Picture it: Tampa, August, 2019. I was attending the NGLCC [National LGBT Chamber of Commerce] International Business and Leadership Conference for the third year in a row.

And this year, I was honored to have been selected to present to two different groups on Tuesday, August 13th at the Tampa Convention Center:

• A brief “teaser” presentation to the Procurement Council – a group of Supplier Diversity and Sourcing professionals representing Corporate Sponsors and Partners – in the morning; and

• A 45-minute skills-development session for conference attendees.

The topics I chose were taken directly from my work as a leadership coach, facilitator, and business performance consultant…

For the Procurement Council, I did a short presentation on setting yourself up to give effective feedback by working with your team to establish standards and ground rules – which gives you the framework to provide information about how individuals and the team are performing in relation to those standards and ground rules.

For the conference attendees, I shared three key skills for developing relationships that they could use at the conference, and in their businesses: Asking Open-Ended Questions, Reflective Listening, and Finding the Right Balance between Social Greetings and Getting Down to Business.

Mitch Lippman presenting to conference attendees at the 2019 NGLCC International Business and Leadership Conference

Both these topics are things I cover with the most senior leaders in organizations AND with emerging leaders. We all need reminding of skills, structures, and techniques to help us lead better, network better, and communicate better.

I was thrilled to have my friends and colleagues Ben Conard of Five North Chocolate and the dynamic speaker Jayzen Patria attend my afternoon learning session – and we spent a good deal of time together at some amazing conference events.

At the NGLCC Conference, I got to hang out with Rainie Cole, Alan Rothenberg, and Cindi Kreager (left), Ben Conard (center), and Jayzen Patria (right)

In addition, I got to see many other long-time NGLCC friends and colleagues, and meet a lot of terrific new friends and colleagues! I can’t wait for next year’s Conference!