(Photo: Newk’s Eatery) Women play integral roles in keeping U.S. restaurants rolling along, and the industry provides both sexes with the chance to learn vital skills, develop work habits and advance into higher-level careers, according to recent research from the National Restaurant Association. More than half of U.S. restaurants are either owned or co-owned by women, according to the NRA. Women were the sole owners of 24.7% of "accommodation and foodservice" businesses as of 2014, according to a separate report from American Express, but that study also found that, as women ownership grew in other business sectors, only 2.3% of the women-owned businesses in the U.S. were in the foodservice industry. The Amex report doesn’t break out how many of the restaurants are franchises, but earlier research by the International Franchise Association revealed that sole ownership by women dipped between 2002 and 2007, the most recent year measured. The report found that 12.5% of franchised restaurant were owned by women and 25.7% were equally owned by men and women in 2007, compared to 13.2% and 20.3% respectively in 2002. Cassandra Stokes became a franchisee in 2007 when she opened a Wingstop in her small Texas town of Nacodoches, the first step in moving into the restaurant business after 26 years in the Navy, including time in the reserves and time on active duty. Stokes has also spent much of her adult life raising a family — she and her husband have a total of nine children — and dreaming of creating her own restaurant concept someday. Now, she’s making the most of her franchise ownerships in Wingstop and Newk’s Eatery, a concept she bought into to open her second restaurant, to raise the funds and learn all aspects of the business. "For me this was planned many years ago, 20 years ago, that I would open up several franchises in order to gain the knowledge would need to do my own concept," she said. Stokes did her homework to find concepts that fit with her values and her desire to do fast casual, she said, and once she saw Wingstop and later Newk’s, the decisions were easy. "Wingstop was the right fit with my philosophy. Then, when I knew I needed to move up to another level, something more intense with a bigger menu, then Newk’s became that one," she said. Making it happen wasn’t quite as easy as choosing the concepts, though. Securing financing was a hurdle, despite her military record and thorough business plan, she said. None of the five male bankers who turned her down said it was because she was a woman, and they all said her plan was solid. "It didn’t matter that I had cash to put into it, they just didn’t want to take the chance," she said. It was a woman bank president who finally agreed to make that first loan, she said. "I have so many loans with her now, I do so much business with her. All my kids have accounts with her and I recommend that bank all the time." Getting franchise financing was tougher all around during the recession, but the recovery may have come with opportunities for franchisees of both genders. "In the past several years, I see more and more women getting loans, and more and more are pursuing being business owners," she said. Andrea Cheek, a Newk’s franchisee in the Dallas/Fort Worth market, opened her restaurant two years ago after assembling a team of investors and securing bank financing. The loan wasn’t immediate, but it didn’t take nearly as long as it did for Stokes. Both Stokes and Cheek say that franchising has proved as rewarding as they had hoped, but being the boss came with a learning curve. Stokes’ career included a stint in the aerospace industry before the Navy, and in both places she felt that as a woman she had to work harder to be taken seriously. As a franchisee she studied not only how to manage, but specifically how to manage people of other generations. As a result, she said, her turnover at Wingstop has been below the industry average for six years. "In military, you have a captive audience," she said. "After moving to the restaurant industry, it took some time for me to realize the generational differences. I read a lot of books on it, and it taught me a lot about what certain generations expect, how they work best with their teammates and such I really found it quite intriguing, and it was rewarding to get people to excel, to motivate them." Cheek’s age issues with her employees went in the other direction. She was 28 and a former marketing consultant when she opened her restaurant. "Now my hourly employees respect me, but in the beginning the staff was mostly older than me. For some of them it was hard — it’s mostly a male dominated industry. It ended up working out just fine eventually." It helped that Newk’s policy is to have new franchisees travel to the Jackson, Miss., headquarters and work as an hourly employee every day for a month. "I did all the job, that gave the managers and the hourly workers a level of respect for me. I know it’s hard work, but I don’t ask them to do anything I wouldn’t do myself. They’ve seen me cleaning bathrooms. " Both women say family support is key to their success and their ability to grow. Cheek’s lawyer husband has been known to buss tables in a business suit and Stokes hopes some of her children will want to take over management of her restaurants one day. Operating