A small group of medical professionals gather around a table as they meet together to discuss patient cases. They are each dressed professionally and have files scattered between them for reference.
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Over the weekend, a leader at a public health organization learns that funding has been cut in half. By Monday morning, they she need to process the news and show up ready to lead their team through a tough, unexpected, and frustrating time. The team needs direction. Health department staff will need answers regarding how the community will be affected. She needs to balance thoughtfulness with urgency, empathy with practicality, and vulnerability with confidence.
For Latoya Sahadeo, Director of Leadership Development Programs at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), this is a real problem she sees program participants face. “These kinds of situations are exactly why emotional intelligence cannot be treated as a soft leadership extra. That foundation of emotional intelligence has to be built before the crisis arrives,” Sahadeo said.
In the Public Health sector, unexpected and complicated change is the norm (i.e., COVID, hantavirus, budget cuts). “You have to be quick on your feet, and you have to be ready,” Sahadeo told me. “That strength and confidence come from within, and I truly believe that it’s a matter of emotional intelligence.”
Sahadeo is onto something when it comes to the connection between emotional intelligence (EI) and navigating change. Across over sixty interviews with talent development professionals, the ability to navigate change is one of the top reasons cited for bringing in emotional intelligence training and assessment.
Latoya Sahadeo, Director of Leadership Development Programs at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)
Latoya Sahadeo
In Public Health Leadership, Technical Expertise Gets You In The Door, And EI Gets You Promoted
ASTHO is a non-profit organization committed to supporting the work of state and territorial public health departments and strengthening public health policy nationwide. Sahadeo describes it as a membership organization that supports chief health officials from states, Washington D.C., five US territories and three Freely Associated States that also supports the staff within the public health departments.
“DELPH scholars come from various disciplines across public health,” Sahadeo said. “But technical expertise isn’t really what helps propel teams forward. It’s their people and leadership skills. People are people first.”
That line captures the leadership reality in public health. Leaders must manage policy, grants, programs, and viral outbreaks, but they also manage fear, uncertainty, misinformation, and fatigue.
The DELPH Program Develops Leaders Before They Reach The C-Suite
To help leaders develop these emotional intelligence skills, Sahadeo and her team implemented ASTHO’s Developing Executive Leaders in Public Health program, known as DELPH. It’s a 10-month program designed for leaders of all kinds—supervisors, managers, program leaders, section chiefs, unit supervisors, bureau chiefs, and others who are responsible for people, policies, or programs.
“We’re trying to grow that middle leader,” Sahadeo said, describing the target participant as someone who hasn’t “yet broken over into the C-suite” but is thriving in their current role and seeking to establish leadership skills to prepare them for the C-suite.
Each cohort typically includes about 15 to 30 participants, called “Scholars.” The 10-month experience includes monthly 3-hour sessions along with coaching, intersession assignments, personal assessments , accountability partner meetings, and other work. Sahadeo tells Scholars to expect about 20 hours of leadership work per month.
The curriculum is designed to help leaders “develop their own personal leadership identity.” When leaders think about identity, she explained, they inevitably have to think about emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management, and empathy. “All of those pieces are the building blocks of an effective leader.”
Emotional intelligence is woven through the program, not added on. The curriculum includes topics like executive presence, professional branding, influence, resilience, conflict navigation, storytelling, disability and accessibility awareness, and allyship. Sahadeo said each monthly workshop incorporates portions of emotional intelligence to give Scholars a foundation they can carry through their leadership journey.
In-Depth Pull-Through Makes Learning Stick
What makes the DELPH program uniquely effective in the talent development space is its thoughtful design around pull-through.
For interpersonal support, Scholars have their cohort, an accountability partner from their cohort, an assigned mentor from Sahadeo’s team, and a professional executive coach. In this way, social learning happens with several different groups of people, each offering a unique perspective.
Reflection, practice, feedback, and on-the-job application all help turn learning into behavior change. For example, Scholars build self-awareness journals, reflecting on emotions, triggers, situations, and responses. They also give each other feedback on video recordings. “You and your accountability partner go back and look through your video recording and talk through your executive presence,” Sahadeo said.
On a monthly basis, workshops make up just 15% of a Scholar’s hours. The other 85% is steeped in social learning, practice, and application.
The Best Leadership Programs Respond To Leaders’ Needs In The Moment
DELPH is intentionally responsive to leaders’ real-time needs. Sahadeo said the program is designed as “more of an iterative program,” with Scholars sharing midway through the cohort what new programming, timely skills, or workplace challenges they want to address.
The first six months are largely set in stone and focused on foundational skills like EI. The final four months are more flexible. “During the final four months, we truly allow Scholars to identify where and how they want to develop,” Sahadeo said.
That feedback then shapes their programming, including the in-person conference and a leadership micro-conference at the end. If scholars want more help with budgeting, Sahadeo may bring in someone to talk about budgets and contract agreements. If they want more on navigating conflict, she can add a session. If they raise questions about career transitions or exit strategies, she builds exercises, workshops, and coaching around those needs.
Build EI Before The Crisis Demands It
For organizations developing their leaders, the lesson from Sahadeo’s team is clear: build self-awareness early, surround leaders with feedback, make learning iterative, and keep the program close to the real pressures leaders face.
As Sahadeo put it in her closing reflection, emotional intelligence has “no days off.” It’s something leaders have to practice every day.
Kevin Kruse is the Founder + CEO of LEADx, an emotional intelligence training company. Kevin is also a New York Times bestselling author. You can take his free EI Assessment here. It’s psychologically validated and gives you a score breakdown across each of the four core skills.
