Last week, nationally-recognized author, speaker, and communication guru, Debra Fine led a professional development event for JFS staff, board, and committee members to help us polish our networking and communication skills. Debra's quick wit and tell-it-like-it-is speaking style kept us entertained as we learned! We learned some great tips for meeting new people, what to talk to them about, how to get the JFS message into the conversation, and how to leave a conversation gracefully (can't we all use that tip sometimes?). She demonstrated easy ways to make small talk and how to "dig in deeper" to avoid getting those dreaded one-word answers.
Through some fun, interactive group exercises, we got to practice what she preached and she showed us how we were making some common mistakes such as not "giving people the gift of our names."
Alan Mayer, incoming board chair, says, “This event was a great reminder that every interaction we have is an opportunity to create a meaningful human connection. And with that connection, we have an opportunity to talk about the agency to someone who would be interested in learning more. I really enjoyed the event and learned a lot.”
Thank you so much to Debra for providing this tremendous opportunity for us!
-Alaina Green and Kari Alpen, JFS Marketing Department
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