Forget state-of-the-art IT systems and over-the-top marketing campaigns. Often, the secret to improving a company’s productivity and skyrocketing its growth lies in its people — more specifically, the managers who understand the organization’s vision, motivate their teams and make things happen. And research supports this statement: A study conducted by Stanford’s Graduate School of Business found that replacing a poor manager with a high-performing one boosted team productivity by 12%. Separately, in the case of a large U.S. manufacturing firm, managers who demonstrated strong communication skills and encouraged innovation and career development yielded a 50% increase in sales. Based on these numbers, organizations can’t afford not to invest in management development, especially in times of trouble or opportunity. "You have to find the pain," said Michele Isaacs, vice president of talent and development at Thomson Reuters. "You have to think, ‘What is the problem with the organization that I can help solve by developing capabilities?'" After analyzing more than 100 peer-reviewed studies, a team of psychologists at Mind Gym identified seven core talents that set good managers apart from the rest. Now, these seven talents make up the core of management development programs within some of the world’s leading companies. If you want to take your skills to the next level — or implement a powerful management development program at your organization — focus your attention on these seven talents: Relate Definition: Build strong relationships with team members. Those relationships determine how teams perform and how they interpret and respond to their managers. Impact: This talent stands out above the rest because it affects the other six talents. Team members who have good relationships with their managers perform better, are more innovative, and are better at responding to feedback. How to hone this talent: Be clear about what the team is here to do. Go beyond goals — establish a team purpose and identity to inspire people. At the same time, set boundaries. Appropriate relationships require a balance between being too friendly and too distant. Coach Definition: Guide and enable team members to grow and become the best they can be. Impact: The Stanford study also showed that the single most important difference between poor and great managers is how much they coach their teams. Research has found that managers who coach can contribute to a 12% increase in productivity, 21% higher revenue, and an estimated 700% return on investment within their organizations. How to hone this talent: Find motivation in the long-term benefits of coaching. Believe in your team and their potential for growth. Foster a learning environment, ask insightful questions, give specific feedback and note progress and successes. Energy Definition: Exude positivity, hope, and passion. Impact: Energized teams are creative, collaborative, efficient, and better at problem-solving. And positive energy spreads through organizations, increasing and multiplying performance throughout. How to hone this talent: Tap into the five "Ps": Purpose (help your team visualize the ideal outcome); passion (be authentic, optimistic and engaging); present (tune into what’s happening now); positivity (provide affirmation and hope); and progress (celebrate the mini-milestones). Innovate Definition: Good managers are "innovation nourishers" who develop a community and culture of innovation through practical steps and attitudinal shifts. Impact: A culture of innovation allows teams to explore, connect, and experiment. In turn, new discoveries and efficiencies help push the organization forward. How to hone this talent: Build innovation time into your team’s week. Welcome all ideas and help shape them into something viable. Test, experiment and revise plans, and then if it makes sense, put those plans into action. Thrive Definition: Thriving is all about high vitality and growth. Organizations need to provide managers with the tools to take control of their well-being and the time to get re-energized. Impact: When managers are recharging and thriving, they are more productive and satisfied, and they also encourage their teams to follow suit. How to hone this talent: Choose your thoughts carefully — a positive mindset and self-compassion are key. Notice what’s made you feel good in the past and make it part of your life moving forward. Surround yourself with supportive people, create good habits and build connections with others. Direct Definition: Leadership research supports a management style that mobilizes people towards common, collaborative goals. Good managers communicate the company vision and set a clear direction. Impact: According to a study by McKinsey, clear direction is one of three factors that drives superior business performance (the other two are accountability and a culture of trust). How to hone this talent: Share the organizational vision in a way that employees can understand it, make it their own and truly believe in it. Constantly shift perspectives so you have a full view of where your team is going—everything from the big picture to the small details. Execute Definition: Good managers have the ability to effectively execute. They deliver on time and meet (or exceed) expectations. Impact: Top companies want managers who have the ability to execute. Being able to follow through and deliver on goals is necessary for an organization to make progress and succeed. How to hone this talent: Find your focus so you can use your time and energy wisely. There’s a difference between being busy and getting things done. Set up an accountability system for your team, and take responsibility for your actions, too. Whether an organization is struggling or thriving, management development programs have a major impact on productivity, innovation and the bottom line. Case in point: In 2013, Unilever established a management development program centered on the seven core talents and designed for a specific audience of managers. "Clearly it’s important to invest in your big-bet talent, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of your wider population," said Nick Pope, former global learning director at Unilever. "It’s important to provide these development opportunities to everyone." Three months later, the company surveyed a selection of those who had completed the program. The results? 100% of respondents said they learned new knowledge and skills, and 96% had successfully applied those new skills to their jobs. They believed the program was a worthwhile investment (100%) and that it improved their performance (90.5%) and engagement (82.5%). Fostering these seven talents positively impacts employee productivity, retention and revenue, all factors that have a meaningful impact on managers’ career growth and your company’s bottom line. Sebastian Bailey is a bestselling author and the co-founder of Mind Gym, a corporate learning consultancy that transforms the way people think, act and behave at work and at home. His newest book, "Mind Gym: Achieve More by Thinking Differently," was released in September 2014. The book gives readers actionable ways, based on years of research, to change their way of thinking to achieve more, live longer and build better relationships. Connect with Bailey on Twitter @DrSebBailey. If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our daily newsletter on being a better, smarter leader. Related Posts: Harnessing the power of your hidden leaders Celebrate mistakes: Creating a culture of forgiveness If not the annual performance appraisal, then what? Are you the wrong type of "engaged" leader? The new one-minute manager 7 essential talents of effective managers originally published by SmartBlogs

No longer are we tethered to a meeting time and place for strategic planning. New and seasoned school leaders are often asked by their communities and Boards to facilitate a strategic planning process that results in a document that guides the organizations work and deliverables. The logistics associated with bringing people together for strategic plan development and the production of static documents is an antiquated and ineffective approach to continuous improvement. The emerging needs and accelerated rates of change are rendering traditional approaches to strategic planning obsolete. Today, school districts need more dynamic, interactive, and flexible planning processes that generate support and a common mental model for the vision and mission. Social networking tools like Twitter allow for internal and external stakeholders to become engage with ongoing strategic planning and continuous improvement efforts. The input gathering, idea generation, and learning conversations can occur in virtual environments that allow for two-way dialogue between stakeholders and school leaders. Furthermore, the dissemination and engagement around goals, priorities, and metrics is done efficiently using contemporary technology tools as well. Think of ways your school and/or district can use social networking tools to engage stakeholders in a structured and effective strategic planning process that is transparent and enduring. Luvelle Brown has served as superintendent of the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) in Ithaca, New York since January 2011. Prior to arriving in Ithaca, Dr. Brown served as a school CIO, Executive Director of the Division of School Improvement, teacher, assistant principal and principal. Brown has received multiple national and state recognitions including the 2014 eSchool News Tech-Savvy Superintendent Award, and was recognized by the National School Boards Association as a "20-to-Watch" in 2014. He is also co-author of ThinkTweets: 100 Transformative Tweets for Educators. ***** Tech Tips is a content collaboration between SmartBrief Education and GreyED Solutions. Have a tech tip to share? Contact us at techtips@greyedsolutions.com Miss a Tech Tip? Visit our Tech Tip archive. *****     Related Posts: No Related Posts Tech Tip: Strategic planning with social networking tools originally published by SmartBlogs

As the top-selling sedan in America for 13 years in a row, Toyota’s Camry had a problem: Its popularity earned it a reputation for being boring. So with the Camry’s "bold new" redesign, Toyota’s social team developed a campaign to change the conversation. In her presentation at SocialMedia.org’s Member Meeting, Toyota Director of Social Media Monica Peterson shares the steps they took to launch the new Camry in social and change their audience’s perceptions. Here are three key points from her case study: Your campaign objectives need to match your social objectives. To start, Monica’s team aligned their objectives to specific platforms and developed a portfolio for where they would allocate budget and resources to match. Then, they targeted three subcategories of audiences looking for styling, tech or performance. Take advantage of the things people already do naturally. For example, people love to brag about buying a new car on social. So Monica’s team worked with dealers to help them take photos of new car owners with their Camry and email it to them to share with their social followings. Measure what matters. Monica admits that it’s easy for social teams to pay attention to metrics that make them look good but have little impact on the business. She recommends focusing on numbers your C-suite can relate to and understand to help move resources and budget your way. Watch Monica’s full presentation below: Check out her presentation deck here. Related Posts: Andy’s Answers: How Keurig earns its customers’ love Andy’s Answers: How Dunkin’ Donuts learned to celebrate its fans Andy’s Answers: Why EMC had to rein in its "Social Sprawl" Andy’s Answers: Olive Garden’s 5 steps to turn around their social customer service Solving social media ROI with effective measurement and strategy Andy’s Answers: How Toyota launched the new Camry through social media originally published by SmartBlogs

SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter. How does your organization deal with "bad behavior"? We immediately take action and correct/eliminate it: 25.4% We deal with egregious cases but tolerate it otherwise: 41.01% We avoid dealing with it and hope it goes away: 21.16% We have a culture that promotes and rewards it: 12.43% Fix Bad Behavior Fast. There appears to be way too much tolerance of bad behavior with 75% of you fessing up to varying levels of tolerance. The cost of such behavior in terms of productivity, morale, and turnover can be staggering. People don’t like working in organizations where bad behavior is condoned - much less encouraged. I know you can’t change the entire culture on your own but you can start the movement in your own department. Stamp out bad behavior as soon as you see it. That’s the only way things change for the better. Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS, author of "Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results" and "One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership." Related Posts: How well do you differentiate performance in performance reviews? How well do you push your own thinking before involving others? How effectively do content marketing efforts (blogs, white papers, etc.) drive action by your customers? Where does the biggest threat to your organization come from? How important is a SWOT analysis in your strategic planning efforts? How does your organization deal with "bad behavior"? originally published by SmartBlogs

