Crazy Caffeinated Wicked Wakeup Morning Mashup!

This past Saturday morning, Element3sixty had its first Crazy Caffeinated Wicked Wakeup Morning Mashup! We heard from two speakers on the importance of finding your passion and discovering where you fit in before you find where you stand out. A big thanks to UGA freshman Caleb Stevens and UGA senior Austin Burkhart for their wise words!

After enjoying coffee and donuts, we broke up into exciting, interactive breakout sessions including:

How to start a company in 15 minutes or less: Ever wanted to run your own company? Have an idea for a product that you know would sell off the shelves? Test out your ideas and develop a marketing plan with Kennesaw State senior Emily McGee.

Hula Hoop Leadership: Are you a leader? Do you have good communication skills? UGA freshman Caleb Stevens will put your leadership to the test with this highly interactive breakout session.

 Ins and Outs of Element3sixty: This session is for parents only. Learn from Organizational Director Stephanie Shackelford what Element3sixty is all about and how our program can help prepare your student for finding a career that is in their element.

Interview Improv: Practice and prepare for a worst-case scenario interview and see if you have what it takes. Conduct a mock interview with Lee University freshman Liz Earls and see if you’d get hired.

Be sure to attend our next Brunch & Learn because you won’t want to miss other exciting “lessons” like unfiltered college advice, college roommate prank ideas, and healthy recipes you can make in your microwave!

Bring out the Olympic athlete in you

Did you know there is an Olympic athlete in you?

It’s all about creating and keeping habits that build upon your natural talents to develop your strength. Maybe it’s your physical strength, as in the athletes competing for the gold, but it can also be your communication, leadership, strategic, or other personal strengths.Bestselling author, motivational speaker, and business consultant Marcus Buckingham says, “You grow most in your areas of greatest strength. It sounds odd but you will improve the most, be the most creative, be the most inquisitive, and bounce back the fastest in those areas where you have already shown some natural advantage over everyone else – your strengths. This doesn’t mean you should ignore your weaknesses. It just means you’ll grow most where you’re already strong.”

Most people, from teachers to managers, tell us to focus on our weaknesses – that lower grade or lacking communication skill – in order to improve this area. And I think most people do this in their own lives even without prompting from their superiors. It’s tempting to want to “work on the weaknesses” because if you don’t improve in them, then you were already weak in that area to begin with. There’s no risk because you can’t fail in an area where you are already weak.

Yet the most growth comes out of areas where you are already strong and can take this strength to an even higher level. And this requires risk because who wants to fail in an area where they’re known for being strong? It’s safer to stay at being good instead of reaching to become great.

Take the risk!

But no athlete qualifies for the Olympics by playing it safe. The star of a Little League team doesn’t eventually make Varsity baseball by practicing all of the positions he’s not that great at. And the Varsity athlete only wins that scholarship to college by practicing what he’s already excelling in day after day.

I’m currently reading The Power of Habits: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. Although I just started it, the book is already compelling and very telling about why we act certain ways. Even trying to fix our weaknesses can become a habit, and the only way to break a habit is to replace it with a better one. To do this, however, you need to know what triggers the habit in the first place.

If you find yourself caught up in spending all of your energy on your weaknesses,

• First, stop and think about how you spent your time today. Where did you devote your attention – on your weaknesses or on developing your strengths?
• Second, write down the areas where you are weakness-focused. Do you see patterns there? Try to uncover a common theme to your actions.
• Third,  from the pattern that has emerged, notice what is the trigger point. Do you see a peer excelling in an area where you are weak and then want to go fix this part of yourself? Do you get feedback from someone and only hear the negatives?
• Fourth, recognize that it is important to manage around your weaknesses and improve them enough to be competent and proficient. However, also determine what strengths you want to grow in. Clearly identify them and write them out. Need help with this? See this blog post.
• Lastly, consciously decide how you will focus on your strengths next time you experience your identified trigger. Set a plan of action and record what happens.

Continue reflecting on this pattern and the results that occur when you replace a negative habit with a positive one. Over time, the Olympian in you will emerge. Go for the gold!

Written by Steph Shackelford.

A freshly squeezed perspective

Family night at Roam last Thursday night was a big success! The Element3sixty interns worked hard to put together a fun, memorable night for family and friends. Lemonade and ice cream stations were set up for the families to make their own homemade treats, along with a personalized mason jar. YEEHAW!

Preparing to make the ice cream by mixing the cream and rock salt with ice

Shaking the ingredients to make it into ice cream

Squeezing the ice cream into the bowl….

Finished product!

Wrapping up the night, we made some new friends and revisited with some more familiar faces. Everyone enjoyed some sweet treats and good company and having a “freshly squeezed” perspective on the old term, when life gives you lemons…

Everyday Leadership

Think of your average daily routine. 

Now count how many interactions you have with others – from passing people in the car, to ordering your soy latte, greeting the receptionist at work, sweating in Spin class… not to mention all of the meetings via phone calls, emails, Skype, or in the office. It’s quickly easy to lose track.

Just choose a handful of those interactions and imagine all of the opportunities for you to be a leader.

You’re probably primarily thinking about interactions where you have an “official” leadership role, but I want you to consider that leadership is primarily influencing others, and this can occur in any sphere of influence.