the franchise helped Stokes get the means to buy a historic building downtown that will someday house her new concept, she said. Before that, she’ll open a second Newk’s location. Since 2011, she has also been mentoring the next generation of Wingstop franchisees. "I think women are very well suited for the restaurant industry," she said. "You have to be a people person, you have to want to develop your staff and your crew members, there’s definitely a nurturing thing you need to have. Then obviously you have to have the good business sense as well. A a lot of times women are very organized they’ve learned to multitask really well." __________________________________________________ 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: Bellacures: Taking a nail salon from startup to franchise How a grandmaster became a franchise master Q-and-A with Bill Swanson, global CFO and North America CEO, Cartridge World Q-and-A: Marco’s Pizza CEO Jack Butorac The story of Salata Women make their way in restaurant franchising originally published by SmartBlogs

This post is sponsored by Teaching Channel.  Video is redefining how teacher development happens for many education organizations, creating personalized, professional learning experiences and an evidence base of improving teacher practice. In this Expert Spotlight Q&A, Teaching Channel CEO Pat Wasley explains why the use of video is so powerful, and describes how it is being used effectively. Pat has been a public school administrator, a researcher, a university professor and a dean of both the Bank Street Graduate School of Education and the University of Washington College of Education. Along the way, she has worked in a variety of roles to understand how to prepare and support teachers as they develop an ever-growing and sophisticated repertoire of approaches for working with children.   What are some of the major barriers to teacher growth? Pat Wasley: There are a few identifiable conditions that have historically held teachers back from growing the way they would like to grow. For one thing, teachers work alone in their classrooms so they don’t get a chance to see other people teach. It’s really hard to improve your practice if you don’t see anybody else teach. And the result is that most teachers teach the way they were taught. Also, teachers often don’t receive much feedback on their instruction. They might get an evaluation from their principal twice a year, but most teachers report that this is not enough feedback to help them grow all year long. Teachers need a way to get more frequent input. Add to this the fact that many professional learning experiences are passive, ‘sit-n-get’ experiences, that is, an idea or strategy is presented without any opportunity for teachers to interact with it, or any structure put in place to promote the use and adaptation of the strategy, and what you end up with is little to no change in teaching practice. How does video unlock teacher potential? PW: Video addresses the challenges I mentioned in very powerful ways, and it’s having a profound impact on teachers’ professional learning. When teachers watch video of their colleagues, they develop a broader imagination for how teaching can be done. Watching videos of teaching collected from across the country, or across your district, helps people see all kinds of methods and approaches they might not have tried in their own teaching. Ellen Lugo, assistant superintendent for Upland Unified School District, which uses the Teaching Channel Teams video-based professional learning platform, shared a story with me about one of her teachers. In a district meeting with teachers, administrators and the teacher’s union, the teacher said that in her 30 years of teaching, she had only been able to visit about 10 classrooms to watch other models of teaching. After about five months of implementing the Teams platform, she had visited over 100 classrooms. This is huge, and demonstrates one way in which video helps to break down barriers to teacher growth. When teachers take the use of video to the next level and record and watch themselves trying new, or even existing, strategies, they are able to reflect — on their own or with colleagues or coaches — on their approaches to working with students in a much more concrete way. Cameras are always more reliable than memories! Additionally, recording their own practice provides an evidence-base of improving practice as teachers first try, and then refine, a wide range of strategies. As Jennifer Wolfe, a teacher at Oceanside School District and Teams enthusiast explains, "Our focus has always been about enhancing professional practice. Teaching Channel Teams was a great way for us to introduce examples of effective teaching, but also to support what we were doing with teachers with actual evidence of it being done. With the Teams platform, we can create these Groups, these really healthy spaces where we can continue to talk about teaching and the work we do together. That’s pretty great because it doesn’t become a one-hit wonder, something that you forget the second that you put your key in the door in the parking lot; it becomes a living thing." What does the research say about the use of video for professional learning? PW: There is a wealth of research on the use of video for