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Progress! Leading with Emotional Intelligence E-Zine - Issue No. 1/ February 2006

Dear Reader,

Progress-U keeps progressing. We are pleased to announce the launch of our 4 th E-Zine, authored by our executive coach and trainer Sebastien Henry. He specializes in Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and its meaningful application in management and leadership. Consequently, the title of his E-Zine is Leading with Emotional Intelligence  and will be published usually once a month.

Like most of our coaches, Sebastien is an obsessive reader of relevant literature. He will serve his subscribers with a monthly review of at least one of the books he has read.

We are very committed to continually improve our operations and offerings. A professional client management system will certainly help us to serve you better. Unfortunately, this will require a one-time re-subscription to Progress-U's E-Zines and newsletters.

To re-subscribe and receive Sebastien's EQ E-Zine as well, please click here. To make up for any inconvenience this might create, signing up will be rewarded with one welcome gift per e-zine/newsletter to which you subscribe.

Let's keep progressing!

Charlie Lang
Executive Coach and Founder of Progress-U Ltd.
Author of The Groupness Factor

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What intention did you set this morning after getting up?
How not to lose your drive to inspire and motivate your people

By Sebastien Henry, Executive Coach & Trainer,
Emotional Intelligence for Leaders Expert for Progress-U Ltd.

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Many business leaders I know realize the need to inspire and motivate their people. Actually, they would love to do it more. But what typically happens is that, at the end of each and every working day, they find out that they did not have the time to do so. Or did not take the time to.

Let me ask you some questions. What did you do to inspire and motivate your team in the past two days? What did you do to develop your emotional intelligence at work, as a business leader? Do you think you could have done more? If yes, do you think you could have done much more?

In this issue, I'll share with you a tool that I've been using for some years. It helped me not to lose my drive to develop my emotional intelligence in the middle of the action and as a consequence become a more inspiring leader.

"In the middle of the action" is the crucial phrase here. Why? Because what typically happens during a busy day is that there is just no time. There are too many things to do that are or seem to be more important. As an executive in my previous career, this happened to me countless times.

Often then I pondered at the end of the day: "It would have been great to step back for a few minutes during the day, and think about how I could have inspired my team today, right now. I just got caught up in the action. Never mind, let's try again tomorrow ".

Do I need to tell you what would happen the next day? Well, pretty much the same! Does it sound familiar to you?

So what can you do? It is very likely that your environment won't change much (still quite many urgent problems to solve, probably!). So we have to look elsewhere. But where?  

Right at you, actually.

I have noticed that there are two ways to develop your EQ at work:

1. Mastering some practical and powerful tools that you can use on the spot. The goal of this E-Zine is to share some with you every month.

2. Setting an intention right at the beginning of your day to develop your emotional intelligence during the day.

Today, I am going to insist on the second way, because it is actually the most fundamental to me. What is "setting an intention"?   It may smell of New Age, but it is both simple and powerful.

Before you leave your home for work, take a moment to commit yourself: "I will use this day at work to develop my emotional intelligence and inspire people in my team". Repeat this a few times and....go !

How long does it take? Ten to 30 seconds, depending on how many times you repeat it.

Does it sound a bit crazy to you? Well, what is crazy is how it works. What is likely to happen is that you will remember this intention a few times during the day, all of a sudden, right in the middle of the action. Then, you will be much more likely to step back for a few minutes and ask yourself: "Yes, true, how can I develop my emotional intelligence right now and be more inspiring right now".

Your drive to keep progressing will be reinforced. And you will keep progressing. Of course, there are many other tools that can be used. But this is a powerful one.

How does it work? To be honest, the psychological process at work, although widely researched, has not been fully clarified. But it doesn't matter to me how it works. It just works. In a future issue of this E-Zine, I will share with you the tools to make this practice even more powerful.

By the way, like most of the tools to develop your EQ at work, this tool can also be useful outside of your work.

If you like experiments, try this: Start each day of the coming week by setting this intention: "I want to be a peaceful, joyful and loving person today", and notice what happens:

- when you start boiling as you have to queue up for more than 10 minutes at the bank during your lunch break; and/or

- as you feel the frustration growing when your spouse doesn't welcome you with a smile back home at the end of a hard day's work.

Are you going to set an intention for your day tomorrow? What will be your intention?

I wish you the very best on your journey to be an ever inspiring leader.

For more information related to Progress-U Leadership Training and Coaching, please click here.

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Sebastien Henry is Progress-U's expert for Emotional Intelligence. Developing his Emotional Intelligence in his previous corporate career was a real priority (regional position in Asia at a multinational company). Now he focuses on helping business leaders to become more inspiring leaders, motivate their people and retain the best by developing their EQ. Sebastien firmly believes in action, and the tools he is using and sharing are derived from 4 areas of his life: - His business experience as a corporate executive - Intensive mountaineering and rock climbing (7a onsight and more than 50 alpine routes) - Teaching and coaching prisoners - Daily meditations for more than 5 years

Copyright 2006 by Progress-U Limited