At Family Night, the group discusses how others have impacted their lives.

Last Thursday during our Family Night, we watched Drew Dudley’s powerful TED Talk “Everyday Leadership,” in which he argues that we “over-elevate leadership” because if we consider leadership to be beyond us, then it gives us an excuse not to expect it. He continues on to tell a story about the biggest impact he has ever had on someone was a moment that he doesn’t even remember, even after the person thanked him for it years later.

Great leaders of organizations know that to enact lasting change, they must model the behavior they want their employees to follow. Douglas Smith in Taking Charge of Change says that you must practice leadership based on the courage to live the change that you want to bring about, which sounds extremely similar to Gandhi’s saying, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

People imitate the behavior they see, and the daily interactions you have with others are opportunities for you to show grace, humility, sacrifice, kindness, and hope. As Jon Gordon says, “The best make everyone around them better.” The greatest leaders spend time growing up other leaders, and they seek out ways to help others be their best.

At Family Night, a family brainstorms ways that they can create special moments for others using a bucketful of random objects.

Has someone made an impact on your life – in big or small ways – that you haven’t thanked them for yet? Are there small, everyday opportunities for you to be for others?

Would you like to be a part of these events with your own family? Join us this Thursday for our next Family Night! Click here for details.

Written by Steph Shackelford.

Are you comfortable with calling yourself a leader?

Do you know how to be an everyday leader?

Whatever your experience with leadership is, we invite you to attend our Everyday Leadership Family Night at Roam Atlanta!

 

Interns, Ideas, and Inspiration

This summer Element3sixty is excited to have several interns be a part of the team! They are already hard at work, planning a series of Family Night events that will be put on at Roam Atlanta. The themes are still in the works, but think fun outings like carnivals and an around the world culture night. Check back for details, and go ahead and save Thursday, June 21 on your calendar!

Some of our Element3sixty working hard to brainstorm the best, creative ideas!

Student Testimonial

Here is one of our students, Caleb Stevens, speaking about his experience with Element3sixty!

Leading Your Best Life

 Four Corners of Great Leadership, a blog post by Tim Sanders, outlines the four areas that leaders need to continually develop to be excellent. See if you can figure it out what the four attributes are based on these pictures. (Hint: your creativity is needed on some!):

     

     

Answers (clockwise from top left corner):

1. Vision
2. Commitment
3. Influence
4. Purpose

Although these are in relation to work, they can also be applied to leading your best possible life.

Vision: Vision is the strategy to your life: how you’re making your decisions. Just as a business leader needs to constantly refine where the company is headed, you too must assess if you are headed in a direction that will take you where you want to go. Excellent leaders absorb information from books, news articles, data, etc. and you too must dig into what guides your life.

Commitment: What motivates you to be your best? The answer to this question is the energizing force behind your actions. During dry times, when you’re trudging through the desert, you’ll need commitment to keep focused on your vision. Rather than blaming outside factors or others on difficult times, great leaders take responsibility. “Let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no” (James 5:12). Great leaders stay in the game, but they also know when to say no to commitments that will distract them from their vision. Assess your life: Are you saying yes to so much that you have no time to advance toward your vision? Are you saying no to everything so you can avoid truly committing and giving your all?

Influence: Great leaders inspire and motivate their followers. You can’t lead toward your vision unless you let others know what it is. Have you made your vision known? Speaking it makes it come alive. Great leaders also recognize that they can accomplish nothing on their own. Who in your life are you influencing and who in your life is influencing you? These relationships could be positive or negative – and to lead your best life you need to separate from the gossip, the negative talkers, the pride, and whatever else is pulling you down from leading your life. You also need to recognize and appreciate whoever is helping you reach your vision.

Purpose: If your vision is the “what,” then your purpose is the “why.” Everyone has a personal mission statement, whether you’ve written it out or not. This is what you’re living your life for. I highly encourage you to write out what you are living for and why. You won’t be committed to a vision or influence others to bring that vision to reality unless you’re extremely dedicated to the reason behind it all.Notice that throughout this post the words “continually” and “constantly” are used frequently. This is an ongoing process, a journey. Be embraced by it.

This post was written by Steph Shackelford.

Becoming an Authentic Leader

At Chick-fil-A’s annual seminar, Marcus Buckingham spoke on becoming a leader. I love his passion for uncovering and developing others’ strengths. Rather than focus on fixing weaknesses, which you can only improve upon so much, he challenges leaders to focus on developing their team’s and their own personal strengths. Strengths are where the opportunity presents itself for major growth.

Buckingham ended his talk by stating that authenticity is the most valuable tool a leader has. He urged us to take what is unique about us a a leader (for instance- your influence, your pioneering spirit, your energy) and make it useful.

Buckingham found that the majority of the US population would prefer to fix their weaknesses, with only 45% (and only 29% of Generation Y) focusing on enhancing their strengths.

Sometimes the harder choice is not to “fix” yourself but to allow yourself to be embraced for your strengths. Building on your strengths will allow you to give of yourself more and become a better leader because you’ll be authentically living from who you truly are.

Do you know your strengths and how you’re uniquely gifted? Let Element3sixty help you uncover them.

Written by Steph Shackelford.