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If you want to future-proof your career, double down on emotional skills. That’s the clear message from Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, who recently shared why emotional intelligence (EQ) is becoming one of the most valuable skills in the age of AI. In a world where machines handle analysis, drafting, and coding, human emotional skills are about to become scarce — and highly rewarded. Here’s a simple, effective EQ exercise you can run with your team tomorrow to start building these skills today.
Reed Hastings, now on the board of AI company Anthropic, made a surprising admission on the Possible podcast: he would focus on emotional skills if raising a child today. His reasoning? AI is rapidly expanding the supply of cognitive skills like analysis, writing, and coding. But emotional skills — like empathy, self-awareness, and relationship management — are becoming rarer relative to demand.
According to Santiago Jaramillo, co-CEO of Pragmatico, many organizations have over-rewarded output and numbers for decades. "When everyone has a research analyst, a writer, and a coder in their pocket, individual output stops being a differentiator," he says. "What's left is the work AI can't do for you."
One practical way to build emotional skills in teams is the Personal Operating Manual, an exercise devised by executive coach Adam Weber. It helps team members share how they work best, what derails them, and how others can support them. The result? Better self-awareness, deeper empathy, and stronger collaboration.
Here’s how it works: each person answers five prompts privately, then shares them with the group.
The Personal Operating Manual is a direct practice of self-awareness — one of the core skills of emotional intelligence. When you articulate your triggers and patterns, you understand yourself better. And when you hear others share their own, you develop social awareness and empathy.
Leaders should go first. When a manager admits they get short under deadline pressure or withdraw when overwhelmed, it gives permission for others to be vulnerable too. This simple act of modeling creates psychological safety and encourages honest communication.
Once team members have shared their operating manuals, the real work begins. Use the insights to adjust how you communicate, support, and challenge each other. For example, one person might thrive under friction and want to be pushed, while another needs time to process before jumping to solutions. The exercise reveals these differences clearly.
At Pragmatico, the exercise surfaced a key tension between the two co-CEOs: one defaults to excellence under stress, the other to speed. Naming that difference transformed their collaboration and gave the whole team a shared framework for understanding pressure.
Emotional labor often goes unrecognized. To change that, celebrate instances where team members support each other emotionally. Be specific about the emotional work, not just the outcome. Say, "She noticed a teammate was overwhelmed and stepped in to help," rather than praising only the result.
Recognition is a start, but true change requires embedding emotional skills into your promotion criteria. Ask yourself: do your interview questions, scorecards, and promotion rubrics include emotional intelligence? If not, your team will quickly realize that what you reward matters more than what you say.
As Reed Hastings predicts, the market will soon reprice emotional skills. The organizations that start valuing and developing EQ now will win in the future of work.
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