The ability to listen, and listen carefully, is a skill that seems to be scarce these days. Conversational “blah blah blah” is so common, there’s a day to commemorate it! April 17th is Blah Blah Blah Day. Defeat the disregard of dialogue with these three tips to improve your listening skills.

Defining moments shape our lives and, in the case of Amber Winn, come in the form of books. Although it may be happenstance that she found The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath, she’s grateful that a colleague suggested it for the SMPS Emerging Professionals Group (EPG) book club.

While “business development” is a common term in our industry, some may view it as jargon taken from an executive MBA program; it may seem overwhelming and incomprehensible to folks who don’t do it every day. But business development specialist Alicia Zimmerman doesn’t see it that way. Her take on business development? It’s a method of forging sincere, long-term relationships, with business success as the positive outcome.

When I first started in this industry I worked for a large, very well-established civil engineering firm in the Intermountain Region. I was the first marketing person they had ever hired so I was fortunate to be able to set up the department and get their marketing programs put into place. One day I approached my boss, the president of the company, about establishing a Client Relations program to monitor client satisfaction.