Meetings at your company aren’t going away. If anything, that much-maligned beast is growing in prominence, thanks to the ease of gathering people via technology. This Harvard Business Review article found that on average, executives spend more than two days each week in meetings. Outside the executive offices, everyone else gets to join in the fun as well: 15% of an entire organization’s time is spent in meetings. Many often decry, "Do away with meetings! They’re useless." It’s an understandable reaction; so many of us have suffered through poorly run meetings that seemed designed as torture devices rather than as a means to get to get work done. It’s only natural to want to eradicate something which causes such grief and is so unproductive. Most meeting leaders don’t want their meetings to be tortuous. You’ve probably attended plenty of meetings that followed the "Running Effective Meetings" format: meet only when it’s warranted, create an agenda, and get the correct players in the room. And still, these gatherings are a bust. What gives? As a former corporate trainer whose main role was to facilitate the flow of conversation, I offer this observation: One of the reasons meetings fail is because the meeting leaders don’t manage the dynamics of conversational flow. To reverse the death-by-meeting trend, start with this question: Do you want the meeting participants to expand possibilities or to come to closure? Your answer will dictate which conversational path the follow. Most meetings will require a discussion that uses both expansion and contraction; it’s important for the person running the meeting to communicate the expectations so meeting participants can properly contribute. Here’s how to sort out the two differing conversational paths and use them to improve the meetings you lead. If the primary purpose of the meeting (or agenda item) is to expand possibilities, the conversational flow will be "divergent" in nature. Divergent conversation employs a fluid, dynamic vibe. If expansion is your goal, the discussion should be designed to explore opinions, share ideas, gather data and/or brainstorm. You may have noticed that some meeting participants are wired to expand possibilities until the cows come home. These personality types love to spitball ideas and create "what if?" scenarios. The benefit of divergent conversation is that it allows for the free exploration of ideas that lead to breakthroughs. If that’s what you need during your meeting, let people know that’s what you’re looking for. If not managed properly, divergent conversations can lead to meetings that meander. This creates frustration for attendees who think the meeting objective is to move a process forward. Meetings also present excellent opportunities to make decisions, and the biggest part of decision-making is coming to closure. If the main role of the meeting (or agenda item) is to come to closure, you are leading a "convergent" conversation. Convergent discussions are built around consensus-building, narrowing of choices and decision-making because they create focus and bring ideas together. Just as some people are wired to create endless possibilities, others strive to boil it down to the bottom line. These "get it done" types are constantly striving to come to closure, often to the detriment of exploratory conversation. They have a much lower threshold of tolerance for "blue sky" conversation and may blunt the creative process in their rush to conclusion. When people with an affinity for closure drive too hard for decisions, those who enjoy the creative process feel shut down and devalued. Think back on the most productive meetings you attend. What was the balance of divergent and convergent conversation? Effective meeting leaders state upfront the type of conversation they’re looking for with statements such as, "Today, we’re going to focus on gathering lots of ideas. Then, next week, we’ll narrow down our options" or "We’ve already invested a few weeks brainstorming options, so for today’s meeting we’re going to work on narrowing the list down." Meetings, when well-run, do have a valid place in organizational life. They can even be invigorating, if properly led. It takes a skilled meeting leader—one aware not only of how to organize a meeting, but also about the ebb and flow of human interaction—to create a successful gathering of the minds. Jennifer V. Miller is a leadership development consultant who’s writing and digital training materials help business professionals lead themselves and others towards greater career success. Follow her on LinkedIn and download her free copy of "16 Discussion Questions to Help You Lead Better Meetings." Related Posts: Why all these meetings? Be a better leader with this simple planning method Getting to meetings that matter: A Q-and-A with "Will There Be Donuts?" author David Pearl Are your meetings derailed by trivial matters? Are you the wrong type of "engaged" leader? Lead better meetings with these 2 conversational paths originally published by SmartBlogs

SmartBlog on Education will highlight summer learning and enrichment for educators during June. In this blog post, educator Jim Dillon shares the benefits of a retreat and challenges educators to have some fun this summer. All educators agree upon one thing: They don’t have enough time to do their job the way they want to. They are always running out of time and automatically assume that any downtime is a waste of time. There is always a new program to implement, curriculum to learn, a policy to put in place and a system to establish. As soon as one initiative is up and underway there is a new one lurking around the corner ready to take its place. No wonder veteran educators have difficulty getting enthused over new things that are supposed to dramatically increase student achievement or solve a chronic problem. In many ways, these veterans are right to wait out the "new," however, this initiative fatigue only provides false support to the idea that meaningful change is just a fantasy. Most often the frenzied attempts to change only make it more difficult to re-imagine schools or education from the status quo. Summer too often becomes the perfect time for packing in professional development workshops, trainings, thereby, feeding the initiative machinery by filling up this downtime. No wonder many educators, therefore, seize the summer time to do anything but think, read or reflect upon anything remotely connected to their jobs. I would like to propose an alternative approach to the summer: Embrace downtime by going on a retreat. A retreat is designed to renew and replenish a person’s heart and mind. Educators can retreat alone or together; they can do it formally or informally. A retreat is an affirmation of the concept that true change comes from people not programs and that the best use of an educator’s time might be taking time off. Here are some guidelines for making a meaningful retreat: Take "change" off the table. Remove the expectation that anything has to change in September. We only decrease our learning when we are fearful of not learning or feel like we have to learn to perform. We have become so accustomed to learning with something always hanging over our heads that we forget what it feels like to learn for its own sake. We need to remember how good it feels to learn without someone trying to get us to learn. Believe in seeds. Ideas are like seeds. They are powerful and will grow in us if we let them. Too often we take an idea and immediately try to translate it into something practical and doable. The form we try to give the idea is based on how we saw the world before we have entertained a new idea. Follow your heart and mind. Let yourself become intrigued with a question or new way of looking at the world. Don’t rush through a paragraph or sentence that you read. Follow your curiosity down an unfamiliar path and don’t worry about getting lost — trust that you will find a way home — you will. Let yourself get lost for a while in an unfamiliar place. Uncertainty and doubt are considered villains in a world where time can’t be wasted. They are too often also viewed as signs of weakness. We create a closed system of thinking when we think we know it all. These systems are often efficient and get the job done but too often overlook or ignore many important ideas or experiences that ultimately would expand our vision. Let the dots connect themselves. One of my favorite Steve Jobs sayings is that we can only connect the dots in retrospect not in the present. Many times experiences that seem unrelated in the moment come together over the years in unexpected ways. Too often we miss opportunities because we reject experiences that don’t seem to have relevance to the task at hand. "Collect the dots" and trust that they will connect themselves over time. Have fun playing around. Fun and play should be false anathemas when it comes to education. We only lend credence to this when we ourselves forget to play with ideas or fail to let them excite us. Students learn more from our spark of passion and enthusiasm for what we are teaching than merely from its content. Tell your students about "How I spent my summer vacation." We forget to let our students know that we are still learning. One of the best ways to get student cooperation and participation is to tell them you need their help in trying out something you learned. Share your learning journey; tell them how you let yourself get confused or how you questioned a firmly held belief. Believe that you are the change. When you let yourself retreat in order to move forward, you are telling yourself that you make the difference in your students lives more than a program, curriculum or any initiative. Education should be a shared experience of learning with the educator and the student playing different roles governed by the recognition and respect for each other’s desire to learn and grow. In short, the best way to teach is to learn together. A retreat can allow an educator to move forward in ways that cannot be predicted or managed. That is a good thing! It can inject new ideas and life into a job that sadly can often become just a job. Educators owe to themselves and their students to find the time for their own learning. Dare I say it? Have some fun this summer! Jim Dillon (@dillon_jim) has been an educator for over 35 years including 20 as a school administrator. He is currently the director of the Center for Leadership and Bullying Prevention. He has written three books, Peaceful School Bus (Hazelden), No Place for Bullying (Corwin) and Reframing Bullying Prevention to Build Stronger School Communities (Corwin). He writes a blog at www.jim-dillon.com. If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s email list for more stories about education. We offer newsletters covering educational leadership, special education and more. Related Posts: Channeling Goldilocks: Trying to get it "just right" Leading with our own hearts and minds Maintaining balance The perfect scenario? Redefining smart Retreat to advance originally published by SmartBlogs

Dusek and Hughes discuss front-end sales at FMI Connect The shopping list is a common tool for consumers, who often shop for groceries with a focused and definite goal in mind. And while getting them to stray from buying only the items on their lists can be a difficult task, it is certainly not an impossible one. But are retailers and manufacturers really doing all they can to inspire impulse buys? According to Bill Dusek, managing director at Dechert-Hampe & Co., and Ron Hughes, senior manager of shopper strategy and innovation at The Coca-Cola Company, who covered the topic at FMI Connect in Chicago this week, there is more that can be done to spur shoppers to put those last-minute items in their baskets. Last year, front-end sales accounted for about $6.4 billion of the total spend at supermarkets, according Dusek, and beverages, confections and magazines mostly drive front-end sales for food retailers across formats. "The front end is a big, big business," he said. "You have to manage that space appropriately." According to Dusek, the so-called "power categories" that drive front-end sales are defined by their household penetration, how frequently they’re purchased, the degree to which they are impulse buys and their dollar share of front-end sales, and determining the best-selling items at the front-end is key to driving impulse purchases there. For retailers looking to get the most out of front-end sales, efforts like eye-tracking are often helpful, but the most important thing, Dusek said, is for retailers to understand that every shopper is different and that creating an effective front end is an ongoing process that must change with consumer tastes. One of the biggest things to keep in mind, Dusek and Hughes said, is self-checkout, which is under-merchandized by many retailers, who ultimately miss the opportunity to make those last-minute sales to shoppers. Overall, they said that retailers looking to find the right balance at the front end should look to those "power categories" to create excitement around the checkout process, remember that display innovation is a critical piece of the puzzle, incorporate additive technology that is not disruptive to consumers’ shopping experiences, collaborate with consumer packaged goods manufacturers to ensure that the front-end design is customer-centric, employ a front-end department manager and incorporate marketing tactics that are targeted and relevant to shoppers. "Because everything is highly impulsive, any time you get people’s attention you’re going to enhance your opportunity to get them to drop that one more item in the basket," Dusek said. For Hughes, the collaboration between retailers and manufacturers is the most important part of maximizing front-end sales. He said that front-end merchandising must strike a balance between what’s right for the retailer, what’s right for the manufacturer and, most importantly, what’s right for the shopper. "It’s a real give-and-take," he said. In the self-checkout realm, Hughes said he sees a lot of room for improvement, especially considering that self checkout was originally designed with an eye toward operation and not an eye toward merchandising opportunities. What has resulted is a common strategy he referred to as "quick-fix merchandising," in which retailers just tack on products at checkout without really considering an overall strategy. Developing an effective front-end strategy requires taking a retailer’s business needs and shopper insights and looking for ways to innovate, he said. "Your solution needs to be compact, but highly visible…if you want to attract that shopper’s attention," Hughes said. Achieving innovation in the front end requires a collaboration between retailers and manufacturers, he said, and retailers and manufacturers should work together to create a front-end landscape with a "distinct identity." An optimized front-end display includes modern visuals, framing, digital or mobile messaging, lighting that highlights potential impulse-buy items and clarity. "The idea is to keep that shopper in the shopping mode longer," Hughes said. However, he added that it is also important to keep in mind that front-end displays should never overwhelm shoppers, especially when it comes to features like LED lighting or digital message displays. "It has to be done in a way that makes the product the hero," Hughes said. "Shopper marketing must be targeted, it must be relevant….It’s a shopper’s world and we must fit in it." __________________________________________________ If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s email list for more stories about the food and beverage industry. We offer 14 newsletters covering the industry from restaurants to food manufacturing. Related Posts: Food retailers find allies in social media followers Food retailers come together at the dinner table during FMI Connect Experts: Using mobile technology to enhance the dining and shopping experience How the food industry is making sense of big data Retailers, manufacturers ride the wave of gluten-free Retailers, manufacturers look to strike the right balance on the front end originally published by SmartBlogs

