Leading With Emotional Intelligence When Decisions Rewrite Lives

For a long time, emotional intelligence was treated as something extra. Nice if you had it, optional if you did not. The leaders who got promoted were often the ones who drove numbers, not the ones who knew how to read a room, listen deeply, or steady people through uncertainty.

That old model is cracking. In many roles, emotional intelligence accounts for a large share of job performance and is one of the strongest predictors of effective leadership. People want leaders who can make hard calls without losing their humanity, especially when those decisions affect careers, families, and futures.

On The Bliss Business Podcast, we sat down with Jania Bailey, President and CEO of FranNet, a leading franchise consulting organization that helps people explore franchise ownership. Jania has spent decades in banking, franchising, and executive leadership, guiding people through some of the biggest financial and life decisions they will ever make. Her story is a masterclass in what emotional intelligence looks like when you are responsible for decisions that can literally rewrite lives.

Emotional Intelligence Is Not A Buzzword

Long before the term was popular, Jania was already practicing emotional intelligence. Early in her banking career, a president joked that he had not believed in “intuition” until he saw how accurately she could read people in the job. Looking back, she recognizes that what he called intuition was really emotional intelligence at work.

She had already experienced both extremes: leaders who seemed disconnected from the human impact of their decisions, and leaders who were deeply tuned in to how people felt and what they needed. The contrast convinced her that emotional intelligence is not an optional trait. It shapes the climate people work in, the trust they have in leadership, and the culture that either keeps them engaged or quietly pushes them away.

Today, she sees emotional intelligence as a core business capability, not a side skill. It affects how leaders navigate pressure, deliver hard news, and balance unit economics with the human stories behind each number.

Balancing Hard Decisions With Human Impact

In franchising, emotional intelligence shows up in very concrete ways. FranNet works with people who are considering putting much of their life savings into a franchise. For many, it is the largest investment they will make outside of buying a home, sometimes even larger. There is real risk, real emotion, and real family impact.

That is why one of FranNet’s core values is integrity. Jania screens hard for it when bringing in new people. Without integrity and emotional intelligence, franchise consulting could devolve into pure sales: closing deals, collecting fees, and moving on. With them, it becomes something very different.

She tells the story of a young man eager to join FranNet as a consultant. On paper, he was bright and determined, but his finances were stretched to the limit. As they walked through his situation, he began to talk about mortgaging his house and leveraging everything he had to get started.

Looking at his numbers and the realistic timeline for earning, Jania knew that one misstep could push him into bankruptcy within months. So she did the harder, kinder thing. She told him no. She encouraged him to stabilize his finances, build resources, and come back when he was truly ready, even if that meant waiting years.

It would have been easier to approve him, collect the fees, and let the future sort itself out. Emotional intelligence, grounded in conscience, would not allow that. For her, sometimes the kindest word in business is no.

Turning Feedback Into Polishing Points

Emotional intelligence also shows up in how leaders give feedback. Jania is open about how much she has changed over the years. In her twenties, she was a door-slammer, storming out to the car when she was angry. Over time, she realized how much energy that wasted and how little it improved outcomes.

Today, she is known for something very different: “polishing points.” When she sees an opportunity for someone to grow, she asks if they are open to a polishing point. The language matters. It signals that nothing is fundamentally wrong with them. They are already valuable. A few edges, if rounded, will help them shine even more.

One team member once told her, “A polishing point is like being chewed out in a way that does not hurt. I leave feeling better about myself, not worse.”

That is emotional intelligence in action. It is the ability to deliver honest feedback in a way that preserves dignity, reinforces belief in the person, and keeps the relationship strong enough to carry the weight of the truth.

Designing Systems That Keep People Connected

Jania is quick to point out that emotional intelligence cannot depend only on individual moments. It needs systems that make empathy and connection part of normal operations.

At FranNet, that includes:

• Leadership Meetings That Start With Humanity
  Using an EOS-style framework, leadership and management meetings begin with personal and professional “highs” from the week. Everyone, regardless of title, shares. This simple ritual reminds the team that each person’s life and wins matter. It sets a tone of respect long before issues and metrics are discussed.

• Living The Values Awards
  Once a year, they give out “Living Our Values” awards. Anyone can nominate a colleague, but nominations must be tied to a specific action that embodied the company’s values. During the annual meeting, those stories are shared in front of franchisor partners and franchisees. The result is a culture where values are not just printed in a handbook. They are celebrated in public.

