Unlocking your full potential: Are you working in your genius?

Unlocking your full potential: Are you working in your genius?

By Kimberly Kayler, CPSM, President of AOE

I am a sucker for personality tests. In fact, when I did my MBA, I chose a program that had an emphasis in taking a deep dive into how our

personalities play a crucial role in leadership. Simply, I love this stuff. After all, today’s workplace is a complex ecosystem where each professional plays a critical role in achieving collective productivity. Identifying and utilizing each individual's inherent strengths and weaknesses is crucial for optimal performance and satisfaction.

With that said, you may have also experienced the let-down that tends to occur after going through a personality profile team building event with your cohorts. What’s next? How do we put this knowledge about ourselves and our team into action? Having led countless retreats, I struggled with helping teams create lasting change once they got back to their hurried work nature. To this end, I am excited to have found The Working Genius model. The platform transcends traditional personality tests to provide a deep understanding of our natural competencies and areas for development based not on what we are good at, but rather what brings us joy or exhausts us. It is knowledge you can actually implement.

I believe so strongly in this platform that I recently became certified as a Working Genius facilitator. A Working Genius workshop is a great team-building event, a fantastic kick-off to a strategic planning session or a great option for coaching team members. Are you truly working in your genius? The answer might just change the course of your work life.

Let me know if you’d like to schedule a call or meeting to chat about your Working Genius!

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Are you working in your genius podcast

Oftentimes, what we are good at actually exhausts us. For example, you may be known for getting things done, but you are happiest when you are in the stages of wonder and invention. Identifying and utilizing each individual's inherent working genius areas is crucial for optimal performance and satisfaction. In this podcast, AOE President Kimberly Kayler dives into the Working Genius work productivity model. The platform provides a deep understanding of our natural competencies and areas for development based not on what we are good at, but rather what brings us joy or exhausts us. It is knowledge you can actually implement. Listen here! 

Advancing Excellence is a weekly podcast hosted by AOE – serving the AEC industry. AOE’s podcast shares tips, ideas, marketing, events, strategic planning, crisis communication, organizational management, thought leadership and more.

 Recent episodes:

• Unlocking business success with Net Promoter Score
• Developing concrete's future leaders
• The value of an e-book
• Embracing the podcast wave

 AOE News

AOE receives Award of Distinction and Creative awards

AOE has been honored with three Awards of Distinction by the Communicator Awards and Hermes Creative Awards, two leading international awards program recognizing big ideas in marketing and communications. These awards highlight AOE's innovative approach to creating and executing communication strategies that significantly impact their projects and the industries they serve. The Hermes Creative Awards honors the messengers and creators that "bring their ideas to life through traditional and digital platforms." We are honored to receive these awards on behalf of our clients who continue to revolutionize the concrete industry. 

The award-winning projects include:

• A Platinum Award for the American Concrete Pavement Association's sustainability white paper "Concrete Pavement's Role in a Sustainable, Resilient Future." AOE developed and designed the white paper and promoted its launch via media outreach, culminating in a press conference at the 2023 World of Concrete in Las Vegas. 
• A Gold Award for AOE's marketing and PR efforts for the Concrete Industry Management (CIM) 2023 Auction. CIM is a business-intensive program that awards students with a four-year BS degree in Concrete Industry Management. Through AOE's efforts, the Auction raised a record $2.1 million in gross revenue, shattering all previous records. 
• A Gold Award for the 2023 opening of Heidelberg Materials' new cement plant in Mitchell, Indiana. As the second-largest single cement production facility in North America, the state-of-the-art plant will substantially increase local production levels while significantly reducing CO₂ emissions and energy consumption for Heidelberg Materials North America. AOE assisted in all business-to-business communications including graphic design work and writing articles and a series of eblasts (titled "Clinker Countdown") that provided regular construction updates.

Iowa Ready Mix Concrete Association has hired AOE!

AOE has been hired by the Iowa Ready Mixed Concrete Association for the development of their new strategic plan. Known as the “Concrete State,” AOE is excited to be working with the Association staff and board on this project. 

The AOE team gathers in Michigan

The AOE team gathered at our headquarters office in Farmington Hills, MI. last week for three days of networking, sharing knowledge and team building. Topics covered include the impact of AI on our business and how to integrate it in a responsible manner that benefits our clients, sustainability communications, as well as best practices for scoping projects for optimal success. The team also participated in three mock crisis communications simulations, allowing them to sharpen their crisis planning skills. Team members present include, from top

:

Kimberly Kayler, Bryce Barker, Emily Emanuelsen, Kari Moosmann, Kathy Spanier, Laura Merritt, Paulina Barbone, Drew Burns, Elec Izenson, Kristen Dispenza, Lindsay Chelf, Victoria Sicaras, Amy Numbers, Janice Clines, Nick Brimley

AOE Digital University

AOE launched Digital University to help our audiences expand their knowledge on digital marketing. We tailored the microsite specifically for our clients and others like them, who are predominantly AEC professionals that come from the trenches of their respective fields. Recognizing that these professionals often juggle various roles, including marketing responsibilities, Digital University offers blog articles, ebooks, videos and podcasts to learn about the latest digital tools. Topics include strategies and tools, websites, search engine optimization (SEO) and analytics, social media and artificial intelligence.

Visitors can choose from several quizzes to test their knowledge of digital marketing. They also earn an AOE Digital University graduate badge by passing the final exam, which consists of 50 questions and takes about seven minutes to complete. Those with a minimum 70% pass rate (35+ correct answers) will be emailed an electronic badge.

Visit www.aoedigitaluniversity.com.

Crafting enduring success through the art of long-term strategic planning

By Kathy Spanier, Strategic Planning Practice Leader for AOE

Strategic planning has always been essential to the successful operation of an organization. However, too many have embarked on the planning process, only to create something that simply becomes a list of key tactics and activities, lacking the link to the bigger vision. As a facilitator for such planning processes, I have learned that an effective long-term strategic plan must begin with a compelling Vision Statement or Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG). This foundational element not only navigates the organization through its industry's inevitable ups and downs but also finds the perfect synergy between ambitious aspirations and realistic achievability. It sets a daring target that accelerates innovation and encourages team-wide engagement, turning the distant future into an accessible reality and expanding what's considered possible today for tomorrow's achievements. Continue on to learn key concepts one should consider when embarking on the planning process.

 Strategic planning is a discipline that blends analytical rigor with creative foresight. However, the key to success is engagement, flexibility and of course starting off with that shared vision. For expert guidance on crafting and implementing a comprehensive, resilient long-term strategic plan, contact AOE today. Together, we can chart a course toward a future marked by sustained growth and enduring success

 What Our Clients Are Saying About AOE!