Over the last year I have been taking short workshops through the Wilfred Laurier University Executive Development Centre on the above topic: Leadership – Emotional Intelligence. The workshops were set up as a way to train managers to handle all types of situations and personalities as well as be an effective leader in their role.
You may take a look at the title and see “Emotional Intelligence” and think, why on earth would I need that?? What could that possibly lend to bowling or to being a better bowler?
As I progressed in the workshops I came to a sudden realization that everything we were covering for work purposes could be directly linked to a lot of the things I was personally working on for bowls. Other than the job being done – Office & People management vs. Team & Game management – the fundamental principles being given to us were applicable to a good leader in any venue.
It is broken into five (5) simple categories which all can be expanded on and broken down even further. The categories are:
1. Perceiving – the ability to accurately recognize, attend to and understand emotions
2. Managing – ability to effectively manage, control and express emotions
3. Decision-Making – appropriate application of emotions to the situation
4. Achieving – ability to generate necessary emotions to self-motivate in pursuit of goals
5. Influencing – ability to recognize, manage and evoke appropriate emotions within oneself and others to reach goals.
If you really take a look at the above points I think it is easy to see how this can apply to bowls. I will be adding in more information on Emotional Intelligence under this section to provide more in-depth discussion on each point and also bringing in useful drills, techniques and practices to use in your own training or even coaching/mentoring.
Note: I will be using bits and pieces of the workshops I was in to present the information — for more detailed info you can view the website (http://www.mhs.com/eihc.aspx?id=WhatIsEI) to gain more understanding of this subject.
