Emotional intelligence
1.) What is meant by the term “emotional intelligence,” and how might it apply to you personally as well as to sport leadership in general?
Pre: The term “emotional intelligence” refers to an individual’s connectedness and understanding of their own emotions and how those emotions affect others. Additionally, EI also refers to our ability to connect and understand the emotions of others so that we can act appropriately in given situations to achieve specific outcomes. This term applies to me personally because I feel that I have a high EI and use this knowledge to better understand the people around me. In sport leadership, EI is a key concept that is applied to all stakeholders of a given sport organization. Almost every member of a sport community has an emotional connection to their team. The degree of EI for each population (i.e. athletes, fans, coaches, administrators) directly affects the attitudes and, often times, production of other members in the same community.
Post: After reading, my definition above is pretty accurate for how the book defines EI. EI refers to our connectedness to our own emotions and the emotions of others that can lead to desired outcomes when managed appropriately. I personally value EI and the reading supports my claim that EI is a necessary tool to better understand the people around me. In sport leadership, EI is necessary to create a positive environment. The book identifies two types of leaders with respect to EI, resonant leaders and dissonant leaders. I thought that a leader’s EI was important but did not consider the overall environment as a potential factor that can be altered by exercising EI. In sport organizations, EI is applied differently at the different levels of competition. However, is still vital towards overall effectiveness and can lead sport organizations to success or failure based on it’s proper application.
2.) What evidence exists from research regarding EI and its role in producing desired outcomes? What arguments exist to the contrary?
Pre: I am not incredibly familiar with current research that suggests EI has a role in producing desired outcomes. I would imagine that EI research would be conducted in a qualitative manner with some mixed methodologies. The findings from these studies are probably indicative of certain trends but lack concrete data to support claims. On the contrary, arguments against EI probably ascertain that EI may be an important factor when gauging perceived community interests but again lacks conclusive results when considering it’s direct affects toward desired outcomes.
Post: I was surprised to learn that EI is widely accepted in the academic community and is largely though to be important in leadership. For some reason, I though that this would be more of a conceptual framework that lacked evidence. Research suggests that EI is incredibly important and has gone on to develop models based upon best practices when exercising EI to lead people. I was also surprised to learn that much EI research is done quantitatively as opposed to qualitatively as I originally hypothesized. This makes sense to me now based on the explanation provided. I am still hung up on this a little bit because emotions seem, to me, as a deeper subject that can’t be truly expressed quantitatively. However, the empirical data that supports EI claims is strong and leads to conclusions that I think appropriate for EI research findings.
3.) What evidence do you see from your personal experiences or from observations of sport organizations that the level of an individual leader’s EI skills may be a factor related to either positive outcomes or negative behaviors and problems?
Pre: As a former Hockey Director, I have seen both positive outcomes and negative behaviors as a direct result of EI. When coaching people of all ages, EI was incredibly helpful to me because it allowed me to push athletes in different ways, at specific times that maximized their effectiveness and experience. I have also experienced the opposite of this when dealing with difficult situations and letting my emotions get the better of me. If I fail to exercise my EI appropriately in the role of coach, I run the risk of isolating members of my team and shutting them down in response to inappropriate emotional behavior. It is important that a leader maintain a level of composure so that they can retain sound decision making skills that yield positive results for everyone regardless of the situation.
Post: The concept of resonant leadership stuck with me from the reading. I look at the situations I described above and these scenarios were very much about creating an environment where everyone could maximize their effectiveness without having to deal with the unpredictability of raw emotion. As a coach, my emotions created an open and nurturing environment that build comfort and strengthened emotional bonds between all members of our team. I’ve also seen dissonant leaders/coaches who create a toxic environment, which leads to increased levels of stress. These environments lead to anxious players who are more concerned about making a mistake than they are with playing the game. I find that resonant leaders have more success overall because success is not a measure of one thing but a number of factors that are supported by the team as a whole. Dissonant leaders are less successful because this style leads to feelings of disconnectedness between members of a team and has teammates pulling in different directions unsure of what their ultimate goal really is.
4.) How would you currently rate your own EI based on challenging situations you have been in and how you have responded to them?
Pre: I would rate my own EI as high yet disconnected. Having experienced hardship, I find myself removed from my emotions more than I used to be. I can easily recognize emotions in people, but naturally downplay/disregard emotions due to logic. The one experience that I think of was when I faced a room of angry hockey parents as a Hockey Director. I had to make a decision to split a recreation team a part because they were too strong and we needed to create more balanced teams for healthy competition and overall player development. The families in front of my were very upset because they wanted their kids to stay together and viewed winning as the most important outcome. I’ll note that this was a pilot project and involved a transitional component for kids moving into older age divisions, but a room of angry parents is the key point here. I approached a highly emotional group of people and knew that I had two choices: One, I could go in there and try to match their emotion and add to the hysteria of the situation. Or two, I could maintain my composure and, by doing so, de-escalate the situation and calm the emotions of the group. This is in some ways interesting because I was dealing with parents much older than I. This experience tells me that people lose control of their emotions when dealing with their own children and fail to exercise discipline when they see an opportunity to help further their child’s success.
Post: I would still rate my current EI pretty high and felt supported when I read the Four Branch model of Mayer and Salovey. This approach identifies a progression by which leaders implement their EI in a group setting. I feel that I follow this model already and have seen the benefits of its implementation within sport organizations. This is sometimes easier said than done when tragedy strikes. I think back to my time in the Peace Corps when my emotions were rocked by tragedy. I could not think clearly and failed to perceive emotions as a part of a given issue. This is very much a step-by-step approach and cannot be completed if one step is absent. If I was unable to perceive emotions on a given issue, there was no way that I could determine the best means of facilitation or hope to understand emotions in others or myself. In essence, I needed to gain a handle on my own emotions before trying to help others to achieve desired outcomes. This is truly powerful. The part about neuroscience and leadership was interesting because it touched on the power of the mind to both overcome and inspire change. Concepts like EI actually affect our brain and, in turn, modify our responses and perceptions.
Three Topics:
Resonant Leadership: This topic resonates with me because I make an effort to create a welcome environment in my workplace and daily life. The idea that our EI can shape our surroundings is similar to that of the FISH model and other ideas that suggest that we create our own reality. This can be said for my current work situation. I am currently lacking direction with my work and often times find myself frustrated. Instead of becoming disgruntled, I decided that I would find way to be both productive and effective so that I could create an environment, which enhanced production and hopefully lead to more direction and purpose. I am not sure if my supervisor displays characteristics of a resonant leader, but I feel that she tries to. That, in itself, tells me that she cares about the state of the environment and would not accept a toxic or stressful workplace.
Neuroscience and Leadership: As I touched on in the final question above, neuroscience is interesting to me when it comes to leadership. I’ve always felt that my EI could create impactful change in the minds of others and that I had the capacity to truly change how people experience the world around them. I can’t speak scientifically about neuroscience, but I do feel that leadership and motivation can trigger responses from parts of the brain that make us feel supported and comfortable. Once these parts are activated, we will see more effective followers who want to lead others.
Dissonant Leadership: Having experienced hockey coaches and supervisors who I would characterize as dissonant leaders, this concept struck home for me. The chapter says that we hold onto negative experiences more than we do the positive ones. Having worked for dissonant leaders, I’ve identified specific traits that I do not want to portray in my own leadership style. The environment in which we work is so important to our overall happiness. As I’ve said in previous reflections, happier people make for more effective people. This point strikes true once again as dissonant leaders create an unstable environment that leads to high turnover rates and disgruntled employees.