professional learning. One important finding is related to the importance of a teacher’s ability to ‘notice’. Video allows teachers to go back and watch their interactions with students over and over again, enabling them to pick up on cues they might have missed in the moment. We also know from the research that sustained reflection on video helps teachers pay attention to classroom interactions in new ways, learn to more effectively diagnose student thinking, and interpret the impact of pedagogical techniques. In a recent webinar we did with our colleague, author and coaching expert Jim Knight, he summed this up by saying that the power of video is is in its ability to provide a clear picture of our practice, and that a clear picture of reality is the starting point for effective professional learning. What does it look like when video is used as a central component of a professional learning program? PW: Innovative districts across the country are using the Teams video-enabled professional learning platform to address a wide range of initiatives. A few of the most interesting programs focus on coaching, professional learning communities (PLCs), and new teacher mentor programs. Michelle Rooks, a fourth-year middle school instructional coach and member of a 10-person district-wide team, is leading the charge in Teton County School District to integrate video as a foundational practice of teacher learning, with the objective of ensuring that all students are taught by effective teachers. As Michelle explained in a webinar, in Teton County, video is used at every part of the coaching cycle, from planning conversations with teachers, to instruction, to student interactions and interviews. The time-stamped Notes feature in Teams is a key tool for Teton coaches and helps them identify specific moments of practice in exemplar videos as well as teacher-generated videos. The collaboration between coach and teacher has improved in many ways. Not only are coaches and teachers able to connect more often, even on a daily basis, via private Teams Groups but, as Michelle explains, the use of video has "opened bigger, more honest conversations about what we are actually seeing. The teachers have grown more comfortable with discussions about what occurred in the video after reading through my notes. Because you are pointing something out to them and they can see it, the discussions, and the learning, go so much faster. The evidence is right there in front of all of us." In another webinar, Brandon Dorman from Fresno Unified School District described the work they are doing with their Innovative Professional Learning Grant. The goal of this work is to provide effective professional learning experience to support comprehensive implementation of the Common Core State Standards. Video has a central role in their redesigned Professional Learning Updraft System (PLUS). Among other things, Fresno implemented quarterly cycles in which teachers and leaders work together to design modules, engage in lesson study, and engage in calibrated scoring and analysis of student work. This is supported through their Accountable Communities (a more structured form of PLCs), which now meets both in-person and online via the Teams platform. Video is used at each point in this process to connect leadership with what teachers are learning, and to make the learning more visible and participatory. Tulsa Public Schools has integrated video in a number of professional learning initiatives. Jamie Lomax, director of Title I for Tulsa, provided insight into this work in a webinar. The district is using video for its New Teacher Mentor program and its Critical Friends Groups (CFGs, another form of an effective PLC). The district has also created a set of their own videos aligned to their Teacher Effectiveness Model. The videos are stored and shared on their private Teams platform, allowing all teachers to access effective models of instruction demonstrated by their colleagues. Tulsa’s New Teacher Mentors are instructional coaches for first-year teachers. The program begins with a meeting between the teacher and mentor to discuss what the teacher wants to focus on. Then they capture video of the mentee’s instruction using the Tch recorder app, load it into their Teams group, and then each person views the video and uses the time-stamped Notes to annotate the video. After, they meet virtually or in person to discuss what they saw, and define areas where the teaching is going well, as well as areas that need further refinement. Videos from the Teams or Tulsa library that demonstrate effective practice in the areas that need work are posted to the Group to provide a model for the new teacher to observe and analyze. When asked about the effectiveness of using video with new teachers, the mentors agreed that video has been the difference-maker in helping new teachers grow quickly. These are just a few examples of the innovative, effective work that is being done with video-based professional learning across the country. There are so many more; so many educators are grasping the power of video. It is such an exciting time to be an educator.     Related Posts: No Related Posts How video is redefining teacher development originally published by SmartBlogs

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