Note: Originally published in Marquis Messages.

Often amusing, sometimes infuriating, and only occasionally insightful, editorial pieces are constantly popping up about the cultural struggle between Baby Boomers and Millennials. While different in style or premise, they all invariably reveal one thing that’s true for both sides: most of us are terrible communicators.

“But Sarah,” you may say, “generational differences run deep. It isn’t just how we communicate with each other.” I disagree. I believe thatevery misunderstanding results from a breakdown in communication, and intergenerational discord results from misconceptions that can be addressed through articulate discourse. Continue reading →

Note: Originally published in Marquis Messages.

At the risk of dating myself, I’ll admit that I remember a time before the Internet was a thing we all had – a time when dial-up connections were only available in affluent households, when getting online was reserved for conducting business or researching for school. Hardly anyone had a website because even if you had one, who would see it? Today, that is a distant memory: if you don’t have a website, you don’t exist. But it isn’t enough to just have a website. Your site has to communicate key pieces of information, be easy to use across an ever-widening variety of mobile and desktop browsers, and look good.

It’s also important to evaluate your site every once in a while and make updates to keep your pages accurate and competitively relevant.Have you looked at our website lately? Just this week, we completely revamped our design and streamlined our content. We switched from a more traditional hierarchical architecture to a sleek one-page design, and our messaging now captures the key points we want to share. Continue reading →

Note: Originally published in Marquis Messages.

Are you one of those leaders who scoff at Twitter, laugh at LinkedIn, badmouth Facebook, and ignore Instagram? I’ve got news for you: social media is no longer optional for businesses that want to continue to grow. Why? Because those channels are where your future customers are looking for you.

“But Sarah,” you’re saying, “our clients don’t find us on social. That’s not where people look for our services.” Or maybe, “Sarah, social is a time suck. We can’t invest our resources in something that won’t get us customers.”

Let me tell you a story. Continue reading →

Note: Originally published on LinkedIn.

On Wednesday, I attended the Association for Talent Development (ATD) Puget Sound Chapter’s 2015 Workplace Learning Conference. It was a great experience for a newbie to the field like myself, and I left the event with a new perspective on learning, change, and the future of both in the workplace. Here are five of my favorite takeaways from the day:

1. Engagement is at the heart of team cohesiveness, productivity, and ultimately, job satisfaction.

An engaged employee is more likely than a disengaged one to produce great work, contribute thoughtfully in meetings, and stay with a company for a longer period of time. How do you measure engagement? Theresa Kinney of BlessingWhite introduced the ‘X’ Model of Employee Engagement, which maps individual goals and organizational goals to help identify how engaged an employee is. Depending on where your employee falls on the spectrum, you can employ different tactics to reinforce engagement or address problem areas – for leaders, this typically involves asking tough questions and really listening to the responses. It’s especially important, though, to watch out for your own engagement levels. As Theresa said, “a dead battery can’t jump start another.” Continue reading →