The Business of Feelings – How I Went from Crying at Parties to Leading with Heart

Speaker: Željka Hassler

Emotions are often treated as something to manage privately, especially in professional settings. In this candid and deeply human session, Željka Hassler challenges that assumption—showing how emotional intelligence can become a powerful leadership skill rather than a liability.

At Futures Leaders Summit, Željka shares a personal journey of learning to understand, channel, and apply emotions across different stages of life and career, transforming sensitivity into strength.

From Sensitivity to Self-Awareness

The story begins with childhood—being highly sensitive in environments that did not always reward emotional openness. As life unfolded through major transitions, including becoming a refugee, immigrating to a new country, navigating college, and working in fast-paced marketing agencies, emotional awareness became not just a personal trait but a survival skill.

Rather than suppressing emotions, Željka learned to observe them, understand their signals, and use them constructively.

Emotional Intelligence in Practice

This session bridges personal experience with practical application. Drawing from her work in product and design leadership at companies such as Hudl and Fleetio, Željka demonstrates how emotional intelligence directly impacts communication, teamwork, and decision-making.

Understanding people, context, and systems is shown to be just as critical as technical expertise. Emotional awareness becomes a tool for navigating complexity, resolving conflict, and building teams that function effectively under pressure.

Leading with Heart in Complex Systems

As organizations grow more complex, leadership increasingly requires empathy, adaptability, and clarity. Željka highlights how leading with heart does not mean avoiding difficult conversations—it means approaching them with honesty, context, and respect.

The talk underscores how emotionally intelligent leaders create products that work in the real world because they are grounded in human needs, behaviors, and limitations.

A New Model of Leadership

The Business of Feelings offers a reframing of what strength looks like in leadership. Sensitivity, when paired with self-awareness and intention, becomes a strategic advantage.

This session invites emerging leaders to rethink their relationship with emotions—and to recognize that understanding feelings is not just personal growth, but good business.