The Power of Belonging: Building Emotionally Intelligent Teams with Vanessa Druskat

In this episode of the Change Management Review Podcast, host Teresa Moulton speaks with Vanessa Druskat, author of The Emotionally Intelligent Team and an internationally recognized expert on leadership and team performance. Together, they explore what separates high performing teams from average ones, and why emotionally intelligent teams are not defined by individual personalities, but by the norms, routines, and habits that shape how people work together. Vanessa shares practical strategies for building belonging and psychological safety, strengthening team feedback, and creating the conditions for continuous improvement, especially in the context of complex change.

You’ll discover:

• What emotionally intelligent teams really are, and why team norms matter more than individual traits

• Why belonging is a precursor to psychological safety, and how it shapes participation and candor

• The research based method Vanessa used to identify what differentiates outstanding teams from typical teams

• Simple practices that help teams build trust fast, including meeting check-ins and “plus delta” reviews

• How feeling valued predicts change adoption, and what change leaders can do with that insight

• The biggest barriers to emotionally intelligent teams, changing norms and giving feedback well

• The clearest early signal a team is improving, more energy, more engagement, and less harmful behavior

If you lead change programs, work in cross functional teams, or coach leaders through transformation, this conversation offers actionable ways to strengthen team health so adoption becomes easier, faster, and more sustainable.

Guest Bio

Vanessa Druskat is an associate professor at the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire. As an internationally recognized leadership and team performance expert, Vanessa Druskat advises leaders and teams at over a dozen Fortune 500 and Fortune Global 500 companies. Her best-selling Harvard Business Review article (with S. Wolff) on emotionally intelligent teams has been chosen five times for inclusion in collections of HBR’s most valued articles. She is the recipient of multiple research and teaching awards.