Athletes' Perceptions of Coaches' Emotional Intelligence Competencies

This study compared intercollegiate athletic coaches' self-perceptions to the perceptions of their players concerning a coach's emotional intelligence. Sixteen coaches and 223 players from two Division I softball conferences completed the Emotional Competence Inventory-2 (Boyaztis, Goleman, & Hay/McBer, 2001). Mean analysis revealed that coaches rated themselves higher on 14 of the 18 emotional intelligence competencies and on all four emotional intelligence clusters. Coaches rated themselves highest in Social Awareness (Error! Bookmark not defined. (x) over bar = 4.27/5) while their athletes rated them highest in Self-Awareness (Error! Bookmark not defined. (x) over bar = 3.63/5). Meanwhile, athletes gave coaches their lowest rating in Relationship Management (Error! Bookmark not defined. (x) over bar = 3.44/5). Coaches need to be aware that the self-perceptions of their own behavior differ from the perceptions of their athletes. Since it is well known that the behavior of the coach affects the performance of the athlete, techniques to train coaches to recognize and overcome this difference could be beneficial and are provided.