in silence.
• Work on yourself first – become aware of your own beliefs, assumptions and prejudices tat may affect the relationship
• Practice ‘mentalizing’ or perspective tracking – actively ai to see the world as others see it, and understand why that may lead them to think and feel the way they do
• Think in terms of perspectives – not right and wrong
• Acknowledge emotions before giving direction.
• Don’t confuse empathy with weakness – it actually builds strength.
• Use presence as a tool, not just data.

At Threshold, we help Finance professionals add EQ to their toolkit – not to replace rigour, but to reinforce it.

Because in today’s business, the ability to read the room is as important as reading the balance sheetAt Threshold, we are helping our clients to ensure that their human workforce is committed, engaged and ready for the technology revolution. We do this by bringing about small shifts in line manager behaviour that make a big difference. To find out more visit  www.threshold.co.uk