Contagious Culture
Contagious Culture
Kyle S. King
#175 | Emotional Intelligence: The Leadership Skill Most Leaders Ignore
31 minutes Posted Mar 18, 2026 at 11:48 pm.
— Introduction and meeting Tracy Solarek01:30 — Unveiling potential and building confidence03:30 — Emotional intelligence assessments and coaching06:30 — Empathy, retention, and stronger leadership08:30 — Coaching, therapy, and personal development10:00 — Why organizations neglect emotional intelligence16:45 — Self-awareness, personal brand, and leadership perception20:15 — Daily habits for becoming a more grounded leader
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Show notes
In this episode of the Contagious Culture Podcast, Kyle King sits down with Tracy Solarek, emotional intelligence coach, keynote speaker, trainer, and founder of Optymum Potential.
Tracy explains how emotional intelligence helps leaders better understand themselves, strengthen relationships, build trust, and create environments where people feel valued and motivated. She breaks down the role of assessments, coaching, empathy, self-awareness, interpersonal skills, and feedback in developing healthier leaders and stronger organizations.
Kyle and Tracy also discuss the difference between coaching and therapy, why many leaders are unaware of how others perceive them, and how daily habits such as reflection, reading, journaling, and intentional pauses can improve the way leaders show up.
Key Topics
Using emotional intelligence to uncover leadership potential
Why empathy and self-awareness strengthen workplace culture
Understanding how others experience your leadership
Creating psychologically safe, people-centered organizations
Daily habits that help leaders become more grounded and effective
Episode History
Tracy's Bio
Tracy Solarek is an emotional intelligence coach, keynote speaker, trainer, and founder of Optymum Potential.
Through coaching, assessments, keynotes, and professional development workshops, Tracy helps leaders and organizations strengthen emotional intelligence, improve self-awareness, build confidence, and create more productive and people-centered cultures.
Her work focuses on empathy, interpersonal relationships, emotional expression, impulse control, leadership presence, and helping people understand how they are perceived by others. Tracy also guides organizations through emotional intelligence assessments and 360-degree feedback to identify strengths, blind spots, and opportunities for growth.
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