Emotional leadership often begins long before a meeting, practice, or conversation ever starts. In this article, Nathan Whitaker reflects on mindset, attitude, and why great leaders choose what they will bring into the room before the day begins.
Every team has talent. Not every team has emotional leadership.
Recently, I was talking with an assistant baseball coach who shared something he admired about his manager. After every game—win or lose—the manager analyzes what happened that day, evaluates how the team played, and then makes one more decision before heading home:
What attitude will I bring in tomorrow?
Would he be upbeat and encouraging?
Serious and focused?
Calm but firm, calling a team meeting first thing?
He doesn’t let the scoreboard decide his mindset. He chooses it.
When I asked the manager how he does this — “Are you just wired that way?”— he said he wasn’t. Rather:
It takes practice.
I think most people treat their attitude like the weather, as something that happens to them. But I think great leaders prepare for it.
I’ve seen this in my own life in a smaller setting: traffic.
A couple of years ago, I realized getting frustrated by rude, distracted, or careless drivers never changed them. It only affected me. They drove on with their day, while I stayed irritated.
So I made a decision that I’m not giving strangers, strangers I’ll never see again, that kind of power.
Am I perfect at it? No. But I’ve gotten pretty good.
That’s how attitude works. It often starts as a conscious decision before it becomes a habit.
We don’t control every result. We don’t control every person. We don’t control every circumstance. And I know, sometimes those circumstances make it really hard.
But still, we can work on controlling what we bring into the room with us.
And that can make a huge difference.
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