Author: Seniye Groff

Driving Loyalty: Turning Every Customer and Employee into a Raving Fan for Your Brand

Posted on by Seniye Groff

Kirk Kazanjian does not offer a magic bullet in his book Driving Loyalty. His advice is straightforward: take care of your employees and your customers and your business will succeed. This book has a little bit for everyone. New managers will gain lots of new insight on how to reward and retain employees, while seasoned managers will learn how to implement a company mission and vision to reinforce the focus on employees and customers. The book details effective merger tactics, as well as using technology to delight customers and employees. Kazanjian also covers growth, partnership and sustainability. There really is a ton of information for a mere 272 pages!

“Never underestimate the importance of the role those on your team play in delivering on your brand promise.”

Driving Loyalty is easy to read given its vast amount of usable information and key points summary at the end of each chapter. Throughout the chapters there are tables, numbered lists and graphics to highlight the most vital ideas from each chapter. Highlight the significant concepts, test some of the ideas and implement what works for your business. I am pretty sure you will notice a change in both your employees and customers.

Getting to 50/50: How Working Parents Can Have It All

Posted on by Seniye Groff

There is no “magic” formula to balancing work and family in today’s busy, modern 24/7 world. The authors of Getting to 50/50 suggest that instead of searching for magic, perhaps people should look at how they view their values. Meers and Strober recommend that it is possible to have dual breadwinners if you replace “I” with “we.” Oftentimes women either subconsciously create an either/or option instead of figuring out how to have both. Moms frequently take on the parenting while the husbands pursue careers which reinforces a man’s role as breadwinner. But it is necessary to create an equal partnership. Equal does not mean it is always 50/50 but partners need to manage the ebb and flow. Women must expect that men can take care of their children and that children need their fathers to be a part of their upbringing in a meaningful, engaging way.

“Talk to happy two-worker families farther down the path and you’ll feel more secure about what lies ahead.”

Part one covers why two careers are better than one. Part two busts myths about work, women and men. Finally, part three covers solutions. The book is littered with real-life examples and tons of research to support the authors’ beliefs. Getting to 50/50will give readers lots to ponder. It will challenge them to check their perceptions and possibly even change their behaviors in order to achieve the work/life balance so many modern employees crave.

Giving Thanks

Posted on by Seniye Groff

It is difficult for me to believe that we are once again at the time of year where we are celebrating Thanksgiving!  Although Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, I do wish the years would slow down a bit!  Thanksgiving is a time to reflect how lucky I am.  I get to work in a career that I love and feel I offer value to.  Since I have many eclectic interests and my work is flexible, I am also fortunate that my career allows me to do many things such as volunteer weekly in my children’s classrooms, volunteer at Dress for Success (for the last 14 years!), read voraciously and write 10-20 book reviews per month, exercise regularly and practice at being an accomplished cook.  I am able to help friends and family any time they ask for a favor or need assistance and I truly get to be present in my life.  

Take a moment to reflect on what you are thankful for.  In today’s harried world, it is not easy to slow down and really “smell the roses”, but I believe it is necessary and critical to do.

I wish you much love and happiness.  Happy Thanksgiving!

The Power of Storytelling

Posted on by Seniye Groff

Don’t be fooled by this book’s plain exterior and seemingly simple message.  “The Power of Storytelling” offers a humble formula that is easy to learn and to practice.  The book is divided into three practical subsets:  Mindset, Skillset and Toolset.  In the Mindset section topics covered range from understanding influence to the science of storytelling to the five places to use stories.  Under the Skillset section, foundation, blueprint and delivery are covered.  Finally in the Toolset section making stories compelling, dynamic and memorable are explained.

Ty Bennett shares numerous examples of how stories can dramatically change the outcome of a presentation if the presenter (or influencer) is thoughtful about the story and how they use it.  Bennett contends that the presenter or influencer must first understand that telling stories is entirely about the audience.  If the influencer presents from the audience’s perspective, he will surely engage that audience. Bennett then shares the five tools of engagement.    Concepts in the book are reinforced with video clips (links are provided in the book).  The book shares all kinds of actionable tips and practical suggestions.  If your goal is to become a master storyteller, this is a book you must read and implement.

 

The Why of Things

Posted on by Seniye Groff

 

Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop’s book The Why of Things will take you by surprise. Winthrop is a masterful storyteller with writing skills, attention to detail, and an intriguing storyline.

Joan and Anders Jacobs arrive with their two daughters at their Massachusetts summer home to find a truck in their quarry. The driver, James Favazza, has apparently committed suicide. This event opens the family’s raw wounds from their own, Sophie, the 17 year old daughter’s suicide just a year earlier. Evie, the 15 year old daughter investigates the crash site and collects “evidence” convinced that foul play has happened. Joan stalks the funeral and the home of Favazza’s mother. Anders cannot stop thinking about his dead daughter and Eloise, the youngest daughter, keeps bringing dead animals home to bury.

“It was many years ago, but the question I still struggle with is the “why”.  For the living, for those left behind, there is no answer that is good enough.”

