Kent State Interns

Starting Your Own Business Managing your own business is an exciting undertaking for someone with an entrepreneurial spirit. Sole proprietorship and franchising are two common ways that an individual can get into business ownership. Managing a business offers many advantages, though ownership involves risks and can have significant costs. I was doing a random search on the internet and found a helpful website for anyone who has interest in starting their own business. The website is sba.gov . This website has a ton of helpful information and resources that is all related to starting and running a business. One specific article I read and would like to share with all of you is titled “Follow these 10 Steps to Starting a Business”.  Starting a business involves planning, making key financial decisions and completing a series of legal activities. These 10 easy steps can help you plan, prepare and manage your business. The 10 steps are listed below: Step 1: Write...

Building Management Skills For those of you interested in pursuing a career in management, you may be interested in checking out the link listed below. Here you will find some articles that will help you build several skills that all managers need. The following article topics can be found on this site: Coaching, communication, manage conflict, management tips, mentoring, and public speaking.  http://management.about.com/od/managementskills/Management_Skills.htm - KS

10 Tips for Being a Good Leader Found some pretty straight forward, simple tips that we all could apply towards our leadership development: 1.   Keep Your Word. Don't make promises you can't keep. 2. Be Fair to All. A good leader shows no favorites. Don't allow friendships to keep you from being fair to all members of your unit. 3. Be a Good Communicator. You don't need a commanding voice to be a good leader, but you must be willing to step out front with an effective "Let's go." A good leader knows how to give and receive information so that everyone understands what's going on. 4. Be Flexible. Everything doesn't always go as planned. Be prepared to shift to "plan B" when "plan A" doesn't work. 5. Be Organized. The time you spend planning will be repaid many times over. Keep records of who agrees to help and expect them to be responsible. 6. Delegate. Some leaders assume that the job will not get don...

Found these interesting key points to being a successful manager: Set expectations from the start.  Let them know during the interview process that they’ll be judged on their ability to cultivate healthy relationships with other team members. No one can succeed in a vacuum; No matter how strong an employee – complimentary teams are needed to be successful. Hold them accountable.  Make it clear that employees’ behavior and actions towards others are just as important as their performance abilities. Recognize the team.  Avoid doling out too much recognition to one person. Teams respond better when recognized as a whole. We need to lead by example. If you want the group to function as a team – you need to reward them at a team – and make sure that you are showing appreciation to all of the team members. Give feedback.  Hold regular sessions if the employee’s behavior is hurting team morale. We all know that ignoring the issue will not make it go away. Rememb...

I found an AND article covering management in dietetics.  It discusses our roles in management and our future in dietetics.  The take-away: we need to not be afraid of management roles.  A lot of place that we work in, such as non-profits, hospitals, etc, need us to lead.  We use managements techniques (goal setting, strategic thinking, and outcomes management) often without even realizing it.  We should develop these skills more, and take opportunities to be leaders!   You can see this article here , if you want to know more! RR

Continuing on with the topic of trends, we should all be aware of those trends in our field.  There is a whole section dedicated to this on the AND's website dedicated to this topic titled, "Nutrition and You: Trends 2011."  Although its from last year (and soon to be 2 years ago), it looks at the past 20 years in trends and is applicable for us today.  It has a webinar, presentation, and some pdfs. This should be something we keep out eye on in the coming years.  You can find all of the information  here!! RR

As we have all learned, being a leader is more than just being a boss. As Robert Egger said it on his blogpost , leadership is about empowering others to lead. I wanted to share this post because Robert Egger, to me, is epitome of what an amazing leader is. He specifically leads in the non-profit sector and I highly encourage everyone to do some research on him. He's inspiring and contagious! I feel that the best part about his blog post is that he shows humbleness by saying that he still has improvements to make before anyone follow the way that he does it. I think that Robert Egger is a great leader and someone to take example from. If you're ever feeling uninspired and need a pick up, look him up and remember what a great leader can be. ep

Congratulations to all of the second year interns! This page is helpful for anyone who is applying for RD positions, or reevaluating your existing place of employment. I accessed this through the Dietetics in Health Care Communities practice group, on the AND's website.  These "talking points" will help you to dig deeper and find out important information that may affect you in your job hunt.  From questions on your workspace, available software and tools, and job expectations such as how many assessments are normally completed each week, these considerations will  help you to form a realistic and informed perception of the workplace, and your role in it. The Quality Management page accessed through the same practice group also contains some great resources, including this article on Quality Dietetics . CR

Found this website that applies the Myers-Briggs (MBTI) results to leadership styles. Thought it would be interesting since some of us just took the MBTI. There is also other information available on the site about using your MBTI results. The leadership information can be accessed at: http://www.teamtechnology.com/leadership-styles.html    J.Y.

This video 's not just about cute penguins!  Although it is a shameless plug using adorable animals to sell his newest book, Our Iceberg is Melting author and Harvard business professor John Kotter makes a good point about how we will respond when our "iceberg melts," - when our environment is altered, our workplace is bought out, our employment ends or our situation changes in any way.  Kotter approaches the subject of change as an opportunity for transformation in our workplaces and for leadership in ourselves - " Change Leadership ".  This article written about Kotter in 2000 outlines his 8 phases of change, many of which (especially 3,4,5,8) parallel Kouzes and Posner's Leadership ideas as presented in The Leadership Challenge.  I haven't picked up the book yet, but Kotter's teachings looks like they can offer us many great additions to our Leadership "toolboxes" and will help us excel as leaders by welcoming the trends and changes ...