NAHAD’s annual conference, held in Phoenix this week, was an incredible gathering, with more than 1,000 attendees and spouses filling the ballroom at the J.W. Marriott Desert Ridge resort. It was my first NAHAD Annual Conference, and the programming, networking, and learning opportunities were all first rate.
Some highlights for me:
• The George W. Carver Award presentation. The Carver Award for Outstanding Commitment to Industry Excellence was created in 2007 to honor the group’s third president, who served with dedication, grace and distinction. Carver passed away in 2005. For this year’s presentation, four of the seven past winners were in attendance, and they came up on stage while NAHAD presented the first posthumous award in the group’s history. Steven D. Gray, who served on the NAHAD board from 2003-2005 and as the Standards Committee Chair from 2008-2009, was the 2014 recipient. Accepting on his behalf were his widow, Patty, and
two of his three children. There were few dry eyes in the house as Patty talked about how her husband had epitomized what it meant to be a good person. She related how Steven simply loved people and could chat with a CEO as effortlessly as a farmer who’d come into his Pennsylvania shop for repairs.
• Eric Greitens, a retired Navy Seal, gave a passionate keynote address on finding the frontlines in your life and dealing with them. Greitens is well known for starting the program The Mission Continues, which trains severely injured vets to give them new careers in their hometowns, allowing them to continue to serve others in some way. It was hard not to be awestruck at Greitens’ presentation, as he described the trials an tribulations that men and women go through in the Navy Seals training program. He explained to the lunch crowd that the frontline is where the battle is waged, a place of fear or pain. We all have to figure out how to navigate those frontlines in our lives. And he explained that making a change of course of just a couple of degrees, will, over time, take you to a completely different place.
• And Dr. Kathryne A. Newton of Purdue University’s Department of Technology, Leadership andInnovation , presented a fascinating session, called, “Preparing for 2020: The manager’s guide to dealing with the new workforce.” Newton explained how 10,000 baby boomers will be turning 65 this year—and then every year for the next 19 years. Plus, the U.S. is getting bigger, older and more racially and ethnically diverse. From 1980-2020, Caucasian workers will decline from 82% to 63%. Latinos will almost triple from 6% to 17%. And Millennials are taking over the workplace. Newton explained how they want engagement and want to work in groups—but they can be very productive that way. They want to be challenged and motivated. Saying what you mean and demonstrating it is important to them. And perhaps most importantly, you can earn their trust, but if you lose it, you’re done.
Leave a Reply