Spring 2021 Professional Development Recap

On May 25th, 2021, WTS Sacramento held its first Professional Development workshop of the year. We welcomed Katie Miller, president of Left Lane Advisors, who presented on “Leading with Relationship Intelligence”.

Katie kicked off the virtual workshop by asking everyone to share a little bit about themselves and their “Why” for attending. Amongst the group we had a mix of public and private professionals at varying levels in their career. Each of us had a unique reason for showing up and this created a truly engaging conversation throughout the evening. Before moving into our first activity Katie spoke about values and how they shape our personal and professional lives. She also shared how lived experience, family and friends play a role in forming our values and that it's important to remember this when working with people who might not see the world the same way you do. Our first activity was to go into breakout rooms and share our 5 core values. Almost everyone had different values which allowed us to see how we may respond differently to certain situations if we feel that someone is reacting in a way that conflicts with our core values.

Katie then walked the group through a discussion around achieving results through relationships and how past, present and future experiences can be used as strengths. In order to understand our strengths however we need to understand that everyone has a blend of three motives:

• People - wanting to help others

• Performance - wanting to achieve results

• Process - wanting to establish order

We then went back into breakout rooms and discussed which motivates aligned most with us personally. Ultimately, relationship intelligence means bringing everyone to the table and acknowledging their core values along with their motives. When either of these feel threatened there is often conflict. Katie wrapped up the session by sharing tips around how to manage conflict with curiosity and openness instead of fear which often drives a lot of our decisions. When bringing up a potential conflict, Katie suggests to “set up the scene” first and explain your values that are threatened in that situation. If both parties can be curious and open to cooperation, then a win-win solution can result.

A book recommendations from Katie Miller:

The Go-Giver Influencer by Bob Burg and John David Mann

Thank you Katie for a fantastic workshop!