Given that the internet has become a stable, ever-present tool in any information-seeker’s arsenal, your company’s Web presence plays a key role in the overall success of your brand. Thus, it’s in every brand’s best interest to create a positive online customer experience, and the right amount of interaction is one of the most dynamic and effective ways to do so. By taking an interactive route to connect with your customers, you’ll provide more enhanced forms of communication while receiving more nuanced feedback from your users, thereby establishing a win-win situation for business and customers alike. Strive for engagement For better or for worse, the internet is a springboard from which users are constantly craving interaction and feedback. In order to drive interest and engagement, internet users need an elevated experience that provides more than just words on a page. Whether your content is supplemented by photos, videos, infographics, live chats, and the like, you’ll provide your visitorwith a layered experience that actively appeals to the propensities of the modern day internet user. By providing your community with relevant written content supplemented by engaging media, your efforts will be met with gratitude from your readers in the form of increased retention and time spent on-site. The experiential model In terms of customer service, it’s a known fact that a poor service experience will generate more talk and circulate to more listeners than a good one. It’s important to approach these possible negative encounters with a stealthy damage control plan in place in order to alleviate potential word-of-mouth blows to your brand. In these instances, transparency and assuming responsibility are key. By smartly communicating in a direct and straightforward manner, your brand’s ethos will be elevated in the minds of consumers. Apologize for any misdoings while communicating that you have genuinely considered their comments and concerns, and follow up with an actionable response. Whether you investigate further into a potentially recurring issue or offer the customer at hand a discounted service or consolation, allow your output to speak not only to this specific customer, but also to all other audience members. By taking a publicly active stance to provide for a better experience, you’ll be able to put offsetting comments to rest while positioning your brand as vocal, progressive, and transparent. Foster loyalty In our age of digital impersonalization, it can be difficult to distinguish corporate marketing from genuine customer appreciation. By defining your target audience’s needs, wants, and concerns and by tailoring your content and interaction around that, you’ll be able to distinguish your brand on a personal level that will set it apart from competitors. Allow your channels of interaction (including but not limited to inbound marketing and social spheres) to take an individualized tone and style that will speak to the humanity of your users in the midst of potential technological barriers. Customers value trust and thoughtfulness in a company’s culture, and these opportunities for individuation can lead your brand to the forefront on your community messages alone. Take the time and effort to show appreciation and consideration for your customers, as loyalty is a key tenet in fostering thriving and long-lasting relationships. Community matters In the same vein as building customer loyalty, your ultimate long term goal should be to establish an enduring community of like-minded individuals that share a common affiliation with your brand. While a community or marketing manager can indeed be the direct personal link to individual customers, his/her job should also include more widespread social outreach that will call for participation not only with the brand itself, but also between community members. User-generated content in the form of open-ended group chats, contests, and community events (online and offline alike) will contribute to the resources available on behalf of your brand to your community as a whole. In all, customers want to know that they aren’t alone on the web. By crafting mediums that call for participation and engagement with others, you can offer tailored content, enrich the scope of your brand, and establish an elevated level of rapport between community members that will remain in the hearts and minds of users. By providing your customers with a variety of methods of interaction, you’ll be setting the stage for meaningful and useful engagement that will ensure that your company’s messages are communicated effectively and to the best of its abilities. Be sure to keep interactive elements in mind when dealing with community outreach, as they are essential building blocks to establishing the best version of your brand that it can possibly be. Ben Shwartz is the vice president of marketing for Spot.IM, the first "everywhere" social network. He loves to buy and sell websites, and immerse himself in anything and everything in the realm of online marketing. Related Posts: Andy’s Answers: How Dell engages online fans and critics Food retailers find allies in social media followers 3 UGC secrets that drive sales, build brands and create community Good values spark good customer service Leading through change: Optimize your company culture to meet consumer needs How thoughtful interaction will win customers over originally published by SmartBlogs

Path to Workforce is SmartBrief Education’s vision of college and career readiness, encompassing K-12, adult learners, career changers, non-traditional students and those who forgo a traditional four-year college experience. Stay tuned for more #Path2W coverage, including expert insights and reader feedback. The goal of every educator, and the purpose of our education system, is to prepare students for success in learning and life. This includes preparing students for successfully joining the workforce. Yet, recently, young adults have been making headlines as studies like the recent Educational Testing Service’s report find they are ill-prepared for the working world. Research increasingly shows that students are leaving college without the essential social-emotional skills required to thrive in a business setting. Though employers have always valued skills like collaboration, patience and communication, our traditional education system seems to sidestep their importance. Conventional academic subjects, such as language and math remain critical; however, the case for cultivating essential life skills and character traits early in a child’s educational track gains more supporting evidence as the business community struggles to find qualified candidates who work well with others, are honest, respectful and communicate effectively, Academic knowledge is just one aspect of the foundation children need to be successful in school, in life and in their careers. Business leaders have been vocal about the challenges they are facing to find young candidates who possess what they refer to as "soft skills," or skills that allow people to interact harmoniously with others. According to a 2014 study by Bentley University, 61% of business leaders believe these types of interpersonal and social-emotional skills are the most important skills for young employees to have, yet 63% gave recent college graduates a "C" grade or lower on soft skills. As with skill development in all subject areas, preschool is the best place to begin nurturing social-emotional skills that help children establish the right foundation. In fact, a recent report by the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child recommends that all early-childhood programs balance academic learning with emotional and social development. At Primrose Schools, social-emotional skills are an integral component of our curriculum and are fostered through robust life skills and character development programs. Children participate in daily classroom experiences that nurture life skills and character traits such as being responsible for the environment, teamwork, respect and kindness. Lessons are presented in a variety of formats, including class discussions, art projects, puppet play, games, role playing and experiential giving projects, ensuring every child develops a comprehensive understanding of each concept. Though these activities are designed specifically for the developmental abilities of pre-K age groups, life skills and character development can be integrated into more advanced curriculum as children progress through grade levels. It’s both rewarding and inspiring to see children as young as three years old not only embrace the concept of giving without expectation, but also find joy in it. It’s also delightful to see them happily "clean up" their classrooms and put away their toys with a sense of pride. Feedback from elementary-school teachers and parents alike reinforces that children who experience our life skills and character development program display key social and emotional traits, including acting with responsibility, being more considerate of their peers, following directions respectfully, and even demonstrating more honesty and compassion than typical of their age group. The life skills and character traits we’re nurturing are the same ones identified as lacking in young adults today by businesses struggling to find ready candidates. It’s no coincidence that social-emotional skills are gaining more attention now, as individuals reared in a time of digital distractions, decreased personal interactions and increased globalization begin to enter the workforce. Never before have these skills been more important, and yet never before have they required such a concerted effort to instill in young children. We must take a more purposeful and intentional approach to integrating social-emotional skill development into education. Life skills and character development lessons should start during the first five years we know to be so critical for early brain development, and they should continue to be nurtured through all grade levels. By ensuring a whole-child approach to education, we can encourage and enhance children’s cognitive and social-emotional development, helping them to become well-rounded adults along the way that prepares them for success in school, life and the workforce. Jo Kirchner is president and CEO of Primrose Schools, a national accredited early education and care provider serving 46,000-plus children in more than 300 schools across 25 states. She is an active board member of Reach Out and Read, AdvancED, ReadyNation and the Early Care and Education Consortium (ECEC). If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s email list for more stories about education. We offer newsletters covering career and technical education, educational leadership, math education and more.  Related Posts: How is the U.S. faring in the great #skillsrace? How making expands students’ visions of themselves You can’t spell "college and career" without CTE Educator innovation: Re-Making teaching and learning #SBSTEM Pathways: Q&A with Kimberly Tobey, NACCTEP Raising a ready workforce: The missing curriculum component originally published by SmartBlogs

Creating your own unique, high-quality Facebook content can be a very time-consuming job. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be, as Facebook isn’t just about your content. It’s also about sharing other people’s content. After all, a community is formed by sharing of ideas and messages, not just people and organizations talking at each other. Many managers of high performing Facebook pages share content from other Pages every day—and see big results. Because curated content helps fill in the holes in your content calendar, it should map to your strategy, be high-quality and fit your page (message, type of content, etc.) While each audience is different and you need to know what will resonate with yours, these five simple and easy ways to find content will work for any page manager looking to successfully repurpose content for maximum effect. Streamline content curation It can be just as time consuming to find great content as it is to create it if the process is not automated in some way. Luckily, this is made easier than it seems with the help of several tools on the market such as Hootsuite, Buffer, Crowdtangle and ActionSprout (of which, in full disclosure, I am co-founder) that will show you those posts that are taking off on their Pages—which often is a good sign that they’ll work well on your page, too. Share the content or use these success cases as a way to brainstorm ideas for creative posts of your own. Boost supporter engagement The Facebook News Feed does not slow down. There’s a lot going on, making it easy to miss something important. Imagine how your supporters would react if you could find the best content related to your mission on Facebook, and consistently deliver it to them, helping them not miss out on important news, events or memes? Everyone wants to be the first of their friends to like, comment and share the hottest content on Facebook, and your supporters are no different. Doing so will help transform your Facebook page into a source of solid and relevant information, which will boost engagement and reach. It enhances trust with your audience and your credibility, turning you into an expert in your nonprofit niche. Take for example this top trending image: Or this article: Illustrate your value It’s all about becoming a valuable resource. When you can dig up great articles that your audience is interested in—regardless of the source—you’ll earn abundant respect. Building trust and credibility doesn’t happen overnight. You’ll have to post great content for a while to gain a reputation of quality with your audience. Add your two cents! When sharing a piece of content, add value to the conversation: • What did you like about the piece? • What was most important? • What did you learn? • What do you hope others will learn? • Or pose a question. Adding your own thoughts can be a great springboard to start a conversation and encourage followers to become more engaged. Be sure to respond to folks in the comments and encourage them to contribute. Build digital karma Online, what goes around often comes around. Want to get noticed by a powerhouse in your ecosystem? Share their stuff with your audience over the next few months and always add your two cents. While it’s not a sure thing that they’ll notice your efforts and repay them, without a doubt it works more often than not. How Often Should You Share Other People’s Content? While your audience really determines the ideal original content to curated content ratio, as demonstrated to you through analytics and tracking, a popular formula that works well is Give, Give, Give, Ask (as popularized by bestselling author, Gary Vaynerchuk). Let’s break down that perspective: • Give (Others): Share a great blog article full of information that enriches the community from a heavy-hitting website and generates support for your organization. Don’t ask for anything in sharing this. Just add to the conversation. • Give (Yours): Post/repost a native video created by one of your followers. It’s funny, inspirational and/or makes a point. Again, don’t ask for anything, just share. • Give (Others): Share a high-quality image taken by an independent photographer supporting the greater community. Just share with your perspective. • Ask (Yours): Create an original post with an ask, or curated call-to-action, to generate a pre-determined response - such as e-mail address for a newsletter. The formula above creates a sense of sharing, contribution and helpfulness that will take you a long way in growing engagement. And that usually means 60% to 80% of your posts will be sharing other people’s content rather than posting your own. While not every organization has the bandwidth to create 100% of their content 100% of the time, luckily the very nature of social media is about sharing and participating in a greater ecosystem. Pair these tips and tactics with analytics to better understand what types of content engage your audience, and then create a cycle of content curation that you consistently fine-tune to maximize audience engagement. Shawn Kemp is co-founder of ActionSprout, where he helps power people’s ability to create lasting change by connecting organizations with their supporters. Related Posts: Don't be a Facebook failure: Unlock the viral potential of social media through contests, comments and sharing Why you should never take a vacation from Facebook 8 ways to increase fan engagement with your Facebook posts How to attract Facebook friends without sending a single friend request 3 ways restaurants can be more engaging on Facebook 5 steps to sharing other people’s content originally published by SmartBlogs

