Emotional Intelligence and Wisdom in Christian Leadership

This research study focused on emotional intelligence and wisdom in Christian leaders. This empirical study assessed if leaders who have a high measurement of emotional intelligence are also wise leaders according to the wisdom measurement scale. This correlational research study sought to determine the correlation between wisdom and emotional intelligence and if age was a moderating factor. It was hypothesized that there is a significant relationship between wisdom and emotional intelligence, and age moderates the relationship. Because there is a paucity of information in the literature concerning these attributes and relationships this research study aimed to explore these effects. The research participants were 106 Christian church leaders who completed online survey questionnaires via Qualtrics software. The Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS-12) was used to assess the study participants’ level of wisdom, and the Brief Self-Report Measure of Emotional Intelligence (BEIS–10) version was deployed to measure their level of emotional intelligence. The results revealed a statistically significant positive correlation between emotional intelligence measures and wisdom measures, confirming Hypothesis 1. Age, however, did not significantly predict wisdom or moderate the relationship between emotional intelligence and wisdom, thus failing to confirm Hypothesis 2 respectively. With wisdom’s positive attributes of understanding life and emotional intelligence’s ability to manage problematic situations, this measure of correlation displays synergy implications that may advance how we define leadership quality.