sparkspace announces another powerful presentation

Making Yourself Valuable In The Workplace

Date: Tuesday, September 29th

Time: 8am-10am

Location: sparkspace in the Arena District

Cost: Free, but registration is requiredSIGN UP ONLINE NOW

There are many misconceptions about business owners and entrepreneurs; one of them is that they desire the power of making decisions, and this idea could not be further from the truth. The fact is, employers are looking for team members who can get the job done and solve problems without tons of hand holding.

In order to stand out from the pack and earn the promotion you deserve, you must create value for your employer. Luckily, as a business owner, I know tools you need to incorporate in your work environment to achieve your career goals.

Being valuable is the only way to advance in your career, ensure any kind of job stability, make a real contribution to your organization, and ultimately to achieve your goals.

Come to this quick, powerful presentation and learn how to become valuable by:

- becoming an "I'll take care of it" person.
- presenting solutions, not ideas or problems
- being accountable

If you're an employee with desires for advancement, this presentation will start you on the right path (or help you continue more powerfully).

If you have employees you'd like to encourage to step up, be more accountable, and get more done, you should send them to this presentation!

SIGN UP ONLINE NOW

About our Presenter:

Greg Ubert is Founder and President of Crimson Cup® Coffee & Tea, a specialty coffee roaster/retailer and teacher of coffee shop business success, with 2007 sales of $6.4 million based in Columbus, Ohio. Greg founded Crimson Cup® Coffee & Tea in 1991 to roast The World's Best Coffee and teach businesses how to be successful in specialty coffee. He documented his passion for teaching others and his proven business philosophy in a book entitled Seven Steps to Success. This book provides the business template necessary to succeed in specialty coffee.

Greg is a member of the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) and the service organization Rotary Club of Columbus. He serves on the advisory boards of Junior Achievement of Central Ohio and The Ohio State University School of Hospitality Management.

Greg holds a B.A. in economics from Harvard University, where he was a linebacker for the Crimson football team and a pitcher on the university's baseball team. Greg lives in Columbus with his wife Laura and their three children: Caroline, Jack and Nick.

Is There A Sally In Your Organization?

by guest author Cat Bauman, Circulation Marketing Manager, Columbus Business First

This year I began grad school on top of working full-time. To keep balance in my life and avoid gaining a hundred pounds I started working out religiously by going to the gym at 5:30AM three times a week. In January, when I first started going to the local YMCA, I was the only female in the cardio room, surrounded by older men that kept their noses to the treadmills and barely spoke.

In February, a new front desk person was hired and the environment began to change.More women were showing up to workout in the morning. The tired, stuffy, and grumpy old men were more friendly, energetic, and fun to be around and over time the man-to-woman ratio actually leveled off. Why? I think it had a lot to do with Sally, the new front desk clerk.

Sally is an energetic, fun, and loving person. She goes out of her way to get to know every "Y" member that comes through the door. She has a way of making everyone feel welcomed and appreciated just by cheerfully saying good morning and genuinely asking how their morning is going. Everyone can tell that Sally truly CARES and I believe that is why she is so successful at her job. Sally actually cares about the "Y" members, her co-workers, and the "Y" itself. Sally demonstrates her level of caring through her words and actions.

In March of this year, I wrote Sally a note thanking her for being her. The day I gave Sally the note, I said good morning and nonchalantly slid the note across the front desk and went on my merry way to the cardio room. After my workout Sally stopped me and thanked me for the note. To my surprise, Sally said she really did not want to get out of bed this morning and didn't really want to be at the "Y". But no one would have ever guessed she was having a bad day by her warm smile and cheery disposition. Sally continued to say that the note made her day and made her time at the "Y" worthwhile.

Do you know a Sally in your organization? Someone who is upbeat, positive, and truly cares about people? Have you ever noticed how their attitude positively impacts people on your team, department, or company? If so take a moment to write them a personal note of gratitude and appreciation. You just might return the favor and make their day a little brighter.

Cat Bauman is our guest author this week. Cat is the Circulation Marketing Manager at Columbus Business First. She's also a former Director of Guest Happiness here at sparkspace where she spent almost five years being our "Sally." When she told us about her experience with Sally, we thought it would be a great story to share with you!

1% Improvement

I work best when I have a clear goal that's slightly aspirational. Last year, I ran the Columbus half-marathon. I set a goal to get my body to run (term used loosely) 13.1 miles. I'd never run more than 6 miles at one time before, and that was in high school.

I downloaded a training program that made the process much easier. It started easy by asking me to run 2 miles on the first run. Over 12 weeks, the plan worked me up to 11 miles the week before the race. The theory, then is that your excitement, adrenaline, and fellow runners will help you squeeze out those extra 2 miles on race day.

The plan worked. And while it wasn't always easy, it wasn't that hard, either. The little bit of improvement each week over time allowed me to gradually reach my goal -- without killing me.

33 days ago, I set a new goal: too be able to do 100 consecutive pushups and 100 consecutive situps. Even though I've never even come close to doing 100 of either, it is not entirely out of the realm of possibility. In other words, it's an achievable goal in my mind. Aspirational, maybe. Perspirational, definitely.

I decided to break this down into 100 days of continuous improvement by improving "1%" per day. 100 was my end goal, so I started with 1 and I'm adding 1 pushup and 1 situp each day until I reach my goal.

Yes, I started with 1 pushup and 1 situp. Yes, I felt silly doing only 1. In fact, I felt silly until I reached day 10. Even my dogs looked at me with a look that said, "Really, you're only doing 1?"

This morning I did 33 consecutive pushups and 33 consecutive situps. I've never in my life done more than 25. Not even in the "Presidential Fitness Test" in elementary school. And I had rock-hard abs back then!

DISCLAIMER -- Don't get hung up on the math. It's not technically 1% improvement each day. On day 2, it was actually 100% improvement and continues to decrease in percentage each day. I'm just going for a clever theme here, so play along. -- END OF DISCLAIMER

What has surprised me is that each day feels pretty much the same, even though I'm doing more each day. It goes pretty easy until the last 3 or 4, but I'm always able to do those (and even feel like I could do a couple more if I had a gun to my head).

Continuous improvement is always like that. If you push yourself a little bit each day, improvement never really hurts much. Improvement only hurts when we try to do it all at once. In fact, we often fear the pain of improvement so much that we avoid making improvement. And, of course, that becomes a vicious circle. After avoiding it for awhile, then you're FORCED to improve (or give up, or die).

Think of the TV show, The Biggest Loser. Man, those people go through some serious pain as they try to improve their health in a short amount of time. I've heard more than one person say that show has motivated them to start improving their health NOW so they never have to face that kind of pain.

Continuous improvement applies to any area of life, not just health & fitness. Consider what would happen if you improved your customer service just 1% each day, or even each week. How about improving your knowledge by 1% each day? Or making 1% more sales calls this week than you did last week?

Think 1% doesn't make a difference? If you're competitive at all, how much does it take to win any competition? If you score 100 points and your opponent only scores 99, who wins?

Whether you're competitive or not, is there something in your life, business, or work that you'd like to achieve? Can you break it down into 100 steps or increments (like 1 situp) and do 1% each day?

I'm starting to believe that I can achieve just about anything in 100 days. After all, if I can do 100 situps and 100 pushups, I can do just about anything. My soon-to-be rock-hard abs and I will keep you posted.