Professional Networking

The Sustainability Networking Mixer for students specializing in environmental outreach and education was held on March 28th, 2018 at Chatham University's Eden Hall Campus.  The participants included several members of recognizable organizations in the Greater Pittsburgh area such as Grow Pittsburgh, Phipps Conservatory, Allegheny Watershed Association, Allegheny Land Trust, and the National Aviary.  Representatives and their LinkedIn profiles are listed below.  

Alyssa Kail, MFA | Grow Pittsburgh | https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyssakail/
Sarah States, PhD | Phipps | https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-states-0b311b2a/
Rebecca Zeyeus, BS | Allegheny Watershed Association | https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-zeyzus-56a2772b/
Jessica Kester, BS | Allegheny Land Trust | https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-kester-1a32814a/
Bob Mulvihill, MS | National Aviary | https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-mulvihill-39b86617/

A consistent piece of advice offered by all participants was to pursue all opportunities, regardless of their direct pertinence to your over-arching goal within the field of sustainability.  Within these opportunities, each participant expressed the importance of maintaining a potential for discovery and learning.  They stressed the necessity of creating space to learn from others when holding an educator position.  Never disregard people's life experiences.  Instead attempt to introduce them into the conversation, lesson, or lecture.  

The concept of creating mutualistic learning environments between management, employees, and customers is emphasized within Herzberg's two-factor theory.  Here the hierarchy of needs is described in two categories: hygiene and motivation factors.  Hygiene factors include quality of supervision, pay, company policies, etc.  Motivation factors on the other hand consist of management providing promotion opportunities, recognition, responsibility, etc.  Together these factors advocate for a sense of transparency between employees and management that reflects on the guests overall experience of that particular establishment.  This form of management is also classified as a democratic leadership style.

Similarly, Cable, D. (2018) suggests that effective leadership occurs when you "bring out the best in your employees" by helping harness sensations of motivation, purpose, and appreciation.  Within this process the leadership should be willing and wanting to learn from the expertise of people in lower-level positions.  These perspectives are often grazed over or left unconsidered, but are integral to the everyday processes that occur within the business.  To encourage an atmosphere of collaboration amongst employees and administration, upper-level management should ask how they can be of more assistance to lower-level employees.  Keeping open lines of communication between the two spheres of business is rare, but absolutely necessary to maintaining a healthy business.   

References

Cable, D. (2018). How humble leadership really works. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved fromhttps://hbr.org/2018/04/how-humble-leadership-really-works.