Professional Dress

Previous Professional Dress contributor Sandra Keating of the Atlanta Children’s Shelter is at it again, with the Shelter’s upcoming 10th Annual Achievers Celebration. 

ATLANTA, September 4, 2012 – The Atlanta Children’s Shelter (ACS) will host its 10th Annual Achievers Celebration on Thursday, September 27th, at 6:30 pm at the Renaissance Midtown. The evening of celebration will begin with a private reception and silent auction and will also include dinner, awards, and personal stories of success from each of its Achievers. Jocelyn Dorsey from WSBTV will be the Mistress of Ceremonies. As a former ACS board member, Ms. Dorsey knows about the wonderful programs the Shelter provides and how important it is to honor these families who have worked so diligently to provide a home for their children.

ACS is a leading homeless service provider for metropolitan Atlanta. Founded in 1986, the focus of ACS is to stabilize homeless families with young children. In the past 26 years, the Atlanta Children’s Shelter has cared for almost 8,000 homeless children and provided services for more than 5,000 homeless families. Six formerly homeless families will be honored at the Annual Achiever’s Celebration. These parents who are the 2012 Achievers have persevered and — with the support of ACS programs an services — have been able to maintain employment and permanent housing for their family for one year as they strive for self-sufficiency.

The price per ticket is $100. Sponsorship Opportunities are available. For more information please contact Christie Smith at csmith@acsatl.org.

About the Atlanta Children’s Shelter

Founded in 1986, the Atlanta Children’s Shelter (www.acsatl.org) provides free, quality day care, emotional support, and an educational curriculum for homeless children, plus focused social services for their families. Dedicated to helping families overcome the issues that contribute to homelessness, including domestic violence and job loss, the Atlanta Children’s Shelter focuses on the long term self-sufficiency of the family.

Atlanta Children’s Shelter
607 Peachtree Street, NE
Atlanta, GA 30308
Phone: 404.892.3713
Fax: 404.892.8947
Website: www.acsatl.org
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AtlantaChildrensShelter
Twitter: www.twitter.com/ATLChildren

Media contact:
Name: Sandra Keating, ACS Executive Director
Phone: 404-892-3713
Email: skeating@acsatl.org

Power, some people have it and others want it. Forbes recently released their list of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Womenwhich highlightswomen such as First Lady Michelle Obama and IBM’s Chief Executive Officer Virginia Rometty. “Power is the capacity or potential to influence” (Northouse). Power equals influence, which gives a person the ability to affect the attitudes, beliefs, and actions of others. Research shows that people who have power are: likable, knowledgeable, and/or possess status or job authority. Being powerful means feeling able to determine your destiny and having a sense of control over your life and its direction (Kouzes & Posner). Powerful people know how to mobilize support and resources for their objectives. You don’t have to be rich or famous to be powerful.

How do you increase your power? Here are some ways to increase your personal power quotient:

1- Be visible. Manage your professional presence this includes your appearance, behavior, and communication. Tout your successes to ensure that people know your strengths, platform, and areas of expertise. Work hard in public and in private to build a reputation for getting things done. Get involved in organizations within your community by volunteering, helping on a campaign, or serving on nonprofit boards.

2- Be a person of excellence and integrity. Endeavor to be the best version of yourself, that women that you always wanted to be and the one you would like to have as a friend, role model, or mentor. Be excellent because excellence matters. Be honest, reliable, and do what you say you are going to do even when it’s inconvenient. 

3- Have a plan and focus on your priorities. Define your life’s mission and focus on your passion.  Direct all of your activities to fulfill your mission. Determine specific goals; write them down and track your progress.

As you press toward your goals, help others along the way. If you focus on self-improvement you become someone people will follow. But power can only be determined based on how you affect others.

4- Be others focused. Enrich the lives of others. Mentor and empower those around you to become more knowledgeable, confident, and successful. Search for the best in others, encourage and nurture their gifts, and empower them for success. Don’t just praise your employees or those under your leadership. People at every level need support.  One thing many people forget as they reach their goals is to help others succeed; this creates a win-win.

5- Consider your relationships. Create a support team comprised of experienced professionals, thought leaders, and career strategists to serve as your own personal board of directors. Your board members should advise, mentor, and advocate for you. Seek out individuals that can assist you in different ways to fulfill your mission, and listen and learn from them. They will become champions for you and this will provide you with new opportunities.

Working well with others is essential in today’s work place. Follow the Golden Rule, and always treat others with respect and kindness, by doing this you create goodwill for yourself.  

6- Be positive. You will need a positive attitude to fulfill your goals and to press on as problems arise.

Do good and use your powers for good. Even if you have power because of your position, use it to make people and the organizations you belong to better, more effective, and efficient. When you concentrate on others you will earn their respect and improve your relationships.

If you purpose to do these things, you will boost your self-confidence, effectiveness, and automatically your personal power increases. Being powerful doesn’t mean making the Forbes list of Women Who Run the World it means being your best self and making a difference in the lives of those you come in contact with.

