< Previous10 October 2023 | Corporate & Incentive Travel | TheMeetingMagazines.com T he 12th edition of IMEX America closed on a note of welcome reassurance for the global business events industry, marking its biggest show ever. With almost 15,000 participants on the show floor at Mandalay Bay, of which over 5,000 were buyers (including 4,000+ hosted buyers), the success of this year’s IMEX America confirmed the sector has made a fast, robust comeback with growth in all areas, and both short and long-lead business being booked. Exhibitors also reported the return of incentive trips and multi-venue events. Buyers, of which one fifth represented the corporate sector, took part in over 80,000 pre-scheduled meetings in three days, of which 73,000 were 1-2-1s with exhibitors. The show’s biggest ever Inspiration Hub, sponsored by WebEx, saw over 2000 people attend education sessions in a variety of formats across six tracks. Topics ranged from the personal — how to manage individual and team members’ mental health — to future trends and forecasts for different territories, sectors and worldwide. AI and event technology were both big talking points, though anecdotal reports suggest that so far only a few companies are using it at an enterprise level. IMEX Group, CEO, Carina Bauer, remarked, “I’m delighted the industry turned out in such strong numbers from across the globe this week and that IMEX America once again provided a carefully- designed platform for everyone to come together for business, building better human connections around the world, and growing and learning from each other.” IMEX America 2024 will take place at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, on October 7, followed by the three-day trade show October 8-10. C&IT LAS VEGAS, NEVADA IMEX AMERICA 2023 SCENE AT IMEX // Photos by Arthur E. Antonik / Courtesy of IMEX AmericaTheMeetingMagazines.com | Corporate & Incentive Travel | October 2023 11I n business, as in all areas of life, it’s so easy to think, I don’t have enough! Whether we’re trying to launch a new product, move into a new market, or just meet the next quarter’s revenue goal, it’s so easy to feel help- lessly crippled by a shortage of resources — time, talent, expertise, customers, and, of course, money. When we come from a place of scarcity, there’s always a reason we can’t do it. Not only does this mindset hold us back from what could be a huge victory, it creates a company full of victim thinkers. Instead of being motivated by challenges, employees get in the habit of giving up way too soon. They get fixated on what they lack, not what they have, and it paralyzes them. They start blaming circumstances for their failures. This attitude compounds over time, and the whole culture gets bogged down in negativity and defeatism. That’s when the spark of innovation flickers and dies. It doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, constraints can energize you and unlock your creativity when approached with the right mindset. Ironically (or perhaps not), one of my greatest business victories happened early in my career when my team was faced with what seemed an impossible task: build a next-generation Windows product in a shock- ingly short amount of time. We had a tiny team of six people and very few resources. Really, we needed at least 30 people to do this job. Other teams of more than 100 people were working toward the same objective. But the fact that we faced such “ridiculous” constraints forced us to get super-creative. We focused on finding existing components and assembled a system out of pre-built pieces. Ultimately, we launched our new product two years ahead of almost all our competitors. The lesson? When we respond to constraints by getting super-engaged and focused, it unleashes incredible inno- vative power and allows us to beat almost insurmountable odds. How can you get your team into this mindset? Here are a few tips for creating a culture of overcoming constraints: Get out of the victim mentality yourself by changing your language. Our first instinct is often to see ourselves as victims of circumstance. Do you ever find yourself saying: “We don’t have _________. Of course we can’t do that!” OR “Look at what they have! No wonder they were so success- ful!”? That’s your victim mentality keeping you from find- ing creative ways to make it work. Here’s the problem: Your mindset bleeds down into the rest of the team. You can’t always change your circumstances, but you can always change your mindset. Stop making victim state- ments. Instead of saying, “We can’t,” start asking, “What can we do with what we have?” Also, when team members make these kinds of statements, remind them that there is always a solution. Build momentum by focusing on what you can do first. There will always be a million things you can’t do. Instead of hand-wringing over the constraints, find three or four things that you can do right now and execute on them. These quick wins will generate some early momentum. This is critical to getting employees engaged and excited about the goal and helping them see that success is possible. Do Constraints Cripple Your Team … Or Ignite Their Creativity? BY GARY HARPST PERSPECTIVE // Constraints can energize you and unlock your creativity when approached with the right mindset. 