Emotional intelligence equips leaders to exercise self-management, self-awareness, social awareness and manage relationships. Furthermore, emotional intelligence skills correlate with various leadership skills. Emotional intelligence supports their ability to develop trusting relationships that inspire others to perform collaboratively. It also enables the leader to understand their influence on others and to consider how they communicate, interact, inspire, and influence those around them. This study of eight underrepresented county superintendents across the state of California sought to understand emotional intelligence in county superintendents specifically, how they developed it, how they perceived it influenced their leadership and how they perceived they learned or developed the ability to reason with emotions. The researcher does not posit that all underrepresented CCOES are emotionally intelligent. Instead, the study sought to understand CCOES and explore their perception of emotional intelligence and how it influenced their leadership. A look at the role of a California County Office of Education Superintendent is discussed and why emotional intelligence is needed. A review of statewide demographic data is presented to underscore the limited number of underrepresented individuals in the teaching profession, the pipeline to the county superintendency. Emotional intelligence in schools, teacher programs, and administrative preparatory programs provided avenues for further consideration. Key findings revealed that emotional intelligence skills aligned closely to transformational leadership as described by study participants and enabled them to successfully execute their duties in a kaleidoscope of contexts. Furthermore, the participants all described various ways in which self-determination was evident in all of them. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]