(Photo: Flickr user Jason Howie) Social media has become an important platform for supermarkets to engage with customers, but retailers need to learn to balance the control they have historically exercised over their communications against the power that their employees and customers wield on sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest. In many cases, it is the customers who are diving the conversation, and often it is to the benefit of supermarket operators, according to three food retailers on a panel on social media at the Food Marketing Institute’s FMI Connect show in Chicago. Hy-Vee, the regional supermarket chain based in West Des Moines, Iowa, has a strong customer following for the Chinese food it offers in its stores. These fans have coined the term "Hy-Chi" for the hot, prepared offering, and several years ago began posting messages on social media using that term with the hash tag #HyChi. These posts were often accompanied by descriptions of customers’ cravings for the food or the satisfaction it delivers. This behavior — unprompted by Hy-Vee — spurred the chain to develop a marketing campaign around it. "Customers were doing it already, so we just put it in a marketing campaign," Nathan T. Wright, digital marketing and innovation leader at Hy-Vee, said at the presentation. "We adopted behaviors customers were doing already." Hy-Vee launched a photo contest using the hashtag #HyChi and began releasing secret deals for #HyChi on its social media channels. The efforts drove a huge increase in use of the hashtag, and helped build awareness for the brand without being intrusive, Wright explained. "We don’t want to interrupt their lives; we just want to be a part of it," he said. Hy-Vee operates a social media "war room" where a team of associates monitor social media activity and engage with customers through social media and other channels. Because of the high level of autonomy at the chain, each of its 235-plus stores has its own social media, supported by headquarters. Similarly, Associated Wholesale Grocers, the cooperative wholesaler based in Kansas City, Kan., found that sometimes the enthusiasm of consumers can manifest itself in unexpected ways on social media. When a customer posted an unflattering description of the ground beef from one of the company’s member stores on a private social media site, AWG was alerted by another customer who was concerned on the store’s behalf and wanted the store to defend itself. Without addressing the original post directly, the store shot a video with a smartphone explaining how it grinds its beef fresh in its stores and posted it online. It quickly became a sensation. "It was a huge success," said Kate Farrow, marketing manager at AWG. "It was just a video showing how they make their ground beef, and people loved it." AWG maintains a Customer Connect Center — dubbed C3 — staffed by four digital specialists who assist member retailers with things like their websites and social media. The company also has enjoyed success promoting its private labels on social media, and it uses the feedback it gets on those platforms to help it deliver the right products to market, Farrow explained. Maria Brous, director of media and community relations at Publix Super Markets, Lakeland, Fla., also noted that followers will often rally to support the company on social media. "Your fans are out there, and they will come to your defense," she said. Publix seeks to replicate on social media the high level of service it is known for in its stores, Brous explained. The chain now employs seven full time workers to manage its social media channels, all trained "to speak the company language" when it comes to providing customer service. She stressed that supermarkets who are not paying attention to social media may be doing their customers a disservice. "They are having a conversation with or without us," she said. "If you are not on social media, you are missing a whole world right now." Other advice from the panel: Retailers need to educate their customers about their social media channels so they know where to find them. "You can’t just build it and hope people will come," said Farrow of AWG. Social media needs to have shared ownership among departments in an organization, said Brous of Publix. "Social media can’t be run in a silo," she said. Retailers need to remember that pre-scheduled marketing posts on social media might need to be canceled when serious issues are being discussed. "You don’t want to be putting a marketing message out there when you are responding to a crisis," said Wright of Hy-Vee. Susan Borra, senior vice president of communications at FMI, who moderated the panel, noted that the association offers access to extensive research on social media compiled by the Coca-Cola Retailing Research Council at ccrrc.org. __________________________________________________ If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s email list for more stories about the food and beverage industry. We offer 14 newsletters covering the industry from restaurants to food manufacturing. Related Posts: Retailers, manufacturers look to strike the right balance on the front end How the food industry is making sense of big data How to engage millennials through customization and curation Meijer, Unilever execs: Capture today’s consumer with trust, evolved marketing How Sprouts uses customer analytics to improve marketing and loyalty Food retailers find allies in social media followers originally published by SmartBlogs

In my capacities as executive coach and professional development provider, I regularly prepare presentations for live and Web audiences. Whether the focus is on content or sales, I know the importance of a strong presentation in delivering value to clients and promoting my business. We have all attended great presentations that left us wanting more. And then there were the ones that gave us the itch to get up or log out. Oftentimes, the difference between the two talks has nothing to do with the presenter’s experience or content knowledge. Rather, it came down to knowing their audiences and finding ways to connect with them early and often. Identifying your audience allows you to be as precise as possible with your message. Ask yourself who will be in the room and what prior knowledge they bring to the conversation. What are their challenges and how will your product, service, or content help them overcome them? Keep that in mind as you prepare your language and examples. Recite.com If you are not sure who will be in attendance, then you will have to rely on your sixth sense. As you begin your talk, you may choose to informally survey the audience so that you can keep their specific needs in mind as you go. If you turned out to be way off during planning, acknowledge that so that it becomes clear as to why you chose to shift from your game plan (assuming that there is a slide presentation, handout, or something similar that was developed for the presentation.) There are a number of other steps that you can take that will help make your presentation shine. Prepare as far in advance as possible. Get your core presentation in place early on so that you can spend as much time as you need tweaking and editing. As you learn more about your topic (the best presenters keep learning, all the way to the end and beyond!) you may want to make modifications. The same is true as your audience becomes clearer and other logistics settle as well (such as the final duration that you’ll have for this workshop.) The readier you are in advance, the easier it’ll be to make those changes. Keep things clear and simple. It can be tempting to spend meaningful time adding bells and whistles to your presentation, in the form of cool graphics, transitions, sounds, and the like. Keep in mind that these people are not coming to listen to you become of your animations but because of your content. Sure, beautiful slides and graphics will add to what you have to say, but they will not make the sale. Review again and again. Another benefit of an early start is that you can let things settle in your mind. I rarely present anything without the benefit of a good night’s sleep. By stepping away you become less attached to the material, which creates more objectivity. Maybe that quotes list or data that you worked so hard to develop really does not add so much after all. The farther you are from the initial effort, the more willing you will be to let go of the useless or distracting content. Distribute for feedback. Once you are generally satisfied with what you have put together, circulate the presentation to a few pairs of trustworthy eyes for feedback. Maybe they will catch a glaring error. More likely, they will flag ambiguities and assumptions that you really ought to be avoiding. People like this can mirror the intended audience in terms of what they understood or did not grasp and how they envision it going over with an audience. Become fluent. The better you know your content, the more fluid, natural, and confident you can be. Fluency allows you to use your displayed and printed content to supplement your message rather than to drive it. This keeps them focused more on you and your message. Tell a good story. Successful salespeople routinely speak of the importance of making a strong connection with a potential buyer. More so than not, people will buy or accept from those that they like and trust. One great tool for instant rapport and trust is storytelling. Talk a little about what you and why you do it. Let them see your passion and feel your energy. Use stories to drive home points and underscore urgency. Stories keep people interested and connected to the end, when it’s time for you to deliver your final message. Naphtali Hoff (@impactfulcoach) became an executive coach and consultant following a 15 year career as an educator and school administrator. Read his blog at impactfulcoaching.com/blog. If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our daily newsletter on being a better, smarter leader. Related Posts: Redefining smart Your culture drives your presentations every time Linking educational silos Moving up the value chain of public speaking: The interpreter Blazing your own path to success 7 steps toward a successful presentation originally published by SmartBlogs

Many workers are beginning to recognize the need to redefine career success in new ways. With fewer promises of progression by way of promotion and with today’s fluid, highly responsive organizational structures, we can no longer evaluate career success against the broadly accepted criteria from the past: movement ever forward toward that higher position. So, if our former definition of success was based in outward advancement that may be less available today, how can employees find career satisfaction? It all comes down to crafting contemporary definitions that reflect and support current business realities. Three key elements are emerging as alternatives to the old "onward and upward" model: growth, gratitude, and generosity. Growth For too long, growth and promotions went hand in hand. Development meant moving into new roles that would offer different opportunities. Today’s environment demands that we uncouple these factors. Growth is possible and available right where any employee finds him or herself. Rather than waiting for an upward (or even lateral) move to enable growth, employees who are redefining career success are seeking opportunities to build skills, expand capacities, generate broader networks and cultivate experience within their role. They are exploring their interests and areas for improvement and are getting creative about finding ways to develop without ever making a move. The really clever ones are connecting the dots between the areas they want to develop in and real work that needs to get done — creating an unbeatable value proposition for busy managers. For example: Tomas is part of the sales function in an organization known for being mean, lean and flat. It’s clear that upward mobility is not likely, as the only natural promotion would be to a role occupied by the owner’s 30-something son. But that’s not stymieing Tomas’ sense of success in his career. He’s redefined success as gathering as many skills, tools and experiences as possible — either to deploy in this organization or another. So, realizing that he likes working with his co-workers and that he would benefit from improving his public speaking skills, Tomas volunteered to handle sales training for the next quarter. Needless to say, Tomas’ boss was delighted because he wasn’t sure how he was going to get that training done, and Tomas gets to realize his new definition of career success. Win-win! Gratitude In addition to growth, increasingly employees are trading their old definitions of success that were based in promotions and movement for definitions that are more qualitative and oriented on quality of life. People want to work for organizations with an appetizing mission, something they can sink their teeth into and feel good about supporting. They want to work with people they like and respect. They want to do work that brings them enjoyment and satisfaction, work that puts them in the flow state, allowing them to activate their strengths and talents and contribute to high-quality outcomes. Feeling a sense of gratitude for these qualities at work (and feeling appreciated in return) is quickly emerging as a powerful alternative to the old definition of what career success looks like. Generosity As the workforce ages and the ranks of baby boomer employees grow, it’s not surprising that many people no longer set their sights on "that next promotion" but rather are beginning to consider the legacy they will leave. As a result, the definition of career success has shifted for some to being able to make a genuine and lasting contribution. These employees want to work under conditions that spark a spirit of generosity and enable them to give back in a way that satisfies some intrinsic needs. Conversely, they are looking for generosity from their employers in return — whether it’s flextime, work-at-home options, or creative scheduling to better meet their needs. This reciprocal generosity defines for many what career success is today. The business landscape is changing and, if we’re to remain satisfied with our lives at work, so must our definitions of career success. Growth, gratitude and generosity can offer updated alternatives that breed energy, happiness, and fulfillment at work — redefining success in 2015 and beyond. Julie Winkle Giulioni is the author of "Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Employees Want," with Bev Kaye. Giulioni has spent the past 25 years improving performance through learning. She consults with organizations to develop and deploy innovative instructional designs and training worldwide. You can learn more about her consulting, speaking and blog at JulieWinkleGiulioni.com. If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our daily career development newsletter. Related Posts: When the growing gets tough Career development begins with care Blazing your own path to success Battling the bulge: Handling the expectations of too many employees for too few promotions Overcoming obstacles to reinventing yourself Career success 2.0: An evolving definition originally published by SmartBlogs

