Office of Culture and Experience

Leading Self

February 16, 2016 • Coaching, Leadership, OPD

During coaching sessions, coaches have to focus their attention on the team member’s agenda for coaching. At the same time, they need to be aware of their own emotions during the sessions and how those emotions might impact the person being coached. Coaches need to practice self-awareness and self-regulation, which are components of emotional intelligence. When coaches aware of their emotions and regulate themselves, the team members being coached will feel that the coach is focused on the team member’s agenda.

Emotional intelligence is our aptitude for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions effectively in ourselves and those around us, including those we supervise. Emotional competence is a learned capability based on emotional intelligence that contributes to effective performance. For coaches, this means being aware of their impact on the individuals being coached. A lack of emotional intelligence can lead to behavior during a coaching session that could potentially have a negative impact on the person being coached. Emotional intelligence is leading self!

So, during your next coaching session, stay focused on the team member’s agenda, but be aware of yourself as well. The article “Leadership That Gets Results” by Daniel Goleman offers a primer on emotional intelligence.

-The OPD Team

If you are an HSC employee or affiliate, you can access the article using the HSC institutional license.

The article is located on Ebsco Host and the article can be found by year (2000), volume (78), and issue (2).

Goleman, D. (2000). Leadership that gets results. Harvard Business Review, 78(2), 78-90.