Yvette T. Dupree is a doctoral candidate in the department of Workforce Education at The University of Georgia. She is passionate about issues related to education, career, and leadership. Yvette is a certified marketing and business education teacher who continues to contribute to career and technical education as she completes her graduate studies. Ms. Dupree was recently recognized as Educator of the Year by the Georgia Marketing Education Association (GMEA). She received her Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing in 2003 and  Master of Arts in Teaching in Occupational Studies in 2007 from The University of Georgia. Ms. Dupree is an active community leader, volunteer, and a 2012 graduate of Leadership Clayton sponsored by the  Clayton County Chamber of Commerce. Ms. Dupree is a member of several civic, professional, and honorary organizations including, The Junior League of Atlanta, Georgia Association of Career and Technical Education, the American Marketing Association, and Omicron Tau Theta Graduate Honor Society.

 Follow Yvette Dupree on Twitter @yvettedupree 

On August 17, 2012, Dana Brownlee spoke to GLOW (Gwinnett Leadership Organization for Women) attendees about tactical approaches to dealing with the classic three worst meeting attendees. Dana founded Professionalism Matters, Inc. after several years in the corporate world and her specific suggestions are sure to be invaluable in making your meetings more productive and less frustrating.

So what are the three “dysfunctional” behaviors?

1) The Slacker: They never complete their action items; often they’re late to meetings; and they seem to generally not take meetings seriously.

2) The Dominator: These people talk over everyone; they are sure to make their points known, regardless of anyone else’s perspective.

3) The Rambler: They just go on and on and on and on… and on.

…and how do you handle them? The general challenge is that you must maintain the relationship and manage tasks. And you must preserve both.

1) The Slacker - If the Slacker approaches you moments before a meeting to let you know they didn’t get something done, thank them for the update, then request that they present their update to the group during the meeting.  In doing this, you don’t allow them to shift the accountability from them to you OR you sidestep their attempt to shift the accountability from them to you. As Brownlee stated, “Teams are great about discerning whether they need to come down hard or give a pass.” Establish a ground rule that if someone takes ownership of a task, they take complete ownership and report to the team accordingly. To prevent slacking behavior, be sure to assign and review each task (along with a date), and write it down. Every task must have an owner, a definition and a due date. Lastly, consider asking the task owner to set the due date, which increases the likelihood that he or she will get it done. But be mindful of how you assign tasks. Avoid generic and easy to dismiss “Do you understand?” type of confirmation questions.

Boost accountability with these three questions:
- Ask the owner what their understanding of the task is
- Ask them to explain what the deliverable will look like
- Ask them what the first three steps they will take will be
 
Finally, manage the Slacker with these specific suggestions:

• Document all action items and details
• Have action item owners propose the due date
• Ask for updates before the meeting
• Discuss consequences for missed due dates
• Suggest a ground rule that owners must notify another team member if there is jeopardy on a task
• If persistent issues arise, discuss offline one on one
• Use technology anywhere you can to make your life easier 

2) The Dominator - Brownlee offers several useful tips on managing these folks:

• Compliment, document and pivot: This 3 step approach involves making the Dominator feel heard. Most people dominate because they feel unheard. The natural inclination is to shut them down, which causes the cycle to repeat. So compliment, repeat their point, then parking lot the issue to document it. Finally, ask other people for their thoughts, re-directing the issue’s focus.
• Ask the Dominator to suggestion solutions, take items offline/parking lot, or accept the issue as an action item: Consider responding with “I agree that that’s an issue. How would you fix it?” Set a ground rule that if someone voices an concern/ complaint, they must also bring a solution. Give them responsibility.
• Get the Dominator’s support prior to the meeting: Especially if the Dominator is your boss! For example, “I’m concerned that when we talk about what’s wrong, everyone respects you so much, they’ll be tempted to say what you want to hear. And I know you want candid commentary…”
• Give the Dominator a special role (timekeeper, scribe, etc): Keep ‘em busy.
• Refer to ground rules (e.g. balanced airtime)
• Place Dominator’s issues toward the end of the agenda
• Use a “round robin” approach to emphasized balanced participation: Give each person a chance to voice their opinion about an issue.
• Use a gimmich to reinforce balanced air time: A physical item can be useful to remind attendees of time limits, whose turn it is to speak, etc.
• Consider following up with the Dominator after the meeting: “What’d you think?” 

3) The Rambler - Try these techniques:

• Refocus the team on PAL (Purpose, Agenda, Limit)
• Include timings on agenda topics (and follow them)
• Question if the issue can be taken offline: In fact, any time you need to say something delicate, turn it into a question. People don’t like to be told what to do.
• Acknowledge time spent on an issue and “time box” discussion: Ask the person if they’d be willing to take the item offline. If they refuse, follow up by 1) Asking the group what their thoughts are and/or 2) “Time Boxing” … “We’ll spend 5 more minutes on this issue, then we should assign an action item.”
• Park the issue to be addressed later
• Assign a co-facilitator to alert the team when a topic goes into a rabbit hole: Or consider the “rambler police” in informal team settings.

Generally, you don’t want to create a parent/ child relationship. Rather, you should build a culture of accountability. 

For more information on this and many other topics, visit www.meetinggenie.com or www.professionalismmatters.com.

Or contact Dana: danapbrownlee@professionalismmatters.com
678.777.7188