With Jet Blue (the employer of the now-famous Steven Slater) at the low end of the scale, and Campbell Soup’s CEO at the other, Kevin Kruse showed why it makes good business to help employees grow in the jobs, recognize them for what they do well, and create an atmosphere of trust.


This morning Kruse (third from right in this photo, also including, far left, Princeton Regional Chamber CEO Peter Crowley, Nell Haughton, and Tom Neilssen) spoke at the Nassau Club to a capacity audience of the Princeton Regional Chamber.  Neilssen, who is CEO of the Research Park-based Bright Sight Group, represents Kruse for his speaking dates. Those who attended went home with a free, signed copy of the book Kruse co-authored, “We: How to Increase Performance and Profits through Full Engagement.”


Slater is (was) the Jet Blue airline attendant who famously get fed up with his job and exited the aircraft on a slide. Doug Conant was the CEO who rescued the fortunes of the 150-year-old Camden-based soup company with a “soft approach,” paying attention to the hopes and dreams of the workers. (Conant had his own book published last year, Touch Points.)


Speaking without notes, with the humor and ease of the professional keynoter,  Kruse gave example after example of how G (grow) plus R (recognize) plus T (trust) equals business success. At one of his previous firms, Kenexa, he made it a point to have regular career chats (G for growth) with each employee about where they wanted to be in the next three years, and these contributed to his earning Best Workplace Awards. Beleaguered by Campbell Soup’s initial financial problems, Conant somehow found time to write 10 to 20 thank you notes every day, accomplishing the R for Recognize. Any company, whether in the black or in the red, should summarize its strategic plan as something memorable (Starwood’s mantra, for instance, is 1,500 hotels for 2014. That’s T for Trust). 


When he recently addressed a prestigious military audience, Kruse picked up another piece of advice, this one from a respected colonel: “Everyone is not a leader! First you must learn to follow.” But, says Kruse, even though you are not the acknowledged leader, not the CEO nor the manager — you can use the G-R-T principles. says Kruse: We can all lead from where we are.” 


Guess I’d better get back to my long list of unwritten thank you notes. 

Want to lose weight? Be fully engaged at work.

Want to live longer? Be fully engaged at work.

Want a better marriage? Be fully engaged at work.

Want to be a better parent? Be fully engaged at work.

Want to achieve inner happiness? Be fully engaged at work.


So says Kevin Kruse, serial entrepreneur and expert on leadership, employee engagement, and business excellence. Kruse speaks at the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce’s February Business Before Business Breakfast on Wednesday, February 15, at 7:30 a.m. His talk is titled, “Re: Engage! How Leaders Gain Emotional Commitment through Growth, Recognition, and Trust.” Cost $25 or $40 for non-members. 

“Employee satisfaction is at an all-time low,” says Kruse, expert on leadership, employee engagement, and business excellence. “This is a crisis for business because it hurts profits and stock prices. It’s a crisis for individuals because it impacts their health and relationships.”

http://princetoninfo.com/index.php?option=com_us1more&Itemid;=6&key;=2-8-12kruse

PS I’ve seen Kevin speak at his ePatient Connections conferences, and he’s a terrific speaker…

Meet investing angels in Princeton on February 21, and meet the inventor of the Next Big Thing on February 29. You’ll need an invitation for the Angel Party, sponsored by Jumpstart New Jersey (email your business summary to info@jumpstartnj.com). But anybody will be able to spot the angels lurking in the audience (and on the judges stand) at the February 29 Innovation Forum, set for 5:30 p.m. at the Friend Center Auditorium, and it’s free.


It is sponsored by Princeton University’s Keller Center, the Jumpstart New Jersey Angel Network, and Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP in conjunction with Princeton’s Office of Technology Licensing. Competitors — all with a connection to the university — give a three-minute elevator pitch and the judges award a total of $40,000 to the top three entries.
A couple of years ago a woman won first prize for a website that crowd-sourced and crowd-funded fashion picks. That one dropped a lot of jaws. Here’s an account of last year’s contest.


Upcoming events, as featured on the Office of Technology licensing web page, include 

If you are TEDx wise, thanks to the TEDx events at the Princeton Public Library, you may want to know about the TEDx that NJIT plans for Friday, March 23.

If you have always wanted to present as well as the really good TEDx speakers, I can refer you to Eileen Sinett’s seminars. The next Leadership Trump Card seminar, a half-day at Raritan Valley Community College, is Tuesday, March 6. The author of Speaking That Connects, Sinett can help the most shy person feel confident.

The troubling issue of trafficking in children’s innocence will be the topic for Dr. Francesca Nuzzolese on Sunday, February 19, at 4 p.m. at Princeton United Methodist Church, located at Nassau and Vandeventer in Princeton. Don Brash, PUMC’s resident theologian will moderate the discussion of “Children at Risk: trafficking and enslavement of children today.” 

A professor at Palmer Seminary, the seminary of Eastern University, Dr. Nuzzolese has been a missionary and pastoral counselor in the United States, Europe, and Australia, and she has just returned from studying child enslavement in south Asia.

