By Natasha Qereshniku, Incoming Vice-President
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure to attend the IABC Leadership Institute conference in San Diego, California. Amongst the sunshine, fun and witty banter that happens when you put a bunch of communicators in a room together, I learned more about what’s trending in 2018, and what we as communicators can do to keep up with a changing world. I’d like to share some of my top learnings with you.
- Be a thought leader – Your communications expertise is important and needs to be at the table. Bring your lens to the conversation, or apply it over today’s world events. What keeps CEOs and leaders up at night? What’s the communications perspective on these things? Have the confidence to be the expert perspective.
- GDPR – An acronym you need to know about – If you collect metrics or data on your audiences, this applies to you. I highly recommend you learn more about what you and your organization needs to do to stay compliant with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), because the fines are huge.
- Mind-state is within your control – Changing the state of your mind is easier than you may think. Use visualization techniques or a positive personal mantra to change the current state of your mind. If that doesn’t work, get up and walk around – yes it’s as easy as that.
- The art of recognition – When recognizing your colleagues or team members, make more effort. Speak or write to what you are appreciating them for, include the details of what they did to get your appreciation and the impact they had on you and others. Often, people are doing what they do for that recognition, not the money or status.
- How to pitch a volunteer – Potential volunteers typically have three points of interest, 1) they want to learn something, 2) they want to help out and 3) they want to meet new people. Incorporate these angles into your conversations to speak to their interests.
- IABC International has some interesting value-adds coming for members – An easier to navigate corporate membership is on the way for those of you whose work covers your membership. Not to mention an IABC social network for members called “the hub” where you will be able to access content, and workshop your ideas for international feedback. Stay tuned for more on these items in our upcoming newsletters.
I was lucky to meet some amazing communicators from around the world and in doing so, realize that there’s a great big world of communications out there for us to explore – we just have to be brave enough to think big and tap into it.
To follow the conversation and all the fun, check out the twitter hashtags #WeLeadIABC and #IABCLI.