12 October 2023 | Corporate & Incentive Travel | TheMeetingMagazines.comResiliency doesn’t just happen; it is cultivated. DepositPhotos.com When you hit a roadblock, regroup and rethink. The “obvious” solution might not be possible for you. If we had all the time and money in the world, we’d all just do the first thing we thought of. Constraints force us to really get cre- ative and problem solve. Realize that just because there is no immediately clear solution doesn’t mean that there’s NO solution at all. Call a brainstorming session and get people focused on creative problem-solving. We had a client who served the construction market who decided to face a recession in a very different way. Rather than cut staff and expenses, they analyzed their business and realized a large percent of their profits came from a few of their products. They narrowed their product offering and allocated more cash and resources to high-value activity. As a result, over the next three years, they increased sales by 50%. By facing the constraints of a recession, they figured out a better way to do business that may not have occurred to them otherwise. Break down the problem and look at it from all angles. Banish all assumptions and start with a beginner’s mind- set. Are there new (cheaper, faster, more effective) ways to do it? Are there alternative programs, materials, vendors, processes, etc. that you’ve never considered? Have things changed and you’ve gotten too complacent to move with the times? What unspoken rules are you following? Are you letting personal biases rule out possible solutions? Is there something you’re doing now that you could stop doing to free up time, capital, or resources? Is there someone in your company whose gifts are not being leveraged — some- one who might have the insight and expertise to break the problem wide open? This can be a real exercise in humility. It’s not easy to assume you don’t know, and it’s certainly not easy to step out of your comfort zone. But when you get rid of all assump- tions and start fresh, you can have amazing breakthroughs. Build resiliency into your team. There’s often a “one step forward, two steps back” rhythm to innovation, which means your team is going to need some staying power. Here’s the thing: Resiliency doesn’t “just happen”; it is cultivated. Make sure people feel safe enough to speak up without fear. Keep them connected to the larger mission. And instill a sense of optimism by celebrating small wins and reminding them, “We’ve overcome constraints before, and we can do it again.” Most of all, show them you love and care for them. Strange as it may sound, great leaders truly love their employees. Great teammates love each other. I always say love is the bonding force that holds teams together. It’s also what allows teams to get knocked down and get back up again. Bottom line: There will always be constraints. If there weren’t, we’d never know what we’re capable of doing. We’ve all heard the adage that necessity is the mother of invention. It’s true. If we always had an easy solution at hand, we’d never push boundaries and take leaps of faith and leave comfort zones behind. Constraints are the gifts that force us to grow. C&IT GARY HARPST is the author of “Built to Beat Chaos: Biblical Wisdom for Lead- ing Yourself and Others.” He is the founder and CEO of LeadFirst. He is a keynote speaker, writer and teacher whose areas of focus include leadership, business and the integration of faith at work. He has been recognized as one of the Top 100 of the nation’s top thought-leaders in management and leadership by Leadership Excellence magazine. To learn more, visit leadfirst.ai. TheMeetingMagazines.com | Corporate & Incentive Travel | October 2023 13 CAESARS MEANS BUSINESS I s there an underlying tension when you speak to employees? Do you get the feeling coworkers don’t take you seriously as a leader? Can you recall a conversation in which your employee seemed to shut down and glaze over? It doesn’t mean you’re an incompetent leader. In fact, more often than you’d probably guess, it’s that you’re using the wrong words. Most of us underestimate the power of words. I believe in order to help people feel respected, dignified, and success- ful, leaders need to pay close attention, not just to what we say but also how we say it. Some words set us up to be misunderstood. Others shut people down, make them feel excluded, and even make them dislike us. The idea is to think intentionally about whether our words work for or against our employees’ needs. A small shift in your speaking habits can make a big difference. Communication is just one of the topics covered in my new book. Described as a “fully stocked leadership toolbox,” “Lead the Way in Five Minutes a Day” skips the complex theories and jargon and gets right to practical solutions. Each chapter begins with a self-assessment guide so you can identify relevant strengths to develop and address opportunities for growth. When managing a variety of people, it can be difficult to consider your every word, but being intentional about pri- oritizing openness and understanding can make you a well- respected leader. That said, here are a few words leaders should avoid, or at least minimize: DepositPhotos.com Eight Words and Phrases Leaders Use That Turn People Off (What to Say Instead) BY JO ANNE PRESTON PERSPECTIVE // 16 October 2023 | Corporate & Incentive Travel | TheMeetingMagazines.comJO ANNE PRESTON is the workforce and organizational development senior manager at the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative. She brings over four decades of her healthcare leadership experience to designing and delivering leadership and employee education for rural healthcare throughout Wisconsin and the U.S. Her aim is to offer to leaders straightfor- ward tools and to inspire the courage to use them. She has a master’s degree in educational psychology/community counseling from Eastern Illinois University, and is the author of “Lead the Way in Five Minutes a Day: Sparking High Performance in Yourself and Your Team,” and writes a monthly leadership blog. Subordinate. This word can be a quick and easy way to distinguish between those in a managerial role and those who answer to them, but, more commonly, it can make employees feel degraded, less important, and inferior. Consider instead: “my team,” “direct reports” and “frontline employees” to increase unity in the workplace. LDI, HRSA, HIT (really, any acronym). We’ve all used them at some point without a second thought, but it is not safe to assume that every employee is familiar with their meanings. Employees may feel foolish if they have to ask, and when questions go unasked, we don’t speed up at all. I recommend to simply say it how you write it — with the spelled-out version followed by the acronym, at least the first time. Manager. (Say “leader” instead.) What’s the difference? Many of us use these terms interchangeably, but I remember my own experience with this discrepancy. An employee who was not a manager asked me if I thought non-managers could be leaders in their role, and of course, I said yes. The words I was using made him feel that he couldn’t be a leader if he was not a manager. The solution? Simply name the person you are referring to. If not everyone is a manager, then say “leaders.” I’m a perfectionist. Everyone has either said it them- selves or heard it, but what employees hear is that you expect them to be perfect too. Rather, strive for excel- lence, not perfection. Employees should be able to openly discuss their mistakes without fear of ridicule or too- high expectations. I/me. When you are invested and passionate about your work, it is too easy to slip into using “I”/“me.” I suggest simply changing it to the plural, more inclusive “we”/“us” instead, once again increasing unity in the workplace. The girls. Referring to a department made up of all women as “the girls” will be offensive to most grown women. Managers may not always intend for it to be belit- tling, but it often feels that way. There are better options. Consider “the team.” You guys. Another phrase, often uttered without a second thought, that refers to only about half the population. Like “the girls,” it may be hard to see why this matters if you are not the one feeling left out or having to adapt to a descrip- tion that doesn’t include you. More inclusive language like “everyone,” “folks,” or “y’all” are better options to get a group’s attention. Blah, blah, blah. Okay, this one isn’t a word, per se, but rather how you come across when you use buzzwords, jargon or language you think makes you sound smart. It’s easy to lose people when you do this. Watch your language to make sure you are not overdoing it, and watch your listener for any glazed-over looks or signs of distraction. Of course, this is far from an exhaustive list. But I hope this sampling of words shows how easy it is for leaders to get in their own way. Choosing inclusive phrases and using words that lift people up rather than subtly diminishing them goes a long way toward making people like, respect and listen to you. Most people agree that actions speak louder than words — but that does not mean words don’t have an influence. They do. Pay attention to how you come across and be sensitive to the feelings of others. You may find that this impacts people’s outlook and their work ethic to a surprising degree. C&IT Most people agree that actions speak louder than words — but that does not mean words don’t have an influence. They do. TheMeetingMagazines.com | Corporate & Incentive Travel | October 2023 17A few short years ago, the pandemic set off a wave of soul-searching about the role work plays in our lives. Some lost their job and had to re-skill, some retired early and some left for better opportunities. In general, there’s been a collective realization that life is too short to stay in an unfulfilling job. Hopefully, the worst of COVID-19 is behind us — but here in 2023, many of us are still feeling a nagging sense of discontent. We absolutely need to heed that quiet voice whispering that it’s time for a change.Work is meant to be meaningful. We’re not supposed to endure a boring or unfulfilling career until it’s time to retire. Sometimes we need to pivot, and that’s a scary pros- pect. A life-altering career move can be controversial. It’s so much easier to stay snugly in your comfort zone. But when you take that leap, you’ll feel better about yourself and you actually might do some good along the way. When faced with these heavy choices, it’s always helpful to take inspi- ration from others’ success stories. Below are some accounts and advice from other entre- preneurs who took a chance — and succeeded. Here’s how to know when to make a move: You’re bored. Have you ever dreaded going back to work the next day? Does the thought of your daily tasks in the office make you long for something — anything — else? Perhaps you have a talent or skill that you’re not getting to employ. Are you searching for a way out? James Patterson did too. Before the author became a household name, he was a copywriter working in J. Walter Thompson, a Manhattan- based advertising agency. Even while leading the creative team, he garnered little satisfaction from the simple ads he was writing for green beans and playing cards, and he knew he had to quit. Patterson hasn’t stopped writing books. His career change was good for him — he’s sold more than 400 million copies — and for his legions of loyal readers. Is your conscience nagging at you? This was the case when I worked for Hill+Knowlton as a fresh graduate. I adored my work and quickly rose through the ranks, eventually becom- ing president and CEO. That is, until I was asked to do some- thing I considered unethical by upper management. Without any safety net to fall into, I quit my job. This was September 1991, and newspa- pers wrote about my departure. I refused to say why I’d suddenly left, and this is the first time I’ve talked publicly about the reason. Personal integrity is important to me. Eventually, with some advice from trusted partners, I started my own hugely successful public relations