Beyond the Playbook: Emotional Intelligence

The MVP of Team Dynamics: Emotional Intelligence

Within the spotlight of team sports exists a combination of raw grit and emotional tensity. Though athletes may appear to thrive on the idea of survival of the fittest, fitness is about more than just physique. It encompasses mental and emotional health, with these latter two areas contributing equally to the well-being of individual athletes and entire teams.

As discussed by celebrated sports journalist Joan Ryan in this podcast, knowing how to bond with and support our teammates can elevate everyone’s performance and pave the way to success. Emotional literacy helps achieve coveted team chemistry, allowing for authentic communication and trust. Further delineated in this paper on athlete mental health, when we are aware of the needs of ourselves and our teammates, we’re all better able to navigate the pressures of athletic demands and beyond.

Coaches and teammates are often the closest resources available to those in athletics. But if these support networks aren’t versed in the finer nuances of interpersonal dynamics, individual players—and entire teams—struggle. Through tools like the SurePeople Prism^®, coaches and players can readily identify relational nuances on their teams, as illustrated in this video.

While the cliched advice to “shrug it off” can be more harmful than helpful, acute awareness of each other’s needs allows for the creation and navigation of team chemistry. Through such awareness, teams can foster a culture promoting physical, mental, and emotional fitness. As expressed in this podcast with coach Rob Ryles and performance psychologist Joe Davis, we can all better manage our life experiences when we’re more aware of our emotional needs. But when we go even further than that and learn to recognize the emotional needs of others, we’re better able to help them with their experiences too.

As expressed in this podcast with coach Rob Ryles and performance psychologist Joe Davis, we can all better manage our life experiences when we’re more aware of our emotional needs. But when we go even further than that and learn to recognize the emotional needs of others, we’re better able to help them with their experiences too.

Expectations in athletics carry a lot of pressure. Pressure for coaches trying to get the best out of players, and pressure for players as they try to reconcile the demands of their individual lives with those of their sport. Through a conscious practice of emotional intelligence, that reconciliation—and peak performance—can be achieved.

“Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles.”
– Alex Karras

Author

by Faraz Gafoor

Faraz Gafoor is a content strategist, writer, and human-data aficionado. His passion for scientific analysis of everything—from the presentation of data to the way we communicate—is driven by a deep love of understanding how we process and make sense of our surroundings. His curiosity and a never-ending search for prolific and poetic perfection poignantly fit his Prism Personality of a double Scientist.