FMI President and CEO Leslie Sarasin presents her keynote at FMI Connect From technology to fresh foods to branding strategy, Food Marketing Institute‘s FMI Connect had food retailers buzzing about industry hot topics. Among those topics was a focus on meals, which was a theme carried through keynote addresses, education sessions and the show floor. At the center of the focus on meals at FMI Connect was FMI’s upcoming National Family Meals Month initiative, which will take place in September and employ retailers to help with the goal of getting families to share one more meal per week at home with food from home eaten together, FMI President and CEO Leslie Sarasin said during her keynote on Wednesday. According to recent research she presented, there have been major demographic, economic and culture shifts that have all led to significant changes in what American households look like. "The concept of the family has shifted," Sarasin said. "We have to broaden the scope of what we as an industry imagine a family to be." For example, there are fewer households with children now, and more households of one. And the American population has shifted into what Sarasin called a "shared shopper paradigm" in which household members are sharing more of the grocery shopping responsibility. The grilling category has also seen some significant shifts recently, Ed Hernandez, marketing manager for McCormick’s Grill Mates, said during a session at the Fresh Pavillion on the show floor. According to Hernandez, shoppers have not only shifted to sharing responsibilities for grilling, but they are also turning to produce and different proteins like ground beef and poultry when they make plans for grilled meals. To take advantage of this, retailers can simplify shoppers’ grilling choices and purchases by creating grilling centers that feature special displays and end caps within their stores that prompt the shoppers to create a whole meal on the grill. Some examples Hernandez gave of what successful retail efforts in this category might look like include putting a Grill Mates display near the corn in the produce section to encourage shoppers to consider jazzing up their grilled corn on the cob, or shifting the positioning of McCormick products within stores so that when shoppers who pick up the McCormick products run right into the ground beef or poultry section. When appealing to shoppers’ tastes for grilled meals, Hernandez said retailers should take advantage of grillers’ desire to explore new flavors. "New products, new ideas are really how to stoke interest in this space," he said. The mascot for National Family Meals Month watches a demonstration on the show floor at FMI Connect In particular, Sarasin said during her keynote that today’s multiperson households need help with things like food planning, list making and developing overall food strategies, which are all things they would be willing to turn to retailers for. And retailers, in turn, can help shoppers make healthier fresh food choices, especially through initiatives like National Family Meals Month. Sarasin pointed out that kids who participate in family mealtime are more likely to report having better relationships with their parents and to eat healthier, and they are less likely to be overweight, have eating disorders or participate in dangerous behavior. She also talked about the health benefits of family mealtime, as eating at home is healthier than eating out, and consumers said in the research Sarasin presented that support from family members is key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. "Regardless of the shape of your family, there are benefits to family meals," she said. Allison Liefer, director of foundation relationships for the nonprofit Common Threads, also talked about the power of family meals at the Health and Wellness Pavilion on the show floor. Through its programs that include after-school cooking programs, teacher trainings and parent workshops, Common Threads aims to end childhood obesity by teaching kids what to cook and how to cook. According to Liefer, cooking is a key life skill and the hands-on experience that Common Threads provides makes kids more likely to try and eat healthy foods, and it also makes kids excited about cooking both at school and after they leave the program and are at home in the kitchen with their parents. Kids who participate in Common Threads are more likely to ask their parents to buy the foods they work with through the after-school program and they are more likely to want to grocery shop with their parents, the organization’s research has shown. "We connect the kids to themselves…we connect the kids with their peers…and we connect the kids with their parents and communities," Liefer said. At ShopRite and Price Rite parent Wakefern Food Corporation, Retail Dietitian Supervisor Melanie Dwornik and Manager of Health and Wellness Natalie Menza talked about how the retailer helps influence consumers’ meal choices through its dietitian program. Through the program’s efforts targeting kids, Wakefern’s dietitians encourage trying new foods and helping with meal prep at home. And through the program’s culinary nutrition efforts, dietitians host in-store workshops and demonstrations to encourage shoppers to cook healthy meals at home, Dwornik said during a session in the show floor’s Learning Lounge. Wakefern’s dietitians communicate with their customers through print and digital media, as well as in person, and one of their priorities is to give shoppers new food ideas on a regular basis, Menza said. "The easier you make it for customers, the more likely they are to take your recommendations," she said. For Menza, one of the most important things is for retail dietitians to know the stores and the customers so they can "connect the dots" and really encourage healthy meal choices. As Sarasin pointed out in her keynote, putting a bigger emphasis on meals also allows retailers to appeal to consumers who are increasingly seeking convenience. Ready-to-eat foods and meal preparation kits present opportunities for retailers to position themselves as a healthier alternative to quickservice takeout, especially if they use all eating occasions, including breakfast, to try to draw consumers in. "The first step is committing to the concept," Sarasin said. "Clearly in this case the real money is there." __________________________________________________ If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s email list for more stories about the food and beverage industry. We offer 14 newsletters covering the industry from restaurants to food manufacturing. Related Posts: Food retailers find allies in social media followers Retailers, manufacturers look to strike the right balance on the front end Partnerships, networking set the stage at FMI Connect Experts: Using mobile technology to enhance the dining and shopping experience Elevating loyalty programs in the digital age Food retailers come together at the dinner table during FMI Connect originally published by SmartBlogs

This post is sponsored by GSMI. Creating an engaging candidate experience in recruitment requires a personalized touch. However, that can be time consuming for resources that are already stretched thin. Automating your marketing efforts makes sense but communications run the risk of sounding impersonal. What’s the best way to strike a balance? Start with messaging. Too often, recruitment repels the talent they’re trying to attract by trying too hard to be cute or clever and not hard enough to add the substance candidates are actually interested in. Gather insight on the activities of your candidate pool. What technologies and social networks do they use? What communities do they participate in? This will not only inform your messaging, it will enable your line recruiters to start better, richer conversations with prospects. Next, find out what motivates your candidates. Understanding their passions and interests allows you to create more meaningful content, suggests the Dice Definitive Guide to Attracting Tech Talent, a new guide from Dice and John Vlastelica, of Recruiting Toolbox. The best recruiters, the authors assert, "know what motivates candidates as much as what the company is interested in." And finally, be sure to include information about culture compatibility. I touch on this in a recent post on Social Recruiting Strategies Conference‘s blog. Recruitment is more than just securing the right salary and benefits. It includes placing candidates in the right corporate culture. Workers succeed when they not only love what they do but where they do it. Make sure your messaging shows how an employee fits a company’s work environment. Marketing automation with a personalized touch Now that you know what to share, let’s talk about how to share it. Candidate communication typically comes from either emails written directly by recruitment staff or through "talent networks." These networks use a communication strategy called "drip marketing" that sends automated email messages to candidates over time in set intervals (or ‘drips’). While this mass messaging saves the recruiters time, candidates complain this feels impersonal. It often is.  Personalized messaging can scale for high volume recruitment. "Personalization" doesn’t have to mean hand-written communication on scented colored paper. The "little something extra" that candidates really want can be addressed with communication, much of which can be automated, yet still feel as though it was personalized. Enter lifecycle email marketing Lifecycle marketing refers to campaigns that address the needs of your audience -in this case, talent you want to recruit - over time. It allows you to segment individuals based on various factors, such as job family, experience level, status in the recruitment process (prospect, candidate, interviewing, etc.) and level of engagement (time they’ve been "in the funnel," whether or not they’ve filled out profiles or applied for roles in the past, etc.). You can then send tailored marketing messages and communicate information that’s relevant to each segment, building a stronger sense of affinity within your talent pools. So how does it work? Check out this example below: In this example, the candidate learns about a company in which he or she has shown interest, through a series of 12 easily digestible emails. The emails are delivered over the course of 21 days. You could also add in gradual investment requests of prospective candidates even before they apply for a job by including webforms that ask candidate wants (i.e. what’s their desired career path after sharing career path options for their job family). Enter this data into your CRM as part of tailored marketing preferences. Better candidate engagement starts by stopping the perpetuation of the "one-size-fits-all" recruitment approach. When we, as employers, embrace the differences in the candidates that we recruit across our various job families, we create better candidate experiences that lead to improved employee conversions. When we allow our recruitment programs to invest in tools such as Dice Open Web for researching social data, Elevated Careers to assess culture fit before the point of hire, and marketing automation platform (MAP) such as Smashfly for email campaign creation and management, we help relieve recruiter overload and ensure the messages shared around the value they bring as employers are aligned with candidates’ interests, skills and personality. In respecting candidate individuality, we actually shine a better light on our ‘brand individuality’ as well… and that’s a win for everyone. SRSC Presenters Allison Kruse and Crystal Miller will hold a hands-on workshop on how to craft compelling social messaging at the Social Recruiting Strategies Conference being held in Boston July 21st-23rd in Boston, MA. Don’t miss this three-day conference packed with incredible learning opportunities . Reserve your spot today!  Crystal Miller is founder and chief strategist at Branded Strategies in Dallas, TX. Ms. Miller also serves as an advisor for Elevated Careers by eHarmony and other HR technology companies. Additional information about Elevated Careers by eHarmony’s employer beta program, is available by contacting danerickson@eharmony.com. Related Posts: Advertising Leadership Series: Q-and-A with 4A’s CMO Alison Fahey Gamification and Big Data: Allies in the war for talent Live from #2013GC: Talent acquisition requires a rethink of the workplace Is HR (as a job category) dead? CareerBuilder’s Matt Ferguson, on the importance of agility in 2011 Attract better candidates using marketing automation originally published by SmartBlogs

