Winning LaneLtd
Enhanced performance through emotional control
Enhanced performance through emotional control
Intense emotions tend to accompany performing under pressure. Studies show emotions predict performance in sport (see
Beedie, Terry, & Lane, 2000), educational settings (Lane, Whyte, Terry, & Nevill, 2005; Thelwell, Lane, Weston, & Greenlees, 2007)
and business settings. Starting with sport, a key question is what mood states or emotional states do athletes experience before,
during and after competition? The answer to this question is dependent on many factors. Emotional states are triggered every time
an athlete thinks about an impending contest. The pre-competition period is riddled with attempts to control the build-up of
emotions; and people experience a range of different emotions. Some successful athletes feel excited and nervous; other athletes
feel the same emotions but feel angry also. Unsuccessful athletes can also feel nervous, but these athletes tend also to feel
saddened by anticipated expectations of failure. Most athletes have ways to control emotions; some athletes engage in positive self-
talk, some try to sleep, others listen to music, or become talkative, while others become reclusive. In most cases, people learn to
cope through experience. They learn through trial and error and by observing experienced performers cope successfully.
Emotions are pervasive across all aspects of life. However, for most people, situations such as an interview, an examination, a
competition, a public performance, and other aspects of daily life are fuelled with factors that can illicit intense emotions. Consider
a different example to further illustrate this point. A candidate is sitting in the waiting room before an important interview for job that
she/he desperately wants. When he/she thinks about the interview, she/he becomes nervous and starts to feel hot and begins to
sweat, which in turn, makes him/her feel more nervous. If we ask the same question we posed in the sport example, when do
people start to become emotional before the interview? The answer is likely to share many characteristics as those described in
the sport example. When we compare emotions experienced before an interview with those described before sport, we see that a
similar pattern of emotions and coping strategies, and this is a phenomenon we have observed in our research (Lane et al., 2005).
What should be clear is that mood states are intense before all tasks that are perceived to be of personal importance.
Given the intense emotions and mood states experienced in preparation and performance in important situations, it should not be
surprising that consultants devote a great deal of time to enable performers to cope better. Whilst a wealth of anecdotal evidence
exists on the proposed influence of moods and emotions on performance, arguably the most fruitful way to develop better
intervention strategies is through the availability of a sound knowledge base founded on theory and research.
Beedie et al. (2000) demonstrated that vigor is associated with successful performance, and confusion, depression and fatigue are
associated with unsuccessful performance. Unpleasant mood states associated with high arousal such as anger and tension
have been also found to be associated with both successful and unsuccessful performance (Beedie et al., 2000; Lane & Terry,
2000). In an attempt to address the proposed switching effect for anger and tension, we developed a conceptual model to examine
mood in sport (Lane and Terry, 2000). We argued that anger and tension can enhance effort when experienced with pleasant mood
states such as vigor. By contrast, anger and tension are associated with reduced effort when accompanied with depressed mood.
Subsequent tests of Lane and Terry’s model have been supportive of the switching effect for anger and tension (see Lane, 2007).
Our current work looks at the effective of teaching individuals mood-management strategies. Exploring the link between mood
states and emotional intelligence, integrating aspects of the revised conceptual model and looking at applied and intervention
based work represents the future directions in this area.
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Key points
- Emotions influence performance
- Control of emotions is important
- Pre-competition mindset is important
- Understanding the process is important
- Emotional control produces success?