Opportunities for strategic career development and for business professionals to grow career skill sets will stem from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Center for Executive and Professional Development Power Lunches series.
The series, which opens Sept. 12, features faculty from the College of Business and the greater university leading the 90-minute sessions. The five lunches are designed to help professionals obtain insights into relevant challenges facing businesses now and in the future.
“Popular and affordable, the Power Lunches cover a wide range of topics and are pertinent to business today. We know people are busy so we offer something respectful of their limited time. For those wanting more, we offer longer programs related to several of the topics we cover in Power Lunches,” said Emre Unlu, executive director of the center, associate professor of finance and Paul C. Burmeister Professor of Investments. “We find topics and speakers who engage with the audience effectively. The ultimate goal is supporting our state’s employees and employers. If they grow and succeed, all of us will succeed.”
Three new Power Lunch topics this fall will address communication, marketing metrics and leadership Expertise in these areas will be shared by presenters, Rik Barrera, associate dean and chief operating officer of the College of Business; Amit Saini, associate professor of marketing and W.W. Marshall College Professor; and Elina Ibrayeva, associate professor of practice in management.
Each Power Lunch session costs $54, which includes lunch and parking validation for the 14th and Avery parking garage. Registration in multiple sessions reduces the price to $49 per lunch.
All sessions are 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Howard L. Hawks Hall, Room 202. The program is open to professionals and students. Registration is available online.
The fall 2019 Power Lunch sessions are:
“Moving Beyond Carrots and Sticks: Unlocking Motivation in the Modern Workplace”
Jake Messersmith Sept. 12
How do you best motivate others to do their best work? Do financial incentives crowd out creativity and intrinsic motivation? Messersmith, associate professor of management and executive director of Business Graduate Programs, will explore the latest research on the complicated relationship between financial incentives and employee motivation to offer insights into how to build an organizational culture and system that motivates individuals and teams to do their best work.
“How Machine Learning Impacts Business”
Steve Cooper | Sept. 19
Machine learning has become increasingly popular. Machine learning takes data and analyzes it in a way that helps you make good business decisions. In this age of big data, the volume and level of sophistication of data have grown enormously. Those utilizing machine learning give it an almost mythical capability in describing its predictive and analytic powers. In this session, Cooper, associate professor of computer science and executive director of the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management, will discuss some of what machine learning includes, what you as a business owner or executive should be thinking about and why a certain degree of caution is warranted.
“Managing Communication and Culture in the Five-Generation Workforce”
Rik Barrera | Sept. 26
Typically there are three generations in the workforce at any given time. Today there are five. What effect does this have on the culture of your company? Research shows the most critical element of a positive and productive organization is the manager. Barrera focuses this workshop on these expansive generations, how they think and how they can better work together. Attendees will also explore what these employees are looking for in a job or organization, how to more effectively manage them and how you can build a culture that makes your company an attractive place to work.
“Improving Marketing Metrics”
Amit Saini | Oct. 3
Are you unsure about how to measure your marketing effectiveness? Are you guilty of a “spray and pray” approach with your marketing budget? Knowing how, when and what to measure with regards to your marketing output is critical. As the saying goes, “if you can measure it, you can manage it”. This power lunch session with Saini will advise you on selective and using suitable marketing metrics for dynamic environments.
“Becoming a Mindful Leader”
Elina Ibrayeva | Oct. 10
Are you interested in cultivating your awareness and presence as a leader? In this session, Ibrayeva will share lessons from her 15-year journey into mindfulness. The concept of mindfulness is a new and popular approach to how people can be more creative, resilient, optimistic and overall, a more effective leader. Ibrayeva will discuss the most general theory of mindfulness and its major principles, practices and exercises. Participants will be asked to contribute their stories, examples and questions. Those interested in how to be more thoughtful in their decision-making, more imaginative in their role, conscious to the world and the people around should attend this program.
