The Art of Strategic Womanhood©: Emotional Intelligence in Decision-Making Among Women Leaders in Transformational Women’s Leadership Development

As a contribution to the fast-growing field of women’s leadership development, this dissertation project provides an in-depth exploration into the emotional intelligence and decision-making capabilities of women leaders. The intersectional study of neurological, physiological, psychological, and sociological studies verified a link between emotions and decision-making and revealed the unique Emotional Intelligence
(EI) characteristics women leaders possess in decision-making. The 5D Appreciative Inquiry process was used as the central framework to design the study, answer the qualitative research questions related to the impact emotions have on decision-making, and what intervention strategies can be used to increase EI that contributes to overall improvement in decision-making. Findings revealed that a high percentage of women leader participants use emotions to make decisions. Of those women leaders that use emotions, certain categories of emotions played a significant role in decision-making. Findings also revealed flaws in the decision-making process in that women leader’s decision-making process is limited to familiarity with the issue and basing decisions off similar past experiences. The intervention strategy laid out a comprehensive plan to help women leaders gain perspective on how to increase their emotional intelligence and improve their decision-making ability.