ewi chapter connect - ewi of milwaukee...ewi corporate developed standards of excellence to give...

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LCAM 2014 President’s Message

LCAM (Leadership Conference and Annual Meeting) 2014, held in Washington DC from September 10-13th, is now history! Besides the personal growth that this event brings into our lives, it’s also a great opportunity to connect with our EWI Corporate staff and acquaintances from various chapters across the USA and in Canada. It’s also an opportunity to make many more connections and begin many new

friendships. What a JOY it is to spend time and energy with so many women who come together to discuss common goals and to share ideas that will lead to growth at the chapter level. Even if we all leave with just one new idea, it is worth the trip! The most memorable moment at LCAM 2014, was to watch the newest chapter, EWI Collegiate, receive their charter! It was a moment in time and one that everyone enjoyed. We had the opportunity to meet a great group of college students and to witness them experience the JOY of finishing a goal, but at the same time, realizing that the journey is not complete…it has only just begun. Barb Benish, VP/President Elect and I, President, represented EWI of Milwaukee with honor and pride at the Annual Meeting. We voiced our concerns, along with a few other chapters, about the Individual Membership proposal and voted as you instructed us to. Unfortunately, we were in the minority and the proposal passed by a large margin (57-28). It was apparent that this change was felt as a necessity for those chapters struggling to survive. As we discussed however, the proposal does give us the autonomy to make a decision at the chapter level through our Chapter Standing Rules. Please watch for more information on this subject. There was limited discussion on the remainder of the proposals. The 2014-15 Corporate Budget, the Corporate Bylaws Revisions and the proposed State of Incorporation change were all approved. At the end of the meeting, the 2014-2015 Corporate Officers and Directors were installed. We applauded as we watched our own Cortney Ihde be reinstalled, but this time as a Director for a 2 year term!!! Pride was exuding from each of us!

MILWAUKEE CHAPTER EDITION

2013-2014 Officers & Directors

President Donna Munnik

Mary Kay Cosmetics

Vice President Barb Benish

Briggs & Stratton Corporation

Secretary Mary Herauf

Badger Meter, Inc.

Treasurer Kathy Marchant Olympus Group

Ways & Means Lori Torrison

Building Service Inc.

Recruitment & Retention Director Cindy Kunze

Mortara Instruments

Sergeant-at-Arms Christine Anderson Burbach Insulation

Program Chair Shannon Lutze

Ameriprise Financial

Communications Director Becky Fellows

Briggs & Stratton Corporation

EWISP Scholarship Chair Sue Flater

Ewald Fleet Solutions

ASIST Scholarship Chair Jane Lawler

Modern Business Machines

Board Advisor Mary Caye Smith, SalesSmith Inc.

LCAM 2014 | Vol. 8, No.1 Chartered October 1965

Special Edition

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EWI of Milwaukee Monthly Connect

LCAM 2014

www.ewimilwaukee.org

EWI of Milwaukee / c/o Olympus Group ATTN: Kathy Marchant 9000 W. Heather Avenue Milwaukee, WI 53224 online: ewimilwaukee.org email: [email protected]

I have had the privilege of representing you, EWI of Milwaukee, at LCAM 2012 in Dallas, TX, at Spring Conference 2013 in Chattanooga, TN, at LCAM 2013 in San Diego, CA, at the 2013 Midwest Board Forum inColumbus, OH and finally at LCAM 2014 in Washington DC. Thank you from the bottom of my grateful heart for the honor and the privilege! And thank you for trusting me as I did so. It has been a great ride! And a ride that Barb Benish, 2014-2015 President and Cindy Kunze, 2014-2015 VP/President Elect will continue on with. I am so proud of them and excited for them! Enjoy the rest of this LCAM 2014 Special Edition Connect! AND get ready for a fabulous new year EWI of Milwaukee!!! Joyfully serving, Donna Munnik

Inspiration at the Leadership Caucus Dinner

Tuesday evening, Cindy and I attended the Leadership Caucus dinner. We were given the task to bring one word that will strengthen our Chapter. My word is Teamwork. We all shared our word with the group. Each table had a Scrabble board and letters – we were to put each of our words on the board. To the left is a picture of our table’s Scrabble Board and also a Word Cloud that was put together using all the words shared that evening. -Barb Benish

http://www.ewimilwaukee.org/

http://www.ewiconnect.org/

mailto:[email protected]

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LCAM 2014



LEADERSHIP CAUCUS Leadership Caucus Cindy and I attended the Leadership Caucus facilitated by Lori Giovannoni – Chapter Leadership: Making Great Things Happen. Her company, Lori Giovannoni and Associates, is a member firm of EWI of Salt Lake City. She has designed all of EWI’s Academy of Leadership courses since its inception in 2001. For those of you who have not had the opportunity to experience Lori G., she is a vibrant, enthusiastic wealth of information and one of the best speakers I have had in a leadership seminar. Her method is very interactive, so you hear questions and experiences from many of the participants. Some of the main take aways that I learned are:

Leadership is to guide other into the unknown.