agency. Today, The Dilenschneider Group is going strong, with top companies and individuals as clients for more than three decades. You see an opportunity to make a differ- ence. Rosalind “Roz” Brewer, former COO of Starbucks, had a satisfying career before 2020. But as she watched communities being slammed by the effects of the virus, she knew she had to step in. In 2021, she left her stable job and became CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, which helped to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to communities. With this single move, Brewer became the highest-ranking Black CEO on the Fortune 500 list of top executives in the country, where she is now using her position to bring attention to multiple concerns and crises concerning women. Is It Time to Reinvent Yourself? Four Ways to Know You’re Ready for a Career Pivot BY ROBERT L. DILENSCHNEIDER PERSPECTIVE // D e p o s itP hoto s. co m 18 October 2023 | Corporate & Incentive Travel | TheMeetingMagazines.comOne day you realize your career no longer “fits.” Maybe you can feel your priorities changing. Maybe you’re getting older and want to make meaningful, lasting relationships with coworkers. Or perhaps you want to become an advo- cate for a community. Kim Malek, weary from her weekly trips between Seattle and New York for her corporate job, was longing for some- thing closer to home. She wanted to know her employ- ees, coworkers, and neighbors, and wanted to be able to walk her dogs. She didn’t let the risk of failing stop her. With a cousin, she cofounded Salt & Straw, an ice-cream shop with spe- cialty flavors that quickly became a hit. That was 2011. By 2022, she had over 30 locations and annual revenues reach- ing the millions. If you’re thinking about making a career pivot, here’s some advice: Don’t worry about going backward. When you shift gears while driving, there’s always going to be a second or two of lag, but ultimately, you get where you are trying to go. The same can be said for careers. Sheryl Sandberg, who early in her career went from a team of tens of thousands at the U.S. Department of the Treasury to a team of just four at Google, on the fear of moving backward: “There are so many times I’ve seen people not make that jump because they’re afraid they’ll ‘move backward,’” she said in the When to Jump podcast in 2017. “If you can finan- cially afford it, and you’re gonna work the next, I don’t know, 30 years, who cares about ‘going down?’” It’s fine to try something completely different. Ina Gar- ten, the host of the Food Network’s Barefoot Contessa, is an example of what can happen when you’re willing to follow your gut and make a move that’s completely unexpected. Fans of her many cookbooks might be surprised to learn that in her 20s she was a staff member of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. “There’s got to be some- thing more fun than this,” she recalled in a 2016 TIME story. “And then I saw an ad for a specialty-food store for sale in the New York Times, and it was in a place I’d never been before: West Hampton. So my husband, Jeffrey, said, ‘Let’s go look at it.’ To say that I knew nothing about what I was getting myself into was an understatement. I’d never run a business before, never even had employees working for me. But, when I saw the store, I thought, ‘This is what I want to do.’” Being willing to take a risk, and listening to that inner voice, led to an astonishing career for one of America’s most prolific cookbook authors. Come up with a pivot plan. Start by simply focusing on what you enjoy doing. Why do you enjoy it? Will it require further education? Before you enroll in an expensive pro- gram, do your research to determine whether that degree is necessary. If it is, can you pursue it after joining a company that contributes to its employees’ education? Is there other training that will position you to get into a new field? Find a mentor who can advise you on what you need. You’re going to feel fear, and for good reason. Push through it and make the leap anyway. I recall my “terrified” state of mind when I left Hill+Knowlton. My main concerns were my wife and children. What was I going to do? How was I going to tell my wife, Jan, that I had walked away from a powerful and lucrative position? We had two young sons to raise. As it turned out, my (seemingly very valid) worries turned out to be unfounded. By the time I got home after lunch with a couple of trusted colleagues, I had received calls from Chase, W.R. Grace, Dun & Bradstreet, and Ford Motor Com- pany — they all wanted to do business. Sometimes when you decide to take control of your own fate, the universe opens up for you. It’s funny how that works. Even if it doesn’t all come together immediately, if you’re doing what makes you happy rather than what oth- ers expect of you, you won’t regret the hard work. There may be moments of fear and doubt and even despair that come with the exhilaration. That’s life. But the brand of growth and resilience that come from reinventing yourself and building a career that means something can’t be earned any other way. C&IT ROBERT L. DILENSCHNEIDER , author of The Ultimate Guide to Power & Influence: Everything You Need to Know, formed The Dilenschneider Group in October 1991. Headquartered in New York, Miami, and Chicago, the firm provides strategic advice and counsel to Fortune 500 companies and leading families and individuals around the world, with experience in fields ranging from mergers, ac- quisitions and crisis communications to marketing, government affairs and interna- tional media. Even if it doesn’t all come together immediately, if you’re doing what makes you happy rather than what others expect of you, you won’t regret the hard work. TheMeetingMagazines.com | Corporate & Incentive Travel | October 2023 19Next >