“It is so easy to just look away from such a distressing subject, but in this new monthly series, we will try to learn more about and to come to grips with some of these troubling issues,” says Brash. Other topics in the Troubling Issues series are “Holocausts in Our Time” on March 18, and on May 6, a documentary about gay teenagers growing up in the church.

“It’s hard to say what the biggest crisis was: the fire, being held at gunpoint, or the chocolate chip cookies. Hint: It wasn’t the cookies but you’ll find out later why it got shortlisted. In her nearly three decades in the hotel business, 24 of them at the Nassau Inn, Lori Rabon, general manager, has dealt with crises every day, but it is such an integral part of her job, it takes her quite a long time to think of the biggest.”

http://princetoninfo.com/index.php?option=com_us1more&Itemid;=6&key;=02-08-2012RabonCover

As a mom, grandma, and Methodist Sunday School teacher, I know the value of  “expected suspense.”  Lift the flap books are a sure thing for toddlers, even for the 20^th time, as are picture books where you already know what will be on the next page.

The triptych (one panel of wood, flanked by two more panels that can close inward) offered another kind of suspense. As one of the chapters in Zchomeldise’s book explains, the ritual opening of these panels could be a moment of high drama. A lift-the-flap moment to the Nth power.


Now I’m getting to the good part, the part that makes a difference to you. You can see some triptychs on display at the Princeton University Art Museum, part of the medieval alabaster exhibit from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Entitled Objects of Devotion, the exhibit is on view through February 12. It’s free. Get there if you possibly can. 


If your children go to Sunday School, bring them along. Don’t drag them through the whole exhibit, as that will be boring, and some of it (like the disemboweling of St. Edmund) is gory. But these beautiful, small alabaster altar pieces, crafted in England for the homes of the wealthy, are SS lessons in themselves. My top five for children who know something about the life of Christ:

#3  The visit of the Magi (pictured above left). Theologically, the visit of the wise men from the East shows that Christ came to the gentiles as well as the Jews. Visually enjoyable for children, it shows the ox and the ass eating out of the trough in the foreground (aren’t they cute?). Meanwhile Joseph is dozing off, presumably dreaming that he’d better flee to Egypt. The curator’s notes explain all this and it will surely make a vivid impression on children — as it did on the medieval worshipers. 


# 20  The Annunciation, which shows the four angels named in Psalm 85: 10 and 11. In the King James version (conveniently available as part of the exhibit) this psalm declares that “Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.” All that happens in this altar piece.


I would also direct them to #19, St.John the Baptist, from Matthew 3:1-4, which we just finished studying at PUMC.  John is surrounded by four-legged animals and birds, quite lovely in the soft marble. It looks sort of like candle wax and the exhibit has a “please touch” panel, where you can compare the soft alabaster with the harder marble and granite.


The children would also recognize #52  Christ’s entry into Jerusalem and


#31 the Ascension  with everyone looking up in awe, and all you see are Christ’s feet suspended in air. So literal.

Plus of course the triptychs, as the early 15th century one on the right. The painted, gilded, wooden triptychs cannot be manipulated by viewers of the exhibit, of course, but you can imagine the dramatic opening when, during the service, the secrets of the Trinity would be revealed. 


 In the 21st century we are so far removed, so superior, so much more artistically and theologically sophisticated than they were in the Middle Ages — yet their art can speak to us, and especially to our children. 


Picture credits:

“Nonprofit board positions provide extraordinary opportunities for women to develop as leaders and to
advance themselves personally and professionally while contributing in meaningful ways to making the
world a better place,” says consultant Alice Korngold.

Korngold is the author of  Leveraging Good Will: Strengthening Nonprofits by Engaging Businesses, and she blogs for Fast Company and the Huffington Post. She will moderate a panel for ACG New Jersey’s Women of Leadership on Thursday, February 9, at 6 p.m. at the Hamilton Park Hotel, Florham Park. Admission ranges from free (for first-timers) to $115. To register visit http://www.acg.org/nj.

Why can it be valuable to serve on a nonprofit board?

“During the last decade, the nonprofit and corporate universes are coming together and collaborating.

Companies are about profits but have added an emphasis on purpose, value or meaning. Corporations
are also beginning to recognize the leadership development opportunities of encouraging and
supporting their executives who seek to serve on nonprofit boards. Nonprofits are about mission
and have added an emphasis on business strategies. As a result, people who bring business skills and
experiences are welcome additions to nonprofit boards. Commit to a board that strikes your passion and
curiosity… where you care about an organization’s mission. Go in with your eyes wide open about the
challenges facing the particular organization. Boards are accepting greater responsibility for their roles
and responsibilities than in the past.”

“Furthermore being on a nonprofit board increases your visibility for corporate boards of directors.
Many women and men start their board careers on a nonprofit board as a building block for other board
assignments.”

“Bring your business acumen to the nonprofit world, cultivate your leadership development skills and
apply those skills and experiences back into your current assignment. Chances are when your skills and
experience sharpen, your career advances. “

“To do this you will want to know what skills and competencies are transferable and marketable both to
businesses and board of directors.”

But, says Korngold, keep in mind that, for those who serve on a nonprofit board, “having fun is important too.”

by Mary Clare Garber, Princeton Legal Search Group, LLC

Needless to say: any of these events offer networking bonanzas.