Decisions should be made for what is the best of the whole Chapter.

Know the culture of our Chapter.

Happiness is not on the other end of success.

Our brain works better when thinking in positive – not negative.

Stellar programs are needed to have member want to come to meetings.

Never underestimate the power of an individual.

Talk to your neighboring Chapter leaders.

Don’t withhold information.

Board positions are service positions, not positions of power.

In the afternoon, I attended the session for incoming Presidents – Chapter Strategic Planning. We learned that your key goals should be top priorities to move your Chapter forward, and they should be clearly defined. Critical factors in Chapters accomplishing those goals are making them specific, measureable, agreed upon by the key stakeholders, achievable, results-oriented, and time-framed with a deadline for accomplishment. Start by sharing the vision and benefits of becoming a Chapter of Excellence. Next, share a clear vision of the need and value of becoming a COE with your Chapter to gain buy-in. After that you can move to the specifics in the action plan. Other questions you may want to ask in growing the impact of your EWI Chapter this year includes:

Where are you going?

Why are we going?

How are we going to get there? The Dallas Chapter shared their Strategic Plan with the group. Their plan is based on the Standards of Excellence – to become a Chapter of Excellence. EWI Corporate developed Standards of Excellence to give vision for Chapters and provide a plan for growth. Standards of Excellence are based on EWI’s core foundation of mission, vision and values. It is built on EWI’s Three Priorities of Connections, Careers and Community with the goal of developing Chapters of Excellence. Sincerely, Barb Benish




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LCAM 2014



EWI Awards

Tillie Award – Outstanding Chapter – EWI of Kansas City

Chapters of Excellence

o EWI of Des Moines

o EWI of Wichita

EWI Connect Award

o EWI of Houston

o EWI of Minneapolis

o EWI of Wichita

Outstanding Retention

o EWI of Boise

o EWI of Des Moines

o EWI of Harrisburg

o EWI of Kansas City

o EWI of Mobile

o EWI of Tulsa

o EWI of Wichita

Lucille Johnson Perkins Outstanding Member Firm Award

o Large Firm: H-E-B, San Antonio

o Non-Profit: Project Reads, Fort Wayne

Lucille Johnson Perkins Outstanding Member Rep

o Deborah Clark, EWI of Richmond

Scholarship Winners ASIST

First Place $10,000 – Jana Findlay (EWI of Oklahoma City)

ASIST Winner $2,000 – Nicole Elward (EWI of Fort Wayne)

ASIST Winner $2,000 – Jennifer Gray (EWI of Denver)

ASIST Winner $2,000 – Kaarina Hakronen (EWI of Calgary)

ASIST Winner $2,000 – Morgan House (EWI of Arkansas)

ASIST Winner $2,000 – Elizabeth Mees (EWI of Jackson)

ASIST Winner $2,000 – Debbie Newcombe (EWI of Detroit-Windsor)

EWISP

First Place $5,000 – Julie Hieger (EWI of Wichita)

Second Place $3,000 – Christine Ta (EWI of Seattle)

Third Place $2,000 – Victoria Nguyen (EWI of Shreveport-Bossier City)

Fellows (Fellows Scholarships are awarded to EWI representatives to assist in educational pursuits.)

$2,500 Award – Emily Kurlinksi – EWI of Chattanooga

$1,000 – Gail Billings – EWI of Cincinnati




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Career Tracks

Thursday, September 11, 2014 "What the Social Media Revolution Means For You" with Maddie Grant The discussion for this career track focused on LinkedIn and how to use it effectively, not only to market yourself but to also look for potential EWI members. Maddie Grant pointed out that many human resources departments utilize LinkedIn to look for potential hires, so why shouldn't EWI members utilize this resource as a way of looking for potential new members? LinkedIn may also be used as a means of advertising EWI. If you have EWI listed in your LinkedIn profile and your passion for the organization is strongly exhibited, it's more likely that someone who you connect with through LinkedIn may ask you about it, opening the conversation for you to tell them more about EWI. She also advised us on some best practices for using LinkedIn. She cautioned us not to connect with someone we don't know. It should be a personal connection, so if you don't know someone, don't connect! Also, don't connect with someone who doesn't have a picture or any detailed information about themselves in their profile. In LinkedIn, endorsements are very popular, but not very reliable. Recommendations are more real connections.

