Wednesday, March 25, 2020 Youth Leadership and Empowerment: Creating a Culture of Engagement - Jera Niewoehner-Green, PhD REGISTRATION

Conflict is a part of our daily lives at work or at home. How we manage conflict has a direct impact on how fulfilled we feel about our work, the quality of work, and the quality of work from our respective teams or units. Effectively dealing with and using conflict as a positive tool is a major component of success in current or future leadership roles.

Over the past decade a growing body of literature has documented the importance of social and emotional effectiveness as well as effective coaching (how we take good people and make them the best they can be) and feedback skills.  As leaders face times of increasingly rapid changes within their respective organizations, teams, and/or laboratories they must proactively work with others to lead them through these challenging times while continuing to meet the changing needs of stakeholders and clientele.  

Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Telling the Farm Story - Joy Rumble, PhD and Emily, Buck, PhDREGISTRATION

“If knowing yourself and being yourself were as easy to do as to talk about, there wouldn't be nearly so many people walking around in borrowed postures, spouting secondhand ideas, trying desperately to fit in rather than to stand out.” - Warren G. Bennis

"Success in life, in anything, depends upon the number of persons that one can make himself agreeable to.” -Thomas Carlyle Working relationships are improved when you know and understand your personality style. Why? Because it helps you understand your behavior and why you act the way you do. When you can figure out what makes people tick and what ticks them off, you can create strategies for improving your relationships with them.

There are many choices to be made in the workplace. The workplace can be a breeding ground for conflict due to different personality and communication styles. We can choose to ignore or accelerate conflict with others, or we can choose to allow conflict to make the positive changes within our organization. On the other hand, we can choose to work collaboratively, or cooperatively together to further the goals of our organization. It's a choice we make, so what will it be today?

Millennials are no longer simply entering a multi-generational workforce; many are leading it.   As of 2015,  the majority of employees in the workforce are now Millennials, and many are being promoted to supervisory leadership positions.  This generation of highly educated 20-30 somethings tend to have an unconventional supervisory style, which can be a source of inspiration... or conflict. To be an effective supervisor it is important for a Millennial to understand the  work values and management preferences of the other generations.

Are you a positive leader? Do you wonder how others think about your attitude as a leader? A quick test is to observe the way people react to you when you walk into a room. Are people happy to see you? Do they want to talk to you? Or do they quickly make themselves scarce? If they run when they see you, it's time for an attitude check.