Emotional intelligence · EQ
Emotional Intelligence Coaching & Training
Training and tools for leaders, athletes, families and communities, built on the research-based EQi 2.0 and Vincent Barlow’s Master the Gap™ framework.
Why it matters
What emotional intelligence is, and why it can be trained.
Emotional intelligence, or EQ, is the set of skills behind how you perceive and express yourself, build relationships, make decisions and handle stress. Because it is skills rather than fixed traits, it can be developed at any stage of a career or a life.
ElevateNation’s emotional intelligence coaching and training pairs the EQi 2.0 assessment with Vincent Barlow’s Master the Gap™ framework, so insight does not stay on a report. It turns into what you do in the next hard conversation.
Vince is an EQi 2.0 certified executive coach with more than 25 years of experience coaching and training leaders. He applies the same framework with executives, teams, athletes and families.
Signature framework
Master the Gap™: the gap where character is formed.
Between what happens to you and how you respond, there is a space. Most people never notice it. Master the Gap™ teaches you to feel what you feel, use that space, and respond on purpose.
Feel
Emotion arrives first. Master the Gap™ begins by noticing and naming what you actually feel, without suppressing it and without being run by it.
Master the Gap
Between feeling and responding is a space, and that space is where character is formed. Learning to pause there gives you a choice most people never realize they have.
Emote
Respond on purpose. Express what you feel in a way that is honest, useful and consistent with who you have chosen to be.
The assessment behind the coaching
What the EQi 2.0 measures.
The EQi 2.0, published by Multi-Health Systems (MHS), is a research-based assessment of emotional intelligence. In coaching it is not a personality label but a map of how you actually operate under pressure. It reports five composites built from 15 skills:
Self-Perception
- Self-Regard
- Self-Actualization
- Emotional Self-Awareness
Self-Expression
- Emotional Expression
- Assertiveness
- Independence
Interpersonal
- Interpersonal Relationships
- Empathy
- Social Responsibility
Decision Making
- Problem Solving
- Reality Testing
- Impulse Control
Stress Management
- Flexibility
- Stress Tolerance
- Optimism
Want to see how others experience you? The EQ 360 leadership intensive adds confidential interviews and two more instruments.
Emotional intelligence frameworks
One framework, four arenas.
EQ for Life
Emotional intelligence for everyday life, relationships and resilience, the foundation behind Becoming Unshakeable.
The bookEQ for Careers
Emotional intelligence for building a career that lasts: “Skills will get you the interview. EQ is what keeps you hired.”
The bookEQ for Sports
Mental training for athletes, coaches and parents, with the GapMaster 4 Sports app for ages 10–14 coming soon.
The toolsCEO Coach
Where sports-team leadership and executive leadership models meet, for owners, CEOs and their teams.
Executive coachingFrequently asked questions
Emotional intelligence questions, answered.
What is emotional intelligence?
Emotional intelligence, or EQ, is the set of skills behind how you perceive and express yourself, build relationships, make decisions and handle stress. Because it is skills rather than fixed traits, it can be developed at any stage of a career or a life.
What is Master the Gap™?
Master the Gap™ is Vincent Barlow’s signature emotional intelligence framework: Feel, Master the Gap, Emote. It focuses on the space between feeling an emotion and responding to it — the gap where character is formed — and trains you to use that space on purpose.
What does the EQi 2.0 measure?
The EQi 2.0 reports five composites — Self-Perception, Self-Expression, Interpersonal, Decision Making and Stress Management — built from 15 emotional intelligence skills. See the full breakdown above.
Can emotional intelligence really be improved?
Yes. That is the premise of the work. The EQi 2.0 gives a baseline, coaching builds new patterns, and for the EQ 360 leadership intensive the original panel is surveyed again at the end so the change is measured.
Do you offer emotional intelligence training for teams?
Yes. Team EQ Training includes half-day and full-day workshops, a team EQi 2.0 assessment package, custom workshop design, group debrief and action planning, follow-up coaching sessions and a team EQ report and roadmap. See Team EQ Training.
Is there emotional intelligence training for athletes and young people?
Yes. EQ for Sports, developed with Mike Presto, brings the framework to athletes, coaches and parents. GapMaster 4 Sports is the companion mental training app for young athletes ages 10–14, with Athlete, Coach and Parent portals, and is coming soon.
Let’s talk
Ready to master the gap?
Whether it is you, your leadership team or the athletes and families you serve, start with a conversation about where emotional intelligence would change the most.
Email Vince