There was some discussion among the EWI members in attendance about using Groups on LinkedIn. Suggestions were made to create a group as a chapter. If your goal is recruitment, then make your group open. A closed group could be used for retention of current members, using it for internal communications and information. Maddie then turned the conversation to websites. A member of the Colorado Springs chapter recommended assigning certain members in your chapter to update the various pages or sections of your website. It's important to update your website regularly! Your chapter story or message should show your passion. She also, stressed the importance of regularly monitoring the migration of social media to determine what's "in" and what's not and to adjust accordingly. A final tip was given...find new members who can help with the technology items for your EWI chapter.




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"Maximizing Your Verbal Assets: Impactful Communication for Professionals" with Beth Levine Beth Levine grabbed our attention from the start with her introduction. She brought to our attention that although it's ingrained in us to conclude our presentations with a strong message, we need to move this strong conclusion to the front of our presentation. We need to grab our audience's attention from the beginning! Throughout her presentation she stressed the importance of packaging what you say and doing it with value. She helped us realize that our success is measured by how well we communicate. In her words, "Communications = Currency of Success." Beth stressed that in your communications, you should adhere to three core universal principles: 1) Audience Rules, 2) Too Much Information Kills, and 3) Value Rocks. She then proceeded to illustrate each core universal principle. The first principle deals with audience traits. Do they want to be here? Are they being forced to attend? She labeled an audience who is present because it is mandatory for them to attend as a "hostage" audience. Essentially, you are holding them hostage for your presentation! Beth advised that the best thing you can do to handle such an audience is to "call it out" and tell them what it is. She then went on to discuss audience traits. Most audiences don't want to work hard but rather want to be spoon fed. She provided us with the "8/18" data on adult attention spans. Within the first "8" seconds of your presentation, people decide whether you are worth listening to or not. By "18" minutes into your presentation, the average adult's attention span drops because they can only digest 18 minutes of material or content at a time. Their attention spans are usually the highest at the beginning and at the end of a presentation, so you want to create multiple peaks in your presentation to keep them interested. You might do this by providing a handout , doing a brief exercise or showing a short video clip to recapture their interest. The audience bottom line? Keep it short, sweet, and make it valuable to them. Answer their question of "What's In It For Me?"

Next, Beth talked about what she called the serious "rabbit hole" that is the number one killer for a presentation...TMI (Too Much Information)! She stressed the importance of prioritizing. Emphasize the relationship rather than the information. She then talked about the "message" versus the "information." She described the message as the summary or over-arching statement of value whereas the "information" is essentially the background and/or details. So when giving a presentation, she directed us to first tell the audience what you're going to tell them - provide the message. Next, tell them the information - i.e. the details. Then provide a summary of the information. Beth stressed that you can never repeat things enough. You should

continue to refresh and remind your audience. Finally, give them a directive; tell them what you want them to do!




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The last core universal principle that she discussed was that "value rocks." It is your responsibility to create a message that is of value to your audience. She provided us with a handout on what she called her "message finder." It's a concentric circle diagram which guides you in answering the question, "What's in it for me?" for your audience. By examining what you offer and what others may offer to your audience, you can determine your unique value that you bring to your audience. It is then your responsibility to inform your audience of the value you provide that others do not.

