EQ climbs with every step up to vice president

Line chart of average EQ by job level, rising from employee to vice president and dipping for CEOs

What the data shows

Average EQ rises at every step of the management ladder: employees 73.6, supervisors 75.0, managers 76.0, directors 76.8 and vice presidents 77.0.
Scores level off through senior vice president (77.0) and dip for C-level executives (76.7) and CEOs (75.4).
Many CEOs in the data lead small organizations, where scores are lower at every level. Comparing people at companies of the same size, CEOs score 3.0 points above employees.

What it means

Emotional intelligence and responsibility go together. Earlier TalentSmartEQ research found EQ falling off above the director level; today the climb continues to vice president. This is an association, not proof that promotion raises EQ or that EQ earns promotion. Both are plausible.

Source: 731,369 Emotional Intelligence Appraisal self-assessments, 2021–2026. Scores are on a 0–100 scale.