TalentSmartEQ Launches Leading Through Friction Leadership Program

TalentSmartEQ, the world’s leading provider of emotional intelligence solutions, announces the launch of Leading Through Friction™, a new leadership development program helping leaders recognize, navigate and leverage the tension, pressure and conflict that define modern work’s most challenging moments. This half-day, facilitator-led experience is now available virtually, in-person, and through TalentSmartEQ’s trainer certification program.

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TalentSmartEQ announces the launch of Leading Through Friction™, a new leadership development program helping leaders recognize, navigate and leverage the tension, pressure and conflict that define modern work’s most challenging moments.

Based on Friction, a new book by Maggie Sass, PhD and Ross Blankenship, PhD, planned for an August 2026 release, the Leading Through Friction program teaches leaders how to manage and leverage friction to drive improved alignment, stronger relationships, smarter decisions and better organizational performance. Participants will gain the knowledge needed to turn friction into a leadership advantage.

“TalentSmartEQ has spent two decades helping organizations build emotional intelligence,” said Howard Farfel, TalentSmartEQ CEO. “The Leading Through Friction program takes everything we know about EQ and applies it to the moments leaders struggle with most. Every leader understands friction because they live it every day. This program gives them a framework to stop managing around it and start using it.”

Built on a fundamental reframe, friction is not an obstacle to effective leadership, it is where effective leadership is tested, developed, and demonstrated to improve organizational performance.

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“When leadership breaks down, it’s rarely a skills deficit in ideal conditions,” said Maggie Sass, PhD, co-author and program architect. “It happens when pressure is high, the stakes are real and the situation is emotionally charged. Leading Through Friction provides leaders with the framework and practical strategies to turn these moments into something more productive.”

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