SmartBlog on Education will highlight summer learning and enrichment for educators during June. In this blog post, English teacher Mike Saenz explores the concept of "teachers as scholars." As an English teacher, I often find it interesting to pick apart the way we use language. For instance, when asking someone what his or her job is, we usually don’t say: "What is your job?" Instead we say: "What do you do?" In reply, we say something like: "I am a teacher." I think these phrases are telling. They both imply that a job is not just a thing you do to earn money, but rather your job is what you do, period. (I teach.) The title of your job isn’t just the title of your job, it is who you are. (I am a teacher.) Because I am a teacher, because teaching is what I do, I should always be looking for ways to upgrade myself and my product. There are techniques I use in my class that need to be improved, lessons that need to be rewritten or customized and processes that I ask my students to work through that often need to be revisited by a teacher. In the summer, I won’t be actively teaching students, but I’ll still be a teacher. It is after all, what I am. So what does being a teacher consist of over the summer? At my school, we utilize a flexible online curriculum that allows us to customize our courses and create lessons to best meet the needs of our students. So each summer I take a step back and think about what needs to be changed in the courses for the upcoming year. I read through some novels, dramas, short stories and essays that could be interesting to incorporate into lessons. This is fun for me, and certainly improves the classes I teach, but this isn’t enough. After all, since I have the entire summer, each year I should try to tackle at least one ambitious project. This summer’s project is to address some issues with student writings. Many of my students don’t know how to develop strong points in their compositions. The first places I’m looking for answers to my problem are Aristotle’s "Topics," and Cicero’s "Treatise on Rhetorical Invention." Why Aristotle and Cicero? In part because I’m familiar with these authors and find them interesting, and in their works they touch on the students’ problem I’m trying to solve: How do you find the right questions to ask that will prompt a student to expand ideas around a particular subject or stance? These sources will give me the leads needed to effectively address the above challenge, as well as lead me to other sources or perhaps discover that a lead is a dead end. Whatever the outcome, my experience has been that long-term study (especially of great thinkers) with an eye toward advice for teaching always has good results, even if the results are not the answers to the particular problems you start with. This study is an integral part of what it means to be a teacher. Being a teacher means being a scholar. Of course, other teachers might naturally study other things according to their interests and needs to solve their respective issues that lead to equally valid results. I’m the only teacher on my campus that studies philosophy and rhetoric on the side, but I’m not the only teacher that comes to the classroom with new and interesting ideas. Other teachers study what they think is most interesting, what will help them develop best, and what will help their classroom and our campus most. This diversity in teachers’ contexts of knowledge is a great advantage on our campus. We bounce ideas off of each other throughout the year, ideas usually coming from radically different places, and it is all of this interesting scholarship that flavors our campus’ intellectual climate. According to the historian Arthur Bestor, "Liberal education is essentially the communication of intellectual power. That it cannot be communicated by someone who does not possess it — by a teacher who is not also a scholar — is self-evident." We are teachers. As teachers, we deal with knowledge and thinking. We teach students how to research. We teach how to think critically and how to think creatively. Who then is more responsible than the individual teacher to research, study and innovate for his or her own classroom? What message are we sending to our students if we aren’t the embodiment of this process? Let’s not forget that part of our job as teachers is to effectively sell learning. It is imperative to convince our students that being a learner and innovator for life is fun, rewarding, and life furthering. The first step in selling this idea of learning is to be a shining example of learning and innovation ourselves. Mike Saenz is an English (and sometimes piano) teacher at Falls Career High School in Marble Falls, Texas. He is an avid studier of philosophy and all things Ancient Greek, and a sometimes-amateur classical pianist and composer. Falls Career High School uses the web-based platform from Odysseyware to customize courses for students. If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s email list for more stories about education. We offer newsletters covering educational leadership, special education and more.   Related Posts: Channeling Goldilocks: Trying to get it "just right" Is tech helping you work smarter? The world is my audience Replacing print where it matters most: Textbooks The serious business of classroom fun What if all teachers were scholars? originally published by SmartBlogs

Gulf Wild tagged red snapper, linking fishermen directly to their catch. (Photo: Jeff Clark) There is no doubt that sourcing food locally is a hot topic for restaurateurs, chefs and their customers. In fact, of all the trends captured in the National Restaurant Association’s What Hot Culinary Forecast this year, locally sourced meats and seafood were among the most popular. Purchasing these items is a great way to get fresh product and it also helps tell an enticing story to customers who want to know where and when a fish was caught or if the bacon they’re eating was supplied by the farmer down the road. One issue that remains though: Just because food is local, that doesn’t mean it is better for the environment. So, how do you source food that is both local and better for the environment? Example of eating lower down the food chain. (Photo: Jeff Clark) At our annual NRA Show, the Conserve team organized local food sourcing panels to discuss this topic in detail. We gathered advice from three local food education sessions from previous NRA Shows. These chefs — Rick Bayless, Susan Feniger, Douglass Katz and Harvard University program director Barton Seaver — outlined how they started buying local meat and seafood and why it was important to them. They recommended the following five steps to sourcing locally and sustainably: Visit farmers markets. Farmers markets often have meat and seafood purveyors offering interesting catches, heirloom breeds and different cuts of meat. While typically a more expensive choice, they not only are flavorful, but can be (but are not always) easier on the environment. Buying from local sources also helps support your community’s economy. Develop relationships with local suppliers. Talk with area fishermen and butchers and ask a lot of questions. Ask them how the animals or fish were raised or caught. Question them about their philosophies on the use of antibiotics, feed, and protecting wild plants, animals and river ecosystems. If the answers are unsatisfying to you, buy your products from other purveyors whose environmental efforts are more in line with your own. Buy lower down the food chain when possible. Many chefs like to serve their customers juicy burgers, seared lamb kabobs or perfectly roasted salmon, but when appropriate, also serve locally-farmed mussels, clams and oysters. Those are not as environmentally intense to raise and offer amazing and diverse flavors that can really spur your creativity. Ask what other chefs are doing. Want to know how your peers are handling complex issues surrounding food sourcing? Ask them to share their experiences with you. Find out whether their suppliers helped them source food locally and provided more sustainable options. By working together as a group, you can influence local farms and fisheries to practice less impactful methods or you can get larger distributors to assist you in those efforts. Empower your staff to tell the story of your food. Front-of-house staffers are the ambassadors of your restaurant and menu. They can tell the stories of your food in rich detail, so help them make that tale their own, in their own words. See what they get excited about and help them foster food descriptions they can be proud of. Let them broadcast their story loud and clear for your customers to enjoy. By spending time not just looking for local food, but supporting sustainable food practices, you can support your local butchers, fishermen and farmers for generations to come. Jeff Clark is program director for the National Restaurant Association’s Conserve sustainability program. __________________________________________________ If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s email list for more stories about the food and beverage industry. We offer 14 newsletters covering the industry from restaurants to food manufacturing. Related Posts: No Related Posts 5 steps to sourcing more sustainable local meat and seafood originally published by SmartBlogs

Even the minor stress of life’s little annoyances — traffic, long meetings and tight deadlines can take a toll on our well-being, sense of personal balance and overall effectiveness. You might wonder how that could be a concern to your management style, since you’re regularly devoting time to your leadership skills. If you’re the only one affected by those minor stresses — after all, you do your best to navigate office politics and minimize their impact on your team — what does it matter? Medical and psychological studies have shown that when we’re worn down by stress and burned out, our openness to new ideas, our ability to connect to others and even our moral judgment can be compromised. Practicing renewal techniques brings us back to a place where we can provide the kind of leadership we want to deliver; it’s not only good for us, it’s good for our teams, our jobs and everyone around us. The key to renewal isn’t just in reducing our stress at work, but also in what we do outside of our office hours. Restorative benefits come from doing those things that bring peace, calm and joy to our lives. Perhaps it seems cliché to say we need to slow down, but really, there is great rejuvenating value in pausing for a moment to take stock of our accomplishments and relish the aspects of our world that really bring us pleasure. To generate a sense of renewal in your own life, try some of the following: Take time to be in the present: do yoga, go for a walk, practice tai chi, meditate or even just sit for a moment, taking a few breaths to calm yourself and think about nothing. Direct your energy for others: volunteer in your community, offer to buy a coffee for a homeless person, pick up some trash around your favorite park or scour your closets and kitchen cupboards for charitable donations, Plan your future: take a few moments to think about your future and to properly map out the dreams floating around in your head. Try imagining your ideal retirement plans, or coach yourself on what you want for your coming years. Think big and think positively! Laugh and play: go out and experience the things in life that put a smile on your face. See a movie, go to a play, have a drink with friends and joke around. Fall on the floor with your kids or play soccer in the park. Do what brings you simple joy for its own sake. Enjoy compassionate relationships: Spend time enjoying and appreciating your spouse and your kids, take your dog to the park or sit for a while relaxing with your pet. Take your vacation: be more present when you return — by leaving! Taking your vacation is critical to restoring balance and renewing your focus and commitment. Stress makes us more closed off, harder to reach and less productive overall. It might seem counterintuitive, but when we spend time and energy on ourselves, we have more energy to put into improving our relationships with others. Taking time for the things that renew us makes us better leaders. Joel Garfinkle is the author of "Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level." As an executive coach, he recently worked with a mid-level manager who learned to develop her executive presence and gained the respect of her team, enhanced her profile with the company and built the confidence she needed to excel. Sign up to his Fulfillment@Work newsletter (10,000+ subscribes) and you’ll receive the free e-book "41 Proven Strategies to Get Promoted Now!" If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our daily newsletter on being a better, smarter leader. Related Posts: How to disconnect from work and enjoy your vacation Celebrate mistakes: Creating a culture of forgiveness The smart creative: How to spot them, how to use them How can leaders help defuse an employee outburst or stressed-out reaction? Procrastination: What is it costing you? Soothing stress: Taking time for yourself makes you a better leader originally published by SmartBlogs

It’s time to simplify the login process for student machines. After a decade of watching students log in to their laptops, mobile devices and desktops, I’ve come to the conclusion that that student machine logins are more a barrier than asset to the effective use of technology. In most cases, they seem to slow down processes and increase opportunity for disruption. Here’s an example. In one class, one student does not have a password, another student has an expired password and yet another student makes a typographical error while trying to log in. All three cases cause needless slowdowns and teacher frustration. I recommend moving all machines to a kiosk-like state (Mac and PC) and have students save their work to the cloud. You have a number of choices, including Google Docs, Dropbox and OneDrive, to name a few. Syncing documents to a local server and using overly complicated student profiles do not teach students how to work and retrieve data in today’s world. Consider simplifying the network environment with a focus on the idea of quick access. Additionally try easing back a bit on control and you may be surprised by the results. James Roodhouse is the technology director for Geneseo CUSD 228, in Geneseo, Il. In his eight years with the district, he has helped it earn two national "Digital School" awards and was named among the "20 to Watch" by the National School Boards Association in 2012. Previously he worked three years as the technology director at Kealakehe High School in Kona, Hi. ***** Tech Tips is a content collaboration between SmartBrief Education and GreyED Solutions. Have a tech tip to share? Contact us at techtips@greyedsolutions.com Miss a Tech Tip? Visit our Tech Tip archive. ***** Related Posts: No Related Posts Tech Tip: Simplify the login process originally published by SmartBlogs

