Between 1999 and 2009, United States (U.S.) Navy Admirals fired or relieved over 133 commanding officers, including human resource officers, citing a lack of confidence in their leadership ability. Most of the firings were not from a lack of technical competency, rather the result of poor personal decisions. The specific problem addressed in the study is the U.S. Navy human resource (HR) milestone screening process is not as predictive as the process could be, resulting in decreased productivity, lower morale, and wasted training dollars when an officer is relieved. The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence levels and leadership effectiveness among U.S. Navy HR officers. Sixty-nine U.S. Navy HR officers took the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT®) to measure their emotional intelligence and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ®) to measure leadership effectiveness. Results revealed a positive and significant correlation between overall emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness, r (67) = 0.22, p = .036. Analysis of each of four emotional intelligence branch scores revealed a positive and significant relationship between three of four branch scores and leadership effectiveness. While perceiving emotions was not related to leadership effectiveness, r (67) = -0.01, p = .54, facilitating thought ( r (67) = 0.24, p = .023), understanding emotions (r (67) = 0.26, p = .016), and ability to manage emotions (r (67) = 0.23, p = .031) were positively and significantly related to leadership effectiveness. The result of a stepwise multiple linear regression was significant, F (1, 67) = 4.83, p = .031, suggesting the overall model is significant. Study results indicate the U.S. Navy might consider integrating measures of emotional intelligence into the screening and selection process to increase leadership effectiveness of HR officers. Future research should include analyzing the relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness using multiple survey measurements, including 360 degree feedback instruments, to assess the officer from multiple perspectives.