“I have had the opportunity to work with David directly on E.I. projects as a joint venture and also contracted his services with excellent results. David is a professional that can be counted on to meet your needs whatever the challenge. Additionally, we will continue to seek opportunities to work together in the present and foreseeable future.”
I’m suffering from/enjoying the Summertime Blues. I’m not sure if I’m suffering or enjoying. I guess I just can’t seem to let go of some of the stuff I ‘ought’ to do so I can really enjoy the stuff I’m doing. I’ve built a deck and a fence and I’ve only casually glanced at email and thought about work this month. There’s a growing ‘to do’ list that I’m avoiding and I’m really just wanting to spend time with friends and family, play music, walk/run with my dog, and waste time in the summer sun. I’ve got one course this month and then head into a hectic, but exciting Fall of travel to Africa twice and the Middle East with a couple of exciting trips to Toronto and Ottawa as well ;-)
I hope you’re having a great summer. If not, what’s standing in your way?
I’ve heard it said that you cannot visit Africa and not be affected and I knew it was true on my first visit 2 years ago, but now coming back to Lagos, Nigeria, I know it once again. I’ve spent the week working with warm, wonderful, ‘passionate’ Nigerian leaders who have such a sincere desire for change that it inspires me. I get excited thinking about the changes they will make and honoured to be part of it. I sometimes have to pinch myself. I have the honour of spending the week with these incredibly bright, insightful, dedicated people living my passion for facilitating learning in an absolutely fascinating world of wonder – and I’m almost embarrassed to say I get paid for it ;-) It never ceases to amaze me how “Leading with Emotional Intelligence” resonates as the solution to organizational effectiveness in organizations everywhere in the world that I’ve been so far. Sometimes the discussions here in Nigeria get so fired up with passionate viewpoints flying around the room that I get a little worried. (Actually, I don’t really get that worried. I’m just prone to hyperbole – I exaggerate – a lot, practically all the time ;-) Suffice it to say I never see that kind of passion in the training room in North America – or anywhere else in the world for that matter. It’s very refreshing. Stay tuned for photos I plan to post on my EITC Facebook page – or maybe somewhere else. I haven’t really decided yet.
My hosts and partners at STI Consulting, Abiodun, Keji, Olabisi, N’kechi, and Nicholas were awesome hosts – I thank you for all your warm hospitality and royal treatment. I look forward to our next opportunity to work together and courses we will offer together in Toronto, Accra, Dubai, and Johannesburg.
Now back to ‘head office’ to get ready for the next course, the Toronto EQ-i Certification Course July 14-16, immediately followed by “The Advanced Leadership Development Course” – a high level 4 day leadership course for senior executives based on the concepts of emotional intelligence in Toronto July 19-22.
We just wrapped the Ottawa EQ-i Certification Course and I’m sitting at the airport waiting to board my plane for the west. What wonderful people I have the privilege to work with! I continue to marvel at the talented, experienced, knowledgeable people who sign up for the EQ-i Certification Course. These participants are seasoned managers and leaders involved in leadership course design/delivery, program management, and leadership coaching all with the goal of assisting the most senior government employees in Canada to be better leaders. Most participants work for our very own Canada School of Public Service and, from what I can see, they do an incredible job of ensuring that our senior bureaucrats have the tools and resources available to be the best leaders they can be. They work with leaders all over Canada and the rest of the world in Canadian embassies and foreign offices and are equally comfortable training and coaching in either of our official languages. They work with all branches of the military, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and all government divisions and departments at many levels. In my mind they are quite amazing people and a pleasure to work with.
Despite the mind-boggling 34 degree heat (Wednesday – it cooled off slightly past two days), Ottawa was absolutely lovely – what a beautiful city! I look forward to my return.
My Dad turns 81 in May and we manage to have coffee together 3 or 4 times a week. He lives in Calgary and I live in Victoria.
Dad and his lovely wife, Ida bought a laptop about 3 years ago. I had great visions of being connected via email. It just didn’t pan out. The computer turned out to be intimidating and there were too many steps and processes for my Dad to regularly and comfortably reach their email account. Then there was the unmitigated joy of typing to contend with. Dad’s verdict was, “Let’s stick with the phone.”
We chatted about the joys and benefits of lifelong learning, or to be totally honest and accurate, I expounded on those benefits. My dad’s response was, “ I don’t think the Flames will get past the first round of the playoffs this year.” I smiled ruefully and agreed to continue regular phone contact.
Shortly after that visit to Calgary, I purchased a new Macbook and discovered iChat. I was amazed and delighted to be able to videoconference with fellow Mac owners. Admittedly, I never viewed the phone as a tool for meaningful dialogue. I primarily used it as a tool for short conversations and to set up meetings. I enjoy eye contact and seeing each other’s facial expressions and have always viewed the phone as a limited communication tool.
iChat worked well with other Mac owners, but many other people in my life used PCs. Then I discovered Skype! All that was required was a quick and easy download and a camera for each computer and voila, free video calls with family and friends. Shortly after the Skype revelation, I decided to suggest using this technology with 2 people I was coaching in Vancouver. I was going over there on a biweekly basis and brought up the notion of video conferencing as both an experiment and a cost-cutting measure. It was a very positive outcome in both cases and a new component was added to my small coaching practice.
