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Your local leaders take on Texas and the international leaders’ conference

By Marie K. Fitzpatrick, ABC

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Share. Lead. Succeed. That’s what’s happening at the upcoming IABC Leadership Institute (LI) this week.  IABC Golden Horseshoe President, Rob Jeanveau and Past President, Marie Fitzpatrick, ABC, are heading off to the annual conference this week in Dallas, Texas.

One of the significant benefits of being part of an industry association, like IABC, is the opportunity to learn from others from around the world.  The international connection is the game changer.

With a focus on member attraction and retention, they’ll join other like-minded individuals who are moving their local chapters forward.  It’s an incredible opportunity to network with fellow leaders, build strong relationships and learn new skills useful in their current volunteer roles with IABC.

“I hope to gain, at this year’s conference, some new ideas about ways we can support our members. Our professional development sessions continue to gain momentum. We’ve also reached out to the students at Mohawk, Sheridan and Niagara College recently to help them connect their aspirations to the current skills needed in our industry,” says Rob Jeanveau, President of IABC Golden Horseshoe.

For Fitzpatrick, it’s about the investment in the chapter. “I’m grateful that our chapter received support from the Canada East Region Board once again and now IABC headquarters, through a new local scholarship. Proudly we are the ‘little chapter that could,” comments Marie Fitzpatrick, ABC, Past President of IABC Golden Horseshoe and Past V.P. Volunteers of IABC Toronto.

This week, check @IABCGH to hear from our local leaders as they share, lead and succeed at this year’s LI conference.

Click here for more information about Leadership Institute. Plus, check #IABCLI2017 for other live updates about the conference.

Marie K. Fitzpatrick, ABC

Marie is an award-winning, accredited business communicator with 25+ years of experience implementing strategic communications. She holds Bachelor of Arts from Ryerson University in Journalism, a certificate in Public Relations and an executive education certificate in Risk and Crisis Communications from McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business. Marie is an avid community builder with more than two decades of volunteering on numerous boards.

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Five Reasons You Should Reverse Mentor with Your Millennial Employee

By Jessica Cabral

Wonderfully so, there are many opportunities for young professionals to be mentored by seasoned management.

What if management took the day to learn from their millennial employees?

Here are five reasons you should try reverse mentoring:

1. They’ll probably have something to teach you about social networking or technology
What’s Hootsuite? How do they have 100 followers? How can I easily sync my phone with my laptop? Millennials have grown up immersed in technology and have experience with more social networking platforms than you know exist.

2. Getting to know them better will help you to help them succeed
Sometimes we don’t know what we need. Work with us. Learn who we are. Chances are spending some one on one time with us will show you which ways we absorb information and how you can help us to be better employees and professionals.

3. You’ll most likely learn how to improve your company’s culture
It’s possible that you have employees who have worked at your company for 30+ years. A young employee will likely take in your culture quickly, and hear about your employees’ unhappiness soon after starting their job. Without betraying other employees’ trust, they could have insight or ideas about how to improve culture in your work place.

4. You’ll gain each other’s trust
It’s intimidating and difficult to become comfortable with your boss. You want to impress them and hide your shortcomings, which makes it difficult to ask for help. Spending time with your millennial and letting them know that you are there to help them and grow their abilities will make it easier for them to come to you when they need advice.

5. Hearing from them will give you a fresh perspective about how you do things
8 a.m. meetings every Tuesday morning. Sending mass emails about meetings. It’s easy to get into a groove about how we do things and forget about searching for more effective ways to get our tasks done. Maybe your millennial will have a system that inputs meetings and requests into a collaborative calendar. Having fresh eyes may improve how you do things.

Reverse mentoring is a great way to get to know your millennial better and improve your working relationship.

Jessica Cabral

Jessica is a Community Outreach Coordinator at the City of Hamilton, with a background in Communications and English from Wilfrid Laurier University and Public Relations from Mohawk College. She began as a student representative with IABC Golden Horseshoe in late 2015, and has since participated as the VP of Communications in 2016 and holds the VP of Portfolio Development and Events role for 2017. Fueled by ice coffee and potato chips, you can frequently find Jessica hugging puppies.