Do you use social media platforms to talk about your products? If not, you should, because it makes perfect sense to talk about your products in places where your audience already is. Building brand awareness is an important marketing strategy that can be executed with the help of social media. In this case study, we’ll show you how Tootsie Roll Industries leveraged their Tootsie Pops brand page and used a giveaway to raise brand awareness, plus gauge interest in and receive feedback on a new product. Here’s what you’ll learn from this case study: Why Tootsie Pops decided to run a giveaway for their digital audience. Where they hosted their giveaway to increase traffic and engagement. How they created and maintained buzz around a new product. How Tootsie Pops increased giveaway entries by 702% compared to a previous campaign. Here’s a step-by-step look at what Tootsie Pops did to accomplish their goals along with tips on your can apply them to your own campaigns. Step No. 1: Pick a goal Setting defined goals is key to running a successful campaign. Decide: What are the top one or two things (three at the most) you want to achieve? Here are some common goals we see among ShortStack users: Increase brand awareness Promote a new product or service Boost user engagement Gather user feedback Gather user content (photos, video, etc.) Develop brand advocates Convert followers into leads Convert followers into sales Grow a social media presence Tootsie Pops’ main goals were to increase the brand awareness and gauge interest of a new Tootsie Pop flavor. The special pop was available in a limited number of stores and the brand was interested in getting customer feedback and generating buzz about the new product. "Our social media goal is almost always to keep our fans engaged and obviously to grow our audience," said Austen Huth, social media analyst for Tootsie Rolls. "We decided to take the opportunity to make some buzz about a brand new pop flavor by asking people and our fans to become taste testers for the brand. In theory it would create fun and excitement on the page and, since it’s candy, we want to keep it fun!" The takeaway: If you’re looking to increase brand awareness or create buzz for a new product, consider a fun giveaway that makes your fans feel like they’re a part of your team. Step No. 2: Create an engaging campaign Once you’ve narrowed down your goals, it’s time to determine what type of campaign will help you to reach those goals. Since Tootsie Pops was looking for customer feedback, they decided that a giveaway that asked their fans to taste the latest pop was the perfect way to drive engagement. Tootsie Pops chose to use a ShortStack form to collect the names and email addresses of fans who were interested in becoming taste testers. Tootsie Pops placed their form on a branded campaign that was published as a landing page. While Tootsie Pops was looking to only engage with their Facebook audience, they wanted entry to be as seamless as possible. Publishing their campaign as a landing page ensured that mobile and desktop fans could participate in their giveaway without any barriers from Facebook. "Our website traffic was down because of ‘construction’ and we were looking for a way to drive people to the redesigned website," said Huth. "Previously we would only use Facebook to reach our audience but this time we used ShortStack so our campaign could be promoted everywhere, including Facebook. With the ShortStack campaign, we got way more traffic than we thought we would." The Tootsie Taste Tester Campaign allowed fans to enter for a chance to be one of the exclusive taste testers of Tootsie’s latest pop, a flavor that had not yet reached the global market. They enticed visitors with an exclusive and fun offer. The takeaway: Building a campaign as a landing page allows you to brand the campaign with your business and drive traffic to your website. Step No. 3: Promote the campaign The most important step in executing a campaign is promoting it. The "build it and they will come" theory does not work for most marketing campaigns. Wanting to mainly interact with their Facebook audience, Tootsie Pops only promoted their giveaway to their Facebook audience. They posted organic status updates and invested in Boosted Posts. "We wanted this promotion to be more exclusive and also have some incentive for our fans to give us real feedback," said Huth. "What better way to get this feedback than by actually adding them to the Tootsie team? We also gave them something that wasn’t truly available yet, so there was some exclusivity there." By paying to promote their post, Tootsie Pops was able to increase their reach on their post by 587%. Having a small advertising budget to support a marketing campaign can help you extend the reach of your campaign beyond your organic audience. There are a variety of cost-effective ways that you can promote a campaign each time you run one. The takeaway: To boost engagement and interest, offer something exclusive to your fans. Step No. 4: Collect and analyze the results Analyzing the results of a brand awareness campaign is a crucial step in the campaign execution process. Results determine whether goals were met and can help determine whether the product will be a success. Tootsie Pops received 43,292 entries in just three days. This was a 702% increase in entries from a similar promotion they had run in the past. Tootsie Pops’ Facebook post reached more than 495,000 people and their promotion as a whole reached more than one million people. "The promotion was a success and people were writing in and calling, even after it was over, asking if they could become taste testers," said Huth. From the 43,292 entries, Tootsie Pops secured 400 taste testers, exceeding their original goal of 100. The 400 Taste Testers were mailed a Tootsie Pops sample pack that included a printed insert with a QR Code that took testers to a ShortStack-built survey with 10 feedback questions about the new pop. From the 400 taste testers they received feedback on their new Tootsie Pop flavor from 265 people. The takeaway: Use a follow-up survey to gauge your audience’s interest in your new product. Sara Piccola is the Mistress of Propaganda for ShortStack.com, a software used to create contests, sweepstakes, data-collection forms, landing pages, and more for social, mobile and the Web. Related Posts: Can restaurants take the sting out of Tax Day with special deals? Facebook: How to automate birthday coupons for free 5 steps to sharing other people’s content Former Treasury Secretaries sound off about political dysfunction How to align your social strategy with the rise of private sharing How Tootsie used a giveaway to create awareness for a new product originally published by SmartBlogs

This week we continue our series "Moving Up the Value Chain of Speaking Approaches" with a look at the Catalyst presentation approach. If you missed the previous articles in the series, see: "Moving up the value chain of public speaking: The interpreter" "The Value Chain of Public Speaking: Expert, Interpreter or Catalyst?" "Moving Up the Value Chain of Public Speaking: The Expert" "When to take the Expert approach" The catalyst: Mover and shaker of tomorrow Are you a business leader who believes passionately that changing the status quo is not only possible, but absolutely necessary, to contribute to the growth of your company? Do you have a vision of "what can be"? Are you compelled to make a difference, spark innovation or generate fresh new ideas? When your presentation needs to go beyond a tactical call to action, the catalyst speaking approach will help you inspire change and motivate others to pursue difficult goals. Recite.com When the catalyst approach is called for When we think of catalysts, well-known people like Apple’s Steve Jobs, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, leadership expert Simon Sinek, Harvard professor Amy Cuddy or the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. come to mind. However, fame is not an accurate measure of a catalyst. A catalyst is any leader who inspires an audience to loftier goals. Consider the characteristics of the catalyst approach and see how they fit your presentation opportunity: Presentation goal: As a catalyst, you are driven by a sense of purpose. Unlike the interpreter, who’s advocating a specific action, you want to create an "aha" moment to help listeners see the possibilities and feel capable of making changes. For more information on delivering authenticity and passion, read "5 Keys to Move Your Audience." Point of view: As a catalyst, you believe in your vision and are willing to take a risk. Although what you are advocating may be disruptive and take listeners out of their comfort zone, you desire to connect and engage listeners in order to ignite action. As you begin sharing your vision, you may be standing alone, but as you move forward, your message and passion move the audience to consider the possibilities and join in. For example, Derek Sivers in his TED Talk "How to Start a Movement" shows us the guts it takes to be a catalyst as well as the first steps for bringing people together to make things happen. Audience and environment: You may share your vision with a wide array of audiences, from board members to employee populations to icons at an all-important industry event. The catalyst delivers an unwavering message encouraging listeners to believe in a different future and in their ability to contribute to change. In a business environment, a catalyst inspires people to pursue success just as President John F. Kennedy roused the nation during his January 1961 inaugural address: "Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country." More everyday examples of typical catalyst presentations include: Political speeches Keynote presentations Product launches TED Talks Content and message: Like the interpreter, the catalyst’s message includes logic, credibility and an emotional connection. However, the catalyst is driven by a deeper passion and vision. If you want to achieve the trust you need from people who might follow your vision, you need the courage to be vulnerable and authentic, sharing how you feel and speaking with energy and conviction that paints a picture of what is possible. Build these skills to be an effective catalyst: Clarify your content. Because you may find yourself speaking to a group of people with varying levels of knowledge, different perspectives or mixed expectations, the catalyst needs to rely on plain language to ensure the message is clear and the content is credible. In addition to crafting a core message and a solid organizational structure, you’ll want to consider using: Stories that help your audience connect to your cause. Frame your content with appropriate metaphors and analogies that help paint your vision and convey your passion. Imagery that everyone can relate to. Leading inspirational speakers traditionally compare a body of workers with a sports team or an orchestra to illustrate human cooperation. Language to make the message powerful and memorable, incorporating alliteration, creative repetition, catch phrases, and sound bites. Organize your information. As a catalyst, structure your content to build emotion, helping listeners easily understand your vision and guide listeners to consider: What’s wrong with the status quo? What’s in it for me to do something differently? What impact will this change have? What part can I play in making it happen? Develop visuals as needed. To be an effective catalyst, consider any and all types of visual aids to capture and convey your passion — whatever enables you to connect and inspire success. Plan to harness your personal power, language and delivery to create an emotional response. You might even forgo media in conveying your message. Can you picture "I Have a Dream" with a slide deck? Express yourself. When you want to touch people’s hearts as well as their minds, your message, your language and your delivery should be passionate in order to engage listeners, open attitudes and overcome barriers to change. In addition to the skills that experts and interpreters use, the catalyst owns the room and reaches others by: Speaking without physical barriers Telling moving stories Painting a picture of the vision with language that resonates Showing passion and conviction through gestures, facial expression, and vocal inflections For example, here’s how Susan B. Anthony used language to promote women’s suffrage: "It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people — women as well as men." For tips on projecting a powerful presence, read "Speaker Stance, Texas Style: Projecting a Larger-Than-Life Image On Stage" Cautions for the catalyst The most important changes often happen gradually. You may need to move people in small steps toward your vision of the future. People might disagree with you if your message is particularly disruptive. Develop a thick skin and be ready for backlash. You’re speaking from a place of personal power as the catalyst, but you don’t want to be on a pedestal. Think FDR and his fireside chats; think Bill Clinton and his connection with audiences during presidential debates. While your vision may not need to include specific steps to reach the desired outcome, as a catalyst, you do need to speak in concrete language and with specific examples that help your audience relate to your big idea. For more information about weakness that destroys our confidence or credibility, read "DOUBT: The Kryptonite of Public Speaking." Are you an effective catalyst? Before you present, ask yourself the following questions to ensure you achieve your goal: Does this message reflect my passion and conviction? What can I do to help the audience "get it" and see things as I see them? Is my message clear and relatable to everyone who might be listening? How will I break through emotional barriers with disruptive content? Does my delivery come across as transparent and authentic? Do I offer an optimistic perspective that encourages others to join in? As a catalyst, you believe in your transformative ideas. Your end game is important because you know your ideas have the potential to make a significant difference. Does your presentation have what it takes to spark innovation and inspire change? Stephanie Scotti is a strategic communication adviser specializing in high-stake presentations. She has 25-plus years experience of coaching experience and eight years teaching presentation skills for Duke University. She has provided presentation coaching to over 3,000 individuals in professional practices, Fortune 500 companies, high-level government officials and international business executives. Learn more at ProfessionallySpeaking.net and ProfessionallySpeakingBlog.com. Sharon McMillen Cannon serves as clinical associate professor of management and corporate communication at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill. She has a passion for teaching public speaking, business writing, intercultural communication, and the effective use of social media. Find her on Twitter. If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our daily newsletter on being a better, smarter leader and communicator. Related Posts: Moving up the value chain of public speaking: Expert, interpreter or catalyst? Moving up the value chain of public speaking: The interpreter 3 superpowers of public speaking Breakthrough moments: Connecting with your audience Finding common ground with your audience Moving up the value chain of public speaking: The catalyst originally published by SmartBlogs

