When Envy Becomes a Teacher:
How Emotionally Intelligent Leaders Turn Comparison Into Progress.
In leadership, we often pretend that envy belongs to the insecure or the unprepared. But the emotions we hide are usually the ones shaping our behaviour the most.
Research from the University of California shows that envy activates the brain’s threat response, not because we are jealous of others, but because our nervous system interprets their success as evidence that we are falling behind.
Organisational psychologist Dr. Peter Totterdell discovered that when feelings of envy within teams go unacknowledged, they don’t simply disappear, they quietly shape behaviour in harmful ways. Instead of fostering open collaboration, these suppressed emotions create an undercurrent of silent competition, where individuals focus on outperforming peers rather than sharing knowledge or supporting collective goals.
