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.

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.

EQ-i Certification Course, Canada School of Public Service, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, May 26-28, 2010 (still some space available)

EQ-i Certification Course, Ramada Hotel Downtown, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, June 21-23, 2010 (still space available)

EQ-i Certification Course, Marriot Hotel, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 14-16, 2010, (still space available)

EQ-i Certification Course, Coast Hotel, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, August 23-25, 2010 (still space available)

Please click the “Register” button for additional information on all courses.

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.

• 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.

Watch this video about the Emotional Intelligence Training Company, and David Cory, to learn about emotional intelligence and leadership.

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.

As for the professional update, we (Klaudia, Kim, Becky, Sherwin, Ben, and me) have lots of great plans. We continue to offer the EQ-i Certification Course in many great cities and the EQ-360 Certification Course via teleclass. We are offering EQ coaching through Klaudia and Kim to our wonderful course participants in various parts of the world. Becky and Sherwin continue to offer all manner of design, communications, web, and marketing support. I like to refer to what they do as “emotionally intelligent design.” (see their website www.pinksheepmedia.com) And now Ben, the youngest Cory, has joined the team as all around administrative support. I’m still trying to convince my wife, Jill, to join the team, but she stubbornly (or is it ‘wisely’) refuses to do so. ;-)

So far, 2010 is shaping up wonderfully well with many partnerships and great clients in many parts of the world. This year work will take me to Madrid, Seattle, San Francisco, Lagos, Ottawa, Calgary, Toronto, Ghana, Johannesburg, and hopefully back to Trinidad and Beijing. More people than ever are getting their certification to use the EQ-i in advance of the release of the EQ-i 2.0, which is a very exciting new product from MHS. More on that as it becomes available.

I continue to wonder how I can better serve my clients. What types of products and services do my clients need? I’ve learned that they need products and services which can help them to make personal changes easier, better, faster, cheaper. I’ve learned that they are looking to understand the connection between EI/EQ and the bottom line better. And I’ve certainly learned that in a technical environment like the gas and oil industry in Calgary, that it’s harder to see the connection between EI/EQ and improved organizational performance – “it’s really just about the technology – isn’t it?”

I will continue to learn and I’ll continue to try to turn that learning around and pass it on to my clients. It is what gives me energy and it is my passion. Thanks for tuning in. This time, I’m going to do everything in my power to keep writing.

Cheers,

David