LCAM Conference Catalyst - Thom Singer

Thom Singer, our Conference Catalyst, enlightened us after breakfast on Thursday morning. Although I had consumed my limit of coffee by then, I really wouldn’t have needed the caffeine! From the beginning of his talk, it was evident that his 23 years of sales & marketing experience have helped him become an expert in branding, positioning and networking. He has trained thousands of professionals in the art of building professional contacts that lead to increased business. I am happy to report, that 7 representatives of EWI of Milwaukee are now part of that group! One of our EWI priorities is Connections and Thom’s discussion definitely highlighted that priority. Networking and making connections at our EWI events is so important, not only for ourselves, but also for the future of our chapter. Human engagement, a meaningful connection between two or more people, creates success for the people involved. In today’s world of technology however, pulling people together to have a meaningful connection turns out to be more about “making a choice” to make it happen. So what did that mean for us? Thom challenged us to have breakfast, lunch and hallway conversations with new connections at the conference because each and every one of them would be a learning opportunity. The connections would create a mutually beneficial conversation and relationship with others. Easy to say, but was it easy to do? It was, if we followed his advice to make sure that our nametag was visible, to make sure that we smiled so that we looked approachable and to make sure that we used the power of the word ‘hello’ by being curious about others. The training I’ve received from Mary Kay in my 32 year career, has been very similar to what we learned from Thom. As women, we feel much better walking into a room when we know others and when others reach out to us. My challenge to you, EWI of Milwaukee, is the same as what Thom gave us. Sit with someone you don’t know at each Chapter Membership Meeting. Find out who they are and what makes them tick. Listen to them and then let them find out about you. This is not a Jr. High dance where everyone sits around like a wall flower. Use the ‘power of hello’ and make a connection. Life is a marathon…not a sprint. You could be one person away from meeting the person who will change your life. Donna Munnik




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Academy Breakfast with Fawn Germer Friday, September 12, 2014 Fawn Germer was the perfect speaker to launch the day for EWI’s Academy of Leadership training sessions. She immediately caught our attention with a unique word that you probably won’t find in any dictionary -“bosshole.” That is how she described a previous boss of hers. By the audience’s reaction, you could tell everyone knew what she meant. She went on to describe how she allowed herself to be held captive by such a “bosshole” for the sake of job security. She was too afraid to quit her job and lose all of her benefits – weeks of vacation and health benefits – to make a career change. Fawn went on to state that women tend to be more averse to risk than men. She advised, “Don’t let security be your dangerous anchor,” but rather take risks! She stressed that taking a risk is the only way to test your true potential. It all boils down to what we are learning, what we decide to do with what we learn, and who we decide to be. She then went on to guide us towards taking such risks. She began by talking about sell-esteem. What matters most is how you see yourself. You need to learn to like yourself and “be real.” Fawn suggested practicing the science of affirmations to build up our self-esteem. However, she cautioned that we need to be in the right mindset to make them work. If you don’t believe in your affirmations, they will not work. She then went on to urge us to step outside of our comfort zone. You don’t have to be liked by everybody, so don’t be afraid to be yourself. She pointed out that you learn from being uncomfortable. Stop worrying! Most of the things you worry about never happen anyway. Ask for favors. She advised us to seek help from others as you climb your way to the top; don’t climb alone. She reinforced that EWI was a good organization for helping other women to climb. Finally, she encouraged us to advertise ourselves and take responsibility for what’s going on in our career. Many people think that excellence is good enough. However, she warned that “perfection is a myth” so we should “give up on perfection!” Instead, work your network. Step one is just showing up…and to keep showing up. Next – like putting on your shoes to go for a walk or a run – just get started! Once you take that initial step, you’re more likely to carry through with it. She wrapped up her presentation by inspiring us to believe in ourselves and to believe in our dreams. You have the power to choose your path. When you do, everything will fall into place. Don’t let fear hold you back. You choose your fear. It is fear and anger that holds you down. She left us with this mantra, “I will dive fearlessly into every moment for the rest of my life.” If you “lean out a little” by creating a life with hope and purpose, you will lead a great life!




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The Alumni Experience “It’s not About Balance; It’s About Choices with Fawn Germer” – Part 1 Following Fawn Germer’s Keynote, the Academy of Leadership Alumni had the opportunity for a Q&A with Fawn. As an author and business consultant, Fawn provided inspiration, motivation and some really down to earth messaging. She helped us look within ourselves to deal with obstacles simply by drilling down and then turning that stress or situation into an opportunity to either innovate or transform. Fawn stated that taking initiative and overcoming obstacles is within each one of us, but it may require us to make some tough choices. Stepping out of our comfort zone – will not always be an easy choice – but one that is necessary if you want real change. Her real life stories helped us realize that our shortcomings can turn out to be our greatest gifts. She challenged each of us to get moving, step out of our comfort zone and begin taking risks, you can’t beat the odds if you don’t try. Wisdom for Today from Leaders of the Past – Part 2 Antigoni Ladd, Co-founder and Academic Director at Tigrett Corp., took the group back in time by examining three great historic role models – Winston Churchill, Eleanor Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi. Examining their leadership behaviors helped us realize that we all possess these behaviors. Keys to becoming a leader – compassion, team spirit, and adapting to each situation while finding people’s strengths! - by Cindy Kunze




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