On my next trip to Calgary, we purchased a camera for Dad and Ida’s Toshiba and right in the kitchen of their condo, Dad and I had our first Skype call together.
We both enjoy our morning coffees together and face-to-face discussions about the Flames, Stephen Harper, the general state of the world and who presently has the most grey hair. I lead in that category, but he has a considerable pink component up top.
So, my flight gets cancelled at the Seattle airport and a colleague asks me by email if I know of a resource that provides interview questions according to the 15 EQ Competencies of the BarOn model of EQ. No, I don’t, I say, but here, let me have a crack at it since my flight was just cancelled and I’ve got some time ;-) Let me know what you think.
Emotional Self-Awareness: Tell me about a time when your awareness of your own emotions caused you to change your plan of action.
Assertiveness: Tell me about a time when you spoke up knowing that by doing so you were taking a risk.
Self-Regard: Please tell us what we can expect as a “Return” on our investment (your salary) in you.
Independence: Tell us about a time when you took a critical action in the workplace without being directed to do so.
Self-Actualization: Tell us about a time when you felt most fulfilled. What do you feel is your greatest accomplishment? What are you proud of?
Empathy: You notice a co-worker choking back tears throughout a meeting. Nobody else seems to notice because of the way he/she is sitting. The meeting ends. You both get up to leave. What do you do?
Social Responsibility: Tell us your thoughts on how you think you can “give back to others/make the world a better place/help others/ be of service” by simply carrying out the duties required by this job.
Interpersonal Relationship: What are your thoughts about developing friendships with your coworkers?
Problem Solving: Describe a problem you discovered in a previous job and what you did about it. Describe a problem that you solved where you are particularly proud of the solution you came up with. How did you go about solving it?
Flexibility: Describe a situation where you had to be extremely flexible.
Reality Testing: Are you more of a dreamer or more of a realist? Give me an example of how someone observing might know this about you.
Stress Tolerance: Tell me how you deal with stress. What do you do to proactively deal with stress. Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a lot of stress and how you handled it.
Impulse Control: Tell me about your ability to resist the temptation to do things you may later regret. Have you ever done something you later regretted?
Happiness: Tell me about a time in your life when you experienced a great deal of “life satisfaction.” What makes you “happy?” Define “happiiness” for me.
Optimism: Describe your general attitude to work and life. What does “good attitude” mean to you? This glass I’m holding, how would you describe it – as half-full or half-empty and what’s the difference – is there a difference – does it matter?
There you go right off the cuff!
I hope this helps – at least you get the idea from my perspective.
I’ve been reading Tara Hunt’s “The Whuffie Factor” about online social capital and I’m feeling quite overwhelmed by it all. Of course, it all makes perfect sense to me as I’ve worked very hard to develop a ‘good’ reputation for myself as an ambassador for emotional intelligence and as a person who delivers on promises, etc. I know how quickly and easily that reputation is damaged for example, when I make a mistake like coming on too strong, being late for a conference talk, or misreading my audience (yes, unfortunately these things have happened! ;-) I understand social capital and it follows that it is the same online. It’s really how people (hopefully in your target market) ‘feel’ about you and being intentional about that – how do you want people to feel about you? You get a ‘rep’ online as well as in real life. But for a baby boomer like me (tail end ;-) it’s more difficult to wrap my mind around all the technical aspects of building social capital and I feel a bit anxious about it all. There are the different social media websites that must all be updated and yes I know about programs like TweetDeck, etc., but still, you have to be on top of these things and I don’t know if I’m up for the challenge. I guess I’ll have to be. Is ‘overwhelm’ an emotion? I don’t think so. I think we use it to mean ‘anxious’, ‘fearful’, or other emotion that prevents or limits our effectiveness in the required task – in this case, the required task is to get on it and learn about all these various forms of social media and get busy writing and staying on top of it all and not let ‘overwhelm’ get in the way.
Partnerships are a beautiful thing. They are especially important for us ‘solo-preneurs’ who are often working alone. Yes, I work with others, but I don’t go to an office where I see a lot of other people every day. I commute down the hallway to my home office where I peck away at the computer until it’s time to pack the suitcase and off I go to a client site or a hotel, which is often in another city. Partnerships allow me the ‘feeling’ of working as part of a team. I first met Jim Kirkpatrick at a conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and I really liked him and his message. Later I met Jim’s partner in marriage, Wendy over the telephone and I liked her too. In the short time that we’ve worked together on offering the Kirkpatrick Business Partner Certification programs in Canada, I’ve learned a lot from Wendy and Jim about marketing courses, about partnering with others and about creating win-win arrangements for mutual benefit. I guess that’s one of the things I like about partnerships. There are always new things to learn about this crazy business of training and development and I keep running into people who are so much smarter and more experienced than me. So, what to do? Get to know them as well as possible and learn, learn, learn! However, to do that, you must stay ‘teachable’ and to do that, you must acknowledge there are things you do not know. It’s not always easy to do. It’s a fine balance between having a healthy self-regard and having humility.
What is emotional intelligence? How does it relate to leadership?