Winthrop discloses the past details of Sophie’s suicide molasses-slow so that I was trying to piece together how the current tragedy for the Jacobs family connected to the painful death of their daughter. Winthrop was so skillful in how she weaved the two stories together. In the end, each family member has figured out how they need to heal and readers will imagine that if faced with similar events, this story offers insight, entertainment and a satisfying end.

The Aftermath

Posted on by Seniye Groff

“In austere times, self–pity was a heavily rationed commodity, a thing no one should be caught indulging in public.”

Rhidian Brook indulges the reader in “The Aftermath” to details of 1946 Hamburg during the rebuilding and denazification of Germany.  Colonel Lewis Morgan, a British officer, makes the unorthodox decision to live with the German family owning the house he has been stationed in, during his work in Hamburg.  Soon after Lewis moves in, his wife Rachel and son Edmund join him in the very grand home.   Herr Lubert and his daughter Freda, must move to the top floor servant quarters.

Lubert is still reeling from his wife’s death two years earlier.  Freda is combative and divisive with secrets of her own.   At the same time, Rachel is still distraught over her older son, Michael’s, death.  Rachel is lonely and lost in her foreign surroundings.    Rachel is very aware of what the other military families think about her living with a German family.  She is intent on keeping her distance from the household  “enemy”.

As Rachel slowly removes the imaginary wall, and gets to know Lubert, she discovers herself again.  When Lewis must leave to take another assignment, Rachel decides to secretly travel.  As she is fearful, but also free, she must share a secret that will change the path she has chosen.

Brook is a master with mixing the mundane details with characters’ trials and tribulations.  His specifics are engrossing and the way he leads the reader down the path to be immersed is masterful.  In the end, this story of passion, betrayal and ultimate truth and forgiveness will have you hooked.

 

Margot by Jillian Cantor

Posted on by Seniye Groff

Yes, I read a lot of books!  Due to being a book reviewer, as well as, an avid book lover on the side, I read lots.  TONS!  I have managed to find several books this year that have been stunning.  And now I have found a book that is also transformative.  The dictionary tells me that is not a word, so be it.  “Margot” by Jillian Cantor is absolutely that–transformative.

Cantor has skillfully taken “The Diary of Anne Frank” and introduced the reader to Anne’s sister, Margot Frank.  Margot escapes to Philadelphia and becomes Margie Franklin (even though history tells us she died in Bergen-Belsen).  Peter,the boy she loved at seventeen and who lived in the annex with her,  decided that when WWII was over, they would move to Philadelphia and lose “their Jewishness”.    Margie believes Peter is dead but has a faint glimmer of hope that maybe he survived, also.

Margie works as a secretary in a Jewish law firm.  She does everything to hide her Jewishness including wearing a sweater no matter how hot the temperatures reach, in order to hide her numbered tattoo that she received in the Nazi camp.  She practices her religion (or ritual of religion) on Friday nights and rests on the Sabbath.  Margie is constantly “tested” as she works for a Jewish lawyer, Joshua.  Joshua asks her for help during a case dealing with the unfair treatment of Jews.  Joshua becomes a representation of Peter in many ways.

Margie “needs to be whole again” and faces many crossroads as she remembers the past, sees her sister’s story on the big screen and dreams of the future.  Pick up this book.  Read it!  You will never be the same again.

Songs of Willow Frost

Posted on by Seniye Groff

After reading “Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet”, I waited anxiously for a second book from Jamie Ford.  After several years, Jamie has delivered another stunner!  “Songs of Willow Frost” is set in 1920’s and 1930’s Seattle.  William, a twelve-year-old, Chinese-American boy lives at the Sacred Heart Orphanage.  Not only does he carry the stigma of being an orphan, but he is also Chinese–practically as low as the Coloreds.  William’s only friend, a blind girl named Charlotte, challenges William to find his mother after a school field trip to the city exposes William to a theater poster that he thinks is his mother.

Charlotte and William escape the orphanage and manage to find William’s mother, Willow.  Willow shares her past with William, as he tries to understand why she left him.  Willow is nothing but a hard-luck story; but she never wavered on her love for William.  The 1920’s is a difficult time for a Chinese, unwed mother to try to make her break in show business.  Willow thinks she has found love but cannot verbalize her feelings.  But, alas,  the possibility of hope, love and safety do not materialize.

William returns to the orphanage feeling lonelier than ever.  This story will pull at your heart strings.  Ford writes with passion and empathy as hope, love, struggle and being an outsider collide in this beautiful story.

Working with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

Posted on by Seniye Groff

I am currently working on a development project where I am heavily relying on SMEs.  The course content is very technical (and on a topic I have never developed before).  Existing content is primarily pictures with facilitators spewing facts from their heads.  To no surprise, the SMEs are overly busy with no time to answer a nagging ID!  So I share some ideas when working with SMEs:

  • Remember, SMEs have full-time jobs besides what you are requesting from them.  Consolidate your e-mails, conference calls and documents so that they can use their minimal time efficiently.
  • Put questions in an SME-friendly document.  I recently pulled all my questions from my design document and put it in an easy-to-read table format.  This document was much more user-friendly to the SME than my instructional-focused design document.
  • Create visual maps of your courses.  Sometimes pictures say it better than words and it might be easier for your SME to “see it” rather than read it and try to visualize it in their heads.

What strategies have you used when working with a SME?  Send me a comment!