Leading with Emotional Intelligence: Hands-On ... - always yours

192 LEADING WITH EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
conversation, focusing on performance issues, stretching each team
member to his or her physical and mental limit, and orchestrating his
or her unique abilities to create one high-performance, winning team.
Mark French’s 25 years of experience and secrets are a goldmine of
information and inspiration for leaders to study and practice.
French retired in 2008 after 28 years as a Division I Head Basketball
Coach. He has more than 500 career wins and 438 wins in 21
years at UCSB. French had taken UCSB to 12 NCAA appearances and
12 straight Big West titles.
In the 2003-2004 season, they made it into the Sweet 16 in the
NCAA finals, losing to the eventual winner, University of Connecticut.
Coach French has been the Big West Coach of the Year seven
times and in 2002-2003 was the WBCA District Coach of the Year
and the Naismith National Coach of the Year finalist.
French is very proud that UCSB players have a 98% graduation
rate and that 63% of the players go on to graduate school. There
are even five graduates who play or played in the Women’s National
Basketball Association. More than 20 of French’s players were recognized
as Big West scholar athletes, tops in the conference. He states,
“I’m more of an educator than a coach,” and he is more concerned
that his players “have world-class people skills and be good people
than just excel on the basketball court.”
As an athlete, French was a two-sport letter winner at University
of California at Santa Barbara. He was an all-league pitcher for the
baseball team and played two seasons on the basketball team. French
earned a B.A. in Political Science from UCSB and received a master’s
degree from the University of the Pacific in Physical Education.
In looking over the 20 Emotional Intelligence competencies,
Coach French added, “Most of our star players have a lot of these.”
COACH FRENCH WAS ASKED
• How did he learn the Developing Others competency?
• What does he do to be such an effective leader?