ZEPP FM 004 - Emotional intelligence - or how to breathe with Dr Sylvain Laborde

Sylvain is not only a very good colleague of mine - he is one of the most successful early career researchers in sport psychology and especially emotional intelligence. Talking to Sylvain about his passion for research and how athletes can benefit from his knowledge was truly inspiring for me.

Every time I'm travelling to scientific conferences and Sylvain is there as well he is some kind of a celebrity. People want to talk to him, learn from him and are interested in his current experiments. Everyone wants to know what he identified, how they can become more emotionally intelligent themselves or how they can help their athletes to achieve this.

When I asked Sylvain, whether he could imagine sharing something he knows about emotional intelligence I thought that emotional intelligence refers only to a person being able to identify what is going on in the people around him or her. Like a coach who has to be empathetic and understand all of his athletes in order to create a trusting relationships with them. Man, was I wrong. Emotional intelligence is way more than that – and I am so glad I talked with Sylvain and that he cleared many things up for me!

This episode is full of knowledge, practical tips how to become more emotionally intelligent deal better with stress before, during and after competition – or every other situation that stresses you. ...and if you want to know what Sylvain would have told Zinedine Zidane before headbutting Marco Materazzi in the 2006 FIFA World Cup final, this episode is for you!