Part IV: Using the Results
EQ-i 2.0 Case Studies
Case Study 8
Submitted by: Derek Mann
Client Background
Johann is a 39-year-old former national collegiate tennis champion, retired Association for Tennis Professional (ATP) touring professional, small-business owner, head tennis coach, husband and father, striving to achieve a work-life balance. Johann completed the EQ-i 2.0 as part of a self-development process that he has undertaken in response to the trials and tribulations he faces as a coach and professional in his community. Johann is a prominent figure in his community and is renowned for his positive demeanor, willingness to lend a helping hand, going the extra mile to help his students achieve their goals (even at the expense of his own goals), and personal and financial well-being.
Despite having a career driven by his passion, Johann is unhappy with the day-to-day operations of running his business, which he feels detracts from his passion of coaching and mentoring young athletes. However, even while coaching, Johann has recently found himself confronted with the challenges of helicopter parents and athletes with a below-average work ethic and above-average expectations. Unfortunately, Johann doesn’t challenge the status quo or voice his concerns until his back is against the wall.
Summary of EQ-i 2.0 Results
Overall, Johann’s total emotional intelligence score is low (90) and although this score in itself presents an opportunity for development, there are also several implications of his low Total EI score reflected at the subscale level, which impacts the process by which he addresses and copes with his day-to-day challenges. As a result, the true opportunity for Johann lies at the subscale level and the interactive effects between his relative strengths and weaknesses. Figure 11.1 highlights some of the key relationships addressed during Johann’s coaching and development.
Figure 11.1. Key Interactions Explored
| Key Relationships | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subscale | Score | Subscale | Score | Subscale | Score |
| IC | 105 | EM | 105 | ESA | 100 |
| FL | 90 | ESA | 100 | RT | 93 |
| ST | 89 | RT | 93 | EE | 92 |
| AS | 84 | EE | 92 | ST | 89 |
In this case, despite Johann’s Impulse Control (105) falling in the mid range, it is one of his “relative” strengths. Given his level of development, remaining resistant to temptation while not being overly reactive is a strength for Johann. Although addressing Impulse Control in isolation is a good starting point, it is equally important to take into account the interactive effects of Impulse Control. Of particular interest in this case was the interaction of Impulse Control with Flexibility, Stress Tolerance, and Assertiveness. Collectively, this combination of results indicate that Johann is not only adept at tempering his reactions, but this combination of skills might suggest that he is overly guarded, resistant to change, and in some cases, inflexible. During the feedback session, this hypothesis was explored.
Johann’s initial reaction to the probing questions during the feedback process was initially surprise, followed by thoughtful reflection. As the conversation evolved, Johann realized that although as an athlete he was open to new ideas and loved to be challenged, as a coach he feels much more vulnerable because such change implies incompetence.
Johann’s Empathy (105) is complimented by his relative strength in Emotional Self-Awareness (100). This combination of skills suggests that Johann is not only able to relate to the plight of others, he can also understand how the positive and negative emotions of others can impact his own emotional state. The difficulty for Johann lies in the combination of low Reality Testing (93), coupled with his lower Emotional Expression score (92), suggesting that Johann may misperceive the gravity of a given situation and incompletely or inaccurately express (verbally and nonverbally) how he is feeling.
While Johann possesses the ability to understand how he feels and why, it is likely that his Emotional Self-Awareness (100) coupled with his low Stress Tolerance (89) may account for why he often feels overwhelmed by the day-to-day interactions with the parents and athletes he coaches. For the most part, Johann feels stressed and is very aware of these feelings. The difficulty for Johann is that he either lacks the necessary skills or confidence in his skills to adequately cope with or modify a given situation.
Coaching Approach and Development Strategies
Collectively, Johann’s three personal strengths have shed light onto several development areas. In many cases, these development areas are directly related to the professional challenges Johann communicated prior to completing the EQ-i 2.0.
Given the relatively low scores across Johann’s profile, a combination of the model approach and narrative approach (see Giving Feedback and Coaching Fundamentals) to feedback was used to help engage Johann in the feedback process. The model approach helped to minimize the sting of the relatively low profile, while the application of the narrative approach allowed Johann to move freely through his results.
Post feedback, Johann had agreed to work on three key areas of emotional intelligence development. To provide structure to the coaching and development process, energy was directed toward the Self-Regard, Reality Testing, and Assertiveness subscales.
Self-Regard
Although Self-Regard is not among Johann’s lowest scores, it is sufficiently low to warrant attention, given that a healthy sense of self is fundamental to effective emotional and social functioning. As a result, the first step to helping Johann enhance his sense of self included conducting a Self-Regard inventory. Johann was engaged in an extensive process where he created a list of his strengths and areas that he believed needed development. Once he identified what he believed to be his areas of strength, he was encouraged to leverage these strengths whenever and wherever possible. Johann was also encouraged to meet with several friends, family members, and colleagues with whom he felt comfortable to explore what he believed to be his weaknesses.
The second step to helping Johann with his self-regard included setting specific individual goals while also setting collaborative goals with each of his athletes. By doing so, Johann was better equipped to manage both his expectations and the expectations of his athletes. In many cases, Johann developed specific, measurable, and action-oriented goals, and when necessary he further broke down his goals into smaller mini-goals.
Reality Testing
Johann is perceptive, but he has the tendency to misinterpret cues, which has often resulted in Johann feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and frustrated. Johann needed to better understand how to validate the information he was attuned to. Johann’s responsibility was to identify three specific people from the groups he outlined above and that he felt truly comfortable with. During regular interactions, Johann was to describe the context of a given situation, what he perceived to be happening, and the emotional tone and implications of the situation. This process exposed Johann to the gaps he was experiencing in many of his interactions.
Assertiveness
During the coaching and development process it became very clear that Johann’s discomfort with voicing his opinion and standing behind his decisions, or in many cases remaining passive in the face of a disagreement with a parent or athlete, was deep rooted in his low self-regard. Coupled with the above mentioned process for helping Johann improve his sense of self, Johann worked on expressing a variety of thoughts, ideas, and feelings while learning that being expressive is perfectly acceptable, provided that the delivery is non-offensive and non-destructive. In fact, learning to be more assertive and expressive was crucial to his success.
Placing emphasis on Self-Regard, Reality Testing, and Assertiveness during the initial coaching period provided the necessary skills to help Johann begin to realize the opportunities that lay ahead. It also helped provide the foundation for future coaching to enhance the coping skills that Johann needs to be truly effective and happy with his day-to-day responsibilities.