One of the main goals of efforts to improve the quality of health care in the U.S. is to reduce variation in care, where some patients are treated optimally while others miss out on the best of medicine. This is a key driver behind the focus on population health, which in recent decades has spawned the standards of care used in practice throughout clinics and hospitals today. Measurable improvements have been made, but in 2015, we can do better, argues Colin Hill, CEO, chairman and co-founder of GNS Healthcare. "Population is the total of individuals that make up a whole, but where is the individual in population?" Hill asked attendees at Institute 2015, the annual gathering of America’s Health Insurance Plans. "I’ll tell you where, the individual is missing," he said. Hill cited some data on the efficacy of standard treatments for well-known conditions. 40% of asthma patients don’t respond to any of the FDA-approved drugs available to them. 50% of arthritis patients don’t respond to any of the FDA-approved drugs available to them. 75% of cancer patients don’t respond to any of the FDA-approved drugs available to them. Similar figures can be seen for other types of interventions: devices, care management programs, surgery and more, Hill says. "Half of the interventions that we apply today in this country don’t work for the patients they’re intended for. So I ask you: ‘Is standard of care failing us?’" It is certainly costing us, Hill argues, amounting to $500 billion in annual spending on interventions that aren’t helping people get better. Hill calls for a smarter system that capitalizes on the wealth of data available and novel machine learning capabilities to optimize treatment, reduce waste and improve outcomes by predicting risks for preterm birth, hospitalization, treatment efficacy and more. Machine learning involves employing algorithms to learn and make data-driven predictions or decisions, Hill says. To illustrate, he walks through layers of analysis, beginning with the most basic types of questions: What happened? In a health care setting, this question might involve an insurer looking at spending on a subset of diabetes patients to find that costs are rising. Why did this happen? Digging into data, the health plan can identify basic drivers of the higher costs. What if these trends continue? Based on existing trajectories, data can be used to predict future spending. What will happen next? This level of analysis might involve looking at who else is at risk of developing diabetes and then cost scenarios based on those assumptions. There is value in all these questions, but Hill argues the next step - machine learning — is where the real opportunity lies. "Machine learning can do more than just predict the future, because what’s the point of predicting the future if you can’t change it?" Breakthroughs in inference and understanding of cause-and-effect mechanisms allow health insurers to try to modify scenarios. Consider a set of patients and everything that is known about them - age, demographics, health history, all the factors needed to understand a patient’s risk by way of predictive analytics. Take that approach and then build in machine learning capability that incorporates intervention models. That’s where it’s possible to try manipulating the trajectory, modifying risk. "This allows you to predict many future what-ifs in response to actions, and then select the best future path," Hill says. "That can now be used to get to the holy grail of what we want in care management: Individualized ROI." The result is insight that shows the way to invest in care - and often, machine-learning guided interventions do not align with established population health principles. But they deliver millions of dollars in savings by driving interventions that will have the greatest effect. "Member by member, intervention by intervention, we can now determine where we are getting the most bang for our buck. And it’s not just about money, it’s about health outcomes," Hill says. "Isn’t this what we’ve dreamed of? The ability to deliver much more personalized interventions, much more personalized care and not break the bank doing it. In fact, [we can] to do it for less." "We now have the ability to break the rules of population health, to think differently, to act differently, to drive to different outcomes."   Related Posts: Challenges and opportunities in health IT Laying the groundwork for the health system of the future Putting the power of peptide-level precision in every clinician’s hands Leading through change: Embracing and optimizing digital health care Leading through change: Optimize your company culture to meet consumer needs How machine-learning driven interventions can build value in health care originally published by SmartBlogs

Health information technology is frequently invoked as the key to solving America’s biggest health care challenges, but as many in the field acknowledge, the gap between vision and reality is often wide. Dr. Karen DeSalvo, HHS acting assistant secretary for health and national coordinator for health IT, shed light on some of those gaps and the ways her team is working to address them at Institute 2015, the annual gathering of America’s Health Insurance Plans. DeSalvo came to HHS after working in New Orleans to foster a health system built around primary and preventive care that harnessed the power of medical home models and connected care to improve quality. These goals are now being applied nationally. Federal initiatives have focused on advancing the adoption of electronic health records. DeSalvo said nearly all hospitals now have EHR systems in place, and physician practices and other professionals have reached 60% adoption rates. However, advancing adoption of EHRs has been bumpy at times, and it is one step in the journey toward goals such as widespread exchange of health data, scaling data-based payment models and ultimately developing a learning-based health system that informs the practice of precision medicine. DeSalvo discussed some of the challenges her office is working to surmount, and she encouraged health insurers and other stakeholders to share their points of view, acknowledging there may be cases in which the government can remove barriers rather than establishing a framework to advance innovation. The EHR interface: DeSalvo said clinicians have in some cases had difficulty adapting to EHRs. "There’s a lot of documentation, and some of it is not intuitive," she said. "The systems can be very clunky and hard to use on the front lines, and [they are] sometimes a distraction from clinical care." Workflow optimization: Highly connected health systems that adopted EHR systems years ago have often adapted to the systems and developed ways of incorporating them seamlessly into clinical care. Health systems that have implemented EHRs more recently are less likely to have the bugs worked out. "What we don’t want is for the systems to be in the way," DeSalvo said. Interoperability: EHRs lay the groundwork for connected care, but linking the systems has been a persistent problem in health care. "The systems don’t talk well to one another. The interoperability at even the data level isn’t as strong as we want it to be," DeSalvo said, noting proprietary standards and different ways of collecting and storing information — even something as basic as blood pressure data — make it difficult to bring disparate data together and glean useful insights. Promoting value-based business practices and culture: DeSalvo acknowledged that changing long-entrenched practices is difficult, but she urged insurers to stay the course. "We need to continue to encourage a business environment that doesn’t reward duplication," she said, such as repeated X-rays and other tests, by incentivizing value and rewarding providers for taking the time to look into the patient’s medical history for what is needed. "We as a payer at HHS and you all, too, have a responsibility to keep pushing that, it’s going to help influence the culture change." Privacy and security: "The more we encourage interoperability and systems to connect, the more potential there is for there to be challenges with security," DeSalvo said. Similarly, more access points to data systems provide more ways privacy can be compromised. She said data suggest patients and doctors generally want to allow use of their data for advancing care, so the system needs to preserve that trust. DeSalvo also discussed the HHS vision for what health care should be more broadly. The unifying theme is value, but the vision is characterized by better coordination, better access, less duplication of services and convenience that aligns with consumer expectations. Care like that already exists in pockets, DeSalvo said: "You don’t always have to invent the better care. It grows naturally, especially if you’re paying for care differently." So a key goal is shifting more care to value-based arrangements, and by 2018, the goal is to pay for half of Medicare services under value-based models. Today, one-quarter of Medicare payments are linked to value. And DeSalvo said HHS is engaging private payers in clarifying what mainstream alternative payment models should look like long-term, including working out clear definitions for what constitutes an alternative payment model, refining quality measures and addressing issues like risk adjustment. "This is not something we want to do by ourselves, we want to do this with the private sector," she said. "We want to do this in such a way that this is not a Medicare program, but it is a change in the way we do business in a sixth of our economy."   Related Posts: Laying the groundwork for the health system of the future How machine-learning driven interventions can build value in health care Putting the power of peptide-level precision in every clinician’s hands Leading through change: Embracing and optimizing digital health care Leading through change: Optimize your company culture to meet consumer needs Challenges and opportunities in health IT originally published by SmartBlogs

Collaboration between the financial services industry and government entities has increased in response to rapidly evolving cybersecurity threats, but both sides agree there is room for improvement. Experts at the SmartBrief Cybersecurity Forum in New York City on Tuesday identified increased information sharing and the enactment of legislation already making the rounds on Capitol Hill as two ways to enhance the security of today’s financial markets. Click here to view the embedded video. Policy Enhancements Karl Schimmeck, managing director of financial services operations for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, said cybersecurity initiatives undertaken by the Obama Administration earlier this year have spurred greater engagement from a host of government agencies. Schimmeck also cited the NIST Framework unveiled in 2014 as example of the government helping industry devise best practices that can be put to use by all firms - large and small. Chris Feeney, president of the Financial Services Roundtable’s BITS technology policy division, said government could help by harmonizing state laws within the U.S. and enacting federal laws that address privacy and liability concerns that have left some firms apprehensive about sharing data. Information-Sharing Mark Clancy, the CEO of Soltra, said information sharing between the industry and the government used to be a "one-way street." But Clancy said that has changed and the government now plays an active role in sharing intelligence that helps firms stay informed about the latest threats. For example, Clancy cited a list released recently by the FBI detailing the Top 10 cyber threats companies face. Such guidance helps firms prioritize their cybersecurity efforts, Clancy explained. Thomas Ferlazzo, vice president of operational risk at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said government agencies are prepared to help firms test their cyber defenses, but such resources often go untapped because firms either aren’t aware of the programs or are hesitant to ask for such assistance. Ferlazzo urged firms to be proactive in the interaction with government agencies, adding that if firms wait to until after they suffer an attack to contact law enforcement, it is already too late. Clancy, who is also the chief information security officer for DTCC, said firms also can work through their general counsel and primary regulator to have a Request for Technical Assistance in place. Advance planning is crucial for this measure and firms must decide before they are attacked which governmental entities they will contact and who in the company has the authority to reach out for such assistance, Clancy said. The challenge of measuring success Clancy queried the panel about how they define success, noting that cybersecurity is unique in that it demands perfection. One successful attack can undermine years of pristine protection. Ferlazzo concurred with Clancy but stressed that the government remains ready to assist firms and that it does not expect perfection from financial services firms. "Perfection? Wow. If you get there, please tell me and I will follow you and genuflect," Ferlazzo said. "The challenge is: What are you doing to defend yourself? That’s what we ask first. How are you doing it is what we ask second. It’s really the who, what, where, how and why?"   Contributing writer: Sean McMahon Related Posts: SIFMA Operations Conference Highlights Vendor Risk Management When it comes to the Flash Crash trader, intent matters Sneak Peek: OPS 2015 kicks off Monday in San Diego ICYMI - March 28 Ridge, Mandia sound off on cybersecurity Experts: Cybersecurity collaboration between government, industry making progress originally published by SmartBlogs