The Value of Emotional Intelligence for High Performance Coaching

Abstract

Similar to an effective leader in business, a high-performance sports coach requires qualities beyond technical and tactical acumen, such as leadership and the ability to facilitate a functional leader-follower relationship. Underpinning this dynamic relationship that exists between the coach and athlete is a leader's acumen associated with emotional intelligence (EI). This article aims to highlight the utility of EI for high-performance sport coaches, and provide concrete examples as to how EI might enhance a coaches' ability to lead and direct the production of high-performance with their staff and athletes. First, a brief overview of the link between EI and leadership quality is presented. Second, Mayer and Salovey's (1997) four-branch model of EI (i.e., perceiving, using, understanding, and managing emotions) will be used as a framework for demonstrating how a coach may use such abilities to lead and produce high-performance.

A Case Study of Excellence in Elite Sport: Motivational Climate in a World Champion Team

“…(also see Howitt & Henry, 2012). The flexible aspect of this theme supported Chan and Mallett's (2011) claim that high-performance coaches require qualities beyond technical and tactical skills, such as leadership and the ability to facilitate a functional leader-follower relationship; and that the key to a functional coach-athlete relationship was the coach's emotional intelligence. Consequently, Chan and Mallett (2011) championed emotional intelligence as a key coaching skill that elite coaches need to master.…”

“…They went up under the honors board as you'd have in your own clubrooms." This focus on linking team performance expectations with team legacy/history appeared to share some similarities with the Chan and Mallett (2011) concept of the emotionally intelligent coach leveraging emotional contagion within a team by publically acknowledging individuals who had achieved personal goals, thereby transferring productive emotions that generated emotional uplifts and facilitated general positivity within the team.…”

“…Richie McCaw (All Black) (Harding, 2004, p. 15) The dual-management model, combined with the development of the leadership group and the "Better People Make Better All Blacks" emphasis, represented a substantial shift from the coaching/leadership style previously employed in the All Blacks team (Howitt & Henry, 2012;McCaw & McGee, 2012). Moreover, the principles underlying the dual-management model appeared to be strongly reminiscent of autonomy-supportive coaching (Lyons, Rynne, & Mallett, 2012;Mallett, 2005), mastery climate coaching (Pensgaard & Roberts, 2002), emotionally intelligent coaching (Chan & Mallett, 2011), and transformational leadership (Callow, Smith, Hardy, Arthur, & Hardy, 2009). …”

An Analysis of Future Coaches' Emerging Dispositions on Social Justice: The Wooden Effect

“…Technical and tactical acumen is necessary. Emotional intelligence, or the 'soft skills' involved with motivation and inspiration, conflict management, and the ability to focus team members toward a common purpose is acknowledged as desirable attributes [19][20][21]. Planning and preparation are integral in providing successful outcomes.…”

Exploring the emotional intelligence of leaders in governance of non-profit sports organizations: A voluntary vs. non-voluntary comparison

“…Accordingly, in countries where the sporting system is largely or entirely governed by NSOs, such as New Zealand and Australia, emotional intelligence (EI) is a sought-after quality for senior leadership positions (Sport New Zealand, 2015b, p. 19). However, our knowledge of EI in NSO leadership is mostly based on inferences from research with camp leaders (Magyar et al, 2007), team captains (Stough et al, 2009;Voight, 2014) and coaches (Thelwell et al, 2008;Chan and Mallett, 2011;Hwang et al, 2013). It seems therefore that the EI stream of leadership research in business and sports domains had different focus during their emergence.…”