Leading with emotional labor

Purpose This paper seeks to argue that leaders perform emotional labor whenever they display emotions in an attempt to influence their subordinates' moods and motivations. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper that integrates the literature on leadership with the research on emotional labor. Findings This paper develops 15 propositions that distinguish emotional labor performed by leaders from that performed by front‐line service workers. Research limitations/implications The paper suggests that leading with emotional labor is a fruitful research topic, and that considerable research could be done in this area. Practical implications Instead of conducting business in a non‐emotional, “business‐like manner”, leaders would benefit by expressing their emotions in the workplace. Emotionally expressive leaders are more charismatic and are better motivators. Originality/value This is the first paper to develop a theoretical model that describes how leaders perform emotional labor; thus the propositions are original.