Sarah Murphy-Kangas and I will be presenting this FREE series for WWU's Small Business Development Center! If you're a Whatcom County leader or small business owner, you don't want to miss it. Come to one or all three of the sessions!

Healthy, productive organizations are characterized by leaders who know how to give hard feedback, are approachable, and can effectively communicate in groups of any size. These short, interactive sessions will focus on your own development as a skilled communicator and leave you with practical strategies to begin applying right away!

SBDC will be hosting two lunchtime leadership development talks for local business owners at Dorothy Haggen Center at Barkley Village. Sign up with Small Business Development Center and bring your lunch and learn about these important topics:

Session 1: The Magic Combination of Support and Accountability (November 8). If all you do is encourage your staff, they may be under-performing. If all you do is hold them accountable, they may be dispirited or unhappy! Great bosses understand that’s it the magic combination of both support AND accountability that keeps teams healthy. This session will give you practical skills for embodying and implementing that winning combination.

Session 2: The Tricky Team: Supervising Friends or Family (November 15). In a smaller marketplace like Whatcom County and with so many family businesses, it’s very common that you’re supervising someone you have a personal relationship with—an acquaintance, friend, or family member. This can be wonderful, and it can also be very tricky. This session will focus on how you can design your relationships with those folks to maximize both parts of your relationship—your friendship/family connection AND your professional roles.