Join Us Jan 23  
Play to Win! The New Entrepreneurial You 
You  are invited to experience a fun and dynamic mini-workshop that sharpens your  entrepreneurial skills.


Play the FreshBiz Game  at ITWomen's first program for the new year! Meet us at 5:30 pm Thursday,  Jan. 23, in Sunrise, Florida at Cross Country Home Services, our host  sponsor.  REGISTER HERE.

Certified Leadership Coach Clare Merlo will  lead the
mini-workshop. Top companies such as Google, HP, IBM, and  
entrepreneurs and universities worldwide benefit from the experiential and  
playful style of FreshBiz to sharpen entrepreneurial tools and fuel creative
inspiration.

What is gamification?  Why is it important?  

According to Brian Burke* of Gartner, Inc., when designed correctly, gamification has proven to be very successful in engaging people and motivating them to change behaviors, develop skills or solve problems. Leveraging some of the features used in real games, gamification can turn many other types of activities into games.

Gamification is currently being used at the following companies:  Nike built the Nike+ platform to engage fitness enthusiasts to take their workouts to the next level. Khan Academy uses gamification to enhance the learning experience for students. Quirky uses gamification to crowdsource ideas from inventors for product development. 

 FreshBiz workshops however are different, they operate at a different level. Playing an actual game, participants begin to understand how they operate, how they show up in their everyday lives.  Through this realization, change can occur.  People start to think more broadly, taking advantages of their opportunities in an experiential, positive way.

* Brian Burke is an industry analyst at Gartner where he covers enterprise architecture and emerging gamification trends. He is author of the Gartner Special Report “Gamification: Engagement Strategies for Business and IT”. 

My  WITI Experience
. . . One of the amazing things I learned from Kelly  Boyle, Financial Advisor &  Lesley Frohman, Sherlock Technology,  organizers of the  recent ‘Shift your career into High Gear’ networking event, about Women in
Technology International (WITI) is that the #1 entry in the WITI Code of Ethics and Philosophy is their policy, No one stands alone.  How  often have you been at a networking event, unsure of what to do next? OK, you say to yourself, that woman is not speaking with anyone; should I go up to her and introduce myself? That guy looks interesting, but maybe he is waiting for a  friend and wouldn’t want to speak with me. How often do we let this self talk get in the way? In the past, I have fallen into this trap. Shyness, insecurity,  whatever the reason, knowing this simple statement, ‘No on stands alone’ is at the core of WITI, I observed that everyone at the networking event, even me, felt free, without awkwardness, to go up  to anyone in the crowd and introduce themselves. That was a great feeling of freedom and inclusion for me and other attendees and made us want to participate regularly in WITI events.

Are you a part of a group that practices inclusion or other wonderful ideas?  Please share

What a wonderful event at Women in Technology International (WITI): fun,  relaxed atmosphere, informative panelists, great location, Peak10, and fabulous sponsors, AppleOne.  As the panel moderator, I learned a great deal from the facial expressions I  observed from the audience and comments I received from attendees, it seemed that  everyone enjoyed the dialogue and took home a few nuggets that they can apply to  their own careers. The articulate responses to questions by our  panelists, Stephanie Sylvestre of OPC, Michelle  Nason of Citrix & Beth Morgan of Verizon-Terremark demonstrated and reinforced that effective communication is key to being an effective leader.   

Stephanie engages the power of love in her  management style, loving her team members and her job in equal measure. She was  encouraged early on by her father to be a leader, believes that generational differences in the workplace are a made up problem, and is convinced that finding a mentor you trust and especially mentoring others is the key to becoming a successful leader.

Michelle considers listening to be a key to effective management and she likes to engage her team in fun activities to
help relieve the stresses of work and to set the stage for a collaborative environment. She has been greatly influenced by her children to lead a more balanced life. Her son asked her why she and dad were always working. This made
her ask herself, why am I working at home when I should be interacting with my children? So she made a decision to put away the computer and phone and spend more quality time with her family.

Giving back to her community, mentoring, and making connections between colleagues are ways that Beth makes a difference.   One of the biggest challenges that she has faced in her career has been the adjustment from an entrepreneurial to a larger more structured work environment. Coaching herself and her team to make the adjustment has been a challenge, but well worth learning how to navigate effectively in a new culture. 

All of the panelists agreed that the best employees are honest with a high degree of integrity. They described the qualities of a top notch team as: Competent,  Compassionate, Confident, and Customer focused. Most importantly, trust between managers and their teams is the glue that keeps everyone in sync.

My personal take-aways / action steps:
1)  Seek out a new mentor and mentee.
2)  Focus on being a more effective listener. 
3) Help my clients learn how to communicate more effectively in the workplace . .
. to further their careers
 
What did you take away from the event? Are you challenging yourself to
take action? Please post and let the panelists know how they have helped to shape and improve your career!

Clare