The Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN) has called on women engineers and professionals across sectors to leverage emotional intelligence as a tool for effective leadership, conflict resolution and empathetic governance.
APWEN President, Dr Adebisi Osim, made the call during a webinar titled “Harnessing Emotional Intelligence for Effective Leadership and Governance,” organised by APWEN in collaboration with the Zambia Women in Engineering (ZWES) Section.
Osim said engineering, though a discipline without borders, is not only about designing structures but also about connecting societies through shared knowledge and empowerment. She noted that while technical competence is critical, emotional intelligence is what transforms competent engineers into exceptional leaders.
“In a world where technical prowess is essential, emotional intelligence turns good professionals into great leaders. It’s the secret sauce that helps practitioners navigate teams, resolve conflicts, and govern with empathy,” she said.
Osim highlighted that women in engineering often balance high-stakes professional demands with personal responsibilities, and emotional intelligence helps them stay grounded.
Citing former Liberian president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, as an example, she said Sirleaf’s emotionally intelligent leadership helped stabilise a nation recovering from civil war and earned her global recognition, including the Nobel Peace Prize.
She also recalled the COVID-19 pandemic, when women engineers innovated by producing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). She said beyond technical creativity, it was emotional intelligence, motivating anxious teams and empathising with supply-chain challenges that ensured the successful delivery of these innovations to frontline workers.
“Closer to home in Zambia, female leaders in engineering have used emotional intelligence to advocate gender-inclusive policies and transform male-dominated boards into collaborative spaces. Let’s commit to harnessing this power and make emotional intelligence our engineering superpower,” she added.
Guest speaker and founder of the Osaide Foundation, Dr Patricia Nekpen Opene-Odili, said emotional intelligence is a cornerstone of transformational leadership because it helps individuals understand, manage and apply emotions constructively.
She noted that in governance and public administration, where decisions impact diverse groups, emotional intelligence enables leaders to communicate with empathy, build trust, navigate conflict and influence responsibly.
According to her, integrating emotional intelligence in leadership strengthens self-awareness, enhances self-management, and enables leaders to understand community sentiment, anticipate reactions and govern sensitively.
“Leaders grounded in emotional intelligence build institutions on transparency, fairness and human dignity. Emotional intelligence enhances public trust, improves policy communication and strengthens crisis leadership,” she said.
Opene-Odili urged leaders across governance, education and corporate sectors to make emotional intelligence a daily practice by understanding people to govern better and understanding themselves to lead better.
