Educational leadership is commonly discussed in terms of strategy, reform, and organizational effectiveness, yet the emotional dimension of managerial work remains underexplored. This study examines the hidden emotional work of educational leaders and investigates how emotions are experienced, regulated, and strategically displayed in everyday managerial practice. Guided by Emotional Labour Theory and a micropolitical perspective, the study adopts a qualitative multiple-case design involving 14 educational leaders from secondary schools and higher education institutions. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews, critical incident accounts, and short reflective diaries. For manuscript-development purposes, the article includes illustrative coding frequencies and thematic tables to demonstrate how qualitative findings may be reported in a journal article. The analysis reveals three major patterns: educational leaders faced persistent emotional demands in conflict mediation and institutional accountability; they strategically regulated emotions to preserve authority and relational trust; and such hidden emotional work shaped managerial decisions, often at significant personal cost. The study argues that educational leadership is not only administrative and strategic but also affective and political.