• Recognizing Community Impact
  The company also highlights and rewards people who serve in their communities, whether they run charity races, support veterans, or operate year-round food pantries. These recognitions reinforce that FranNet is not only about selling franchises. It is about the heart of the people who make up the system.

Even during the upheaval of COVID, emotional intelligence guided how the team adapted. When in-person conferences were suddenly impossible, FranNet pivoted to a fully virtual event in just a few weeks. They refunded a portion of fees to franchisor partners, extended programming, and focused on making the experience genuinely useful, not just a box-checking exercise. It was a concrete way of saying, “We see what you are going through, and we are in it with you.”

Managing Triggers And Owning Your Impact

Emotional intelligence also demands self-awareness. Jania is candid about her triggers and the work it took to manage them. Today, she is known for the strategic pause and deep breath when something hits a nerve. That pause did not come naturally. It was built over years of reflection and practice.

She tells the story of a team member who came into her office in tears, convinced she had done something wrong. During budget season, Jania had been coming in fast, heading straight to her office, and diving into spreadsheets with little interaction. To her, it was a focused season. To her employee, it felt like rejection.

That moment became a lesson. Leadership presence is not neutral. People are constantly reading it. Emotional intelligence means asking, “What do my habits feel like on the other side of me” and adjusting when your impact does not match your intentions.

Purpose, Faith, And The Courage To Say No

Underneath Jania’s leadership is a clear sense of purpose: to be a better person today than she was yesterday. Her faith is a quiet but steady anchor. She does not preach at work, but she wants her spirituality to be visible in how she lives, leads, and treats people.

Purpose shows up in how FranNet helps prospective franchisees discern what is right for them. They use assessment tools to understand values, motivators, and risk tolerance. They ask questions about lifestyle, family, and long-term dreams. Many people come in thinking they want a restaurant. After real conversation, they realize what they actually want is time with family, a stable income, or a way to serve a specific community.

Sometimes the answer is yes, and that yes changes their life in ways they never imagined. Sometimes, as with the young man who was not financially ready, the answer is not yet. Emotional intelligence keeps both answers grounded in care rather than transaction.

Love As The Long Game In Leadership

Ask Jania about the role of love in business and she does not hesitate. If you do not love the work, you will not stay with it for decades. Love shows up in how you set the pace, how you are willing to take out the trash as quickly as you sign big contracts, and how present you are when people need you.

She has seen workplaces where employees are treated like income producers and nothing more. She has also seen what happens when leaders bring real heart into the room. At FranNet, love looks like:

• Staying on the phone late to help a consultant through a tough decision

• Designing systems that give everyone a voice, not just executives

• Protecting prospective owners from risky choices, even when that costs short-term revenue

• Celebrating lives changed, not just deals closed

In her view, love is not a marketing word. It is a standard. It is what keeps leaders willing to pick up the phone, show up for people, and carry the weight of their stories year after year.

Key Takeaways

• Emotional Intelligence Is A Core Business Skill
  It is not extra. It shapes culture, performance, and retention, especially when decisions carry real life consequences.

• Saying No Can Be An Act Of Care
  Protecting people from financially risky or misaligned decisions is often the most loving choice a leader can make.

• Feedback Can Polish, Not Punish
  When delivered with empathy and belief, feedback becomes a “polishing point” that helps people shine, rather than a critique that shuts them down.

• Systems Help Empathy Scale
  Structured meetings, values-based awards, and community recognition turn emotional intelligence into daily practice, not random acts.

• Self-Awareness Protects Your Team
  Leaders must own the emotional impact of their habits. A busy season for you can feel like rejection for someone else.

• Love Keeps Leaders In The Game
  Genuine care for people, their dreams, and their futures is what sustains leaders through pressure, change, and long careers.

Final Thoughts

Emotional intelligence in business is not about being less driven or lowering expectations. It is about seeing the whole human story behind every metric and decision, and leading in a way that honors that reality.

Jania Bailey’s journey shows that when leaders pair strong systems and hard business acumen with empathy, purpose, and love, they do more than hit targets. They change lives, build enduring trust, and create organizations people are proud to be part of.

Check out our full conversation with Jania Bailey on The Bliss Business Podcast.