Objective To explore the influence of nurses′ emotional intelligence on nursing leadership and provide a reference for nur-sing leadership improvement interventions. Methods With convenience sampling method, 925 clinical nurses were selected from 5 hospitals in Zhengzhou city.The general data questionnaire, Nurse Leadership Questionnaire and Wong & Law Emotional Intelligence Scale （WLEIS） were used. Results The score of nursing leadership averaged 4.04±0.56, with the dimension of ability to solve problems scoring the highest, followed by nursing expertise, versus the lowest scores in critical thinking ability and self-care ability dimensions. The score of emotional intelligence averaged 55.54±10.33. Emotional intelligence and four dimensions were positively correlated with nursing leadership and seven dimensions（P＜0.01 for all）.Multi-variate linear regression analysis showed that, use of emotion and regulation of emotion contributed to affect nurses′ leadership （P＜0.01 for both）. Conclusion Clinical nurses′ leadership and emotional intelligence were at medium level and positively correlated.Regulation of emotion and use of emotion have strong influence on nursing leadership.Targeted measures should be taken to improve nurses′ emotional intelligence, which could enhance their leadership synthetically.