This past weekend I had the privilege of attending the ΚΚΨ and ΤΤΣ Midwest District Leadership Conference. After a short drive down to Kearney Nebraska (since about 10 hours seems short when it is filled with brother bonding and sing-a-longs!) nothing could have prepared me for the amount of energy and excitement that was about to unfold. Of course this wasn’t my first experience with workshops nor district events with Kappa, however I guess that the small close-knit group proved to be quite an inspiring time.

Dr. Neal Schnoor gave an enlightening presentation about leadership and life in general. The similarities of his lessons and the leadership minor  course readings were awesome, and his point of views on creating and acting on a vision first coincided perfectly with the minor’s teachings. I heard from many brothers and sisters the phrase “It was all things we knew, but didn’t know how to put into words.”  My feelings precisely after first taking the beginning leadership courses. That we all know about these concepts about moving and influencing others with passion, but due to the our inability to convey them through words shows our deficiencies in living the concepts. I’ll likely be talking about more of his presentation but just for now I’d like to elaborate about an exercise Dr. Schnoor did that resonated with me.

 ”Quality begins with me.” ~Stephen Covey

The exercise consisted of Dr. Schnoor throwing out a bunch of examples that either we as leaders, or even human beings in general, would find to be problematic and having all of us respond with “Quality begins with me.” Simple things from Our chapter isn’t motivated or People are not on time  to the not so obvious like My wife and I don’t connect anymore. The phrase “Quality beings with me” means that the first step to any solution is always in your control. Whether technical or adaptive changes need to be made, advances begin with your own approach. He elaborated to explain:

Its my fault even when she is wrong.

I wonder why this part itself stood out the most. Schnoor even admitted that the activity itself was a bit elementary and doesn’t mean too much in the sense of progress. I’d assume in many cases this to be a moot point since the root of the problem is not always centered around ourselves, but I didn’t skip over this one today. Maybe it was because this concept itself has a lot of potential with my life right now, or maybe it just aligns with my sense of drive, but either way it was powerful.

We talk a lot about humility and its importance for a leader and I think that as a concept most people feel they have a good grasp on. Do we ever stop to think of why humility is important for a leader? Or if it is equally important just for a person?

I’d have to say humility itself is important simply to exist as a tool. It’s a nice word with a set definition and quite easy to understand and strive to do. Its simplicity should allow for this concept to be easy to control, master and not discussed to the length that it must. Humility, however, allows us to practice more complex things. Adaptive changes (read changes in behavior and mind-set) are driven through humility, similar to how “Quality begins with me” allows us to change ourselves to improve the status of the world around us.

How many times a day can you say that you could change yourself to fix something?

• “I wish I had more time in the day.” I could have managed my time more wisely, changed my sleep schedule or been more effective during that 60 second stop light that I missed.
• “My coworkers annoy me.” I can connect on a deeper level with my colleagues so that our conversation does not dwell on work and its struggles. I can make our conversation worth while!
• “I’m not happy.” Whether its life, your status or anything there is always the first step to changing the world around you, and you’ll be surprised how easy it is to start by changing you.

I’d like to propose a challenge. Take the next week, month, year, whatever time period works for you, and consciously think about things that you can improve just by changing the way you act and react about it. Write it down, say it out loud, draw tally marks on your hand, use a physical method of keeping track of these ideas. Then at the end of your time period, dedicate yourself to making improvement in as many of these areas as possible. I’d like to hear all about them!

Let’s start a hashtag #beginswithme to track ideas or share progress. Changing the world is as simple and improving yourself and I think we’ll all like where this can take us!

#Beginswithme

 PRSA Midwest District Speakers Bureau Application

We look forward to hearing from you!

Peter Shankman Event Details

Event will feature Peter Shankman, founder of Help a Reporter Out (HARO)

The Northeast Wisconsin Chapter of Public Relations Society of America will hold its 10^th Anniversary Annual Meeting featuring PR Celebrity Peter Shankman at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 26, at Brett Favre Steakhouse, Green Bay, WI. The event is open to all communication professionals.

Shankman’s 90-minute speech will focus on how companies, agencies and others can use social media to generate revenue.

Shankman is a former journalist, turned public relations professional, turned entrepreneur who is recognized worldwide for his new ways of thinking about social media, public relations, marketing, advertising, creativity and customer service. He is most well-known for founding Help A Reporter Out (HARO), which connects thousands of journalists to sources around the world looking to be quoted in the media. According to his website, HARO is currently the largest free source repository in the world, sending out more than 1,200 queries from worldwide media each week. HARO’s tagline, “Everyone is an Expert at Something,” proves over and over again to be true, as thousands of new members join at helpareporter.com each week. The site currently connects 102,829 active sources with 29,478 journalists.

Shankman is also the founder of The Geek Factory, a boutique Marketing and PR Strategy firm located in New York City. Peter is the author of “Can We Do That? Outrageous PR Stunts That Work — and Why Your Company Needs Them” (Wiley and Sons 2006) and a keynote speaker at events worldwide including The Affiliate Summit, South By Southwest, The Public Relations Society of America, The International Association of Business Communicators, Mobile Marketing Asia, and the Direct Marketing Association. He was also named one of PR Week Magazine’s “30 under 30 to Watch”.

• 2:30 p.m.: Shankman Presentation
• 4:30 p.m.: Q&A & Networking
• 5:30 p.m.: Dinner, 10^th Anniversary Celebration and 1^st Annual Premier Awards

Fee and registration information is available at the PRSA-Northeast Wisconsin website!

The first annual PRSA Northeast Wisconsin PRemier Awards will recognize the exceptional practice of public relations by professionals throughout Northeast Wisconsin. For more information or to submit an entry, visit: www. prsanewis.org/awards.php.

Midwest District leaders who submitted applications for the 2011 Board of Directors include: 

Rose M. McKinney, APR
President
Risdall McKinney Public Relations
New Brighton, MN

Debra D. Peterson, APR
Manager, External Communications and Community Relations
CenturyLink
Overland Park, KS

PRSA members are encouraged to send candidate insights and comments via e-mail to the 2010 Nominating Committee at nomcomm@prsa.org or mail the letter to PRSA, Attn: Nominating Committee, 33 Maiden Lane, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10038. The deadline for submitting comment letters on behalf of candidates is Monday, July 12, 2010.

For more information, please visit the PRSA website.