On Sunday, February 18th, the American Rental Association (ARA) offered attendees at the ARA Show™ 2024 in New Orleans an opportunity to explore 16 educational sessions on a wide range of business and operations topics with experts and industry insiders. It provided a unique learning opportunity. This education day was hosted by Ditch Witch.
Educational sessions are divided into four tracks: “Learning and Teaching,” “Connecting and Collaborating,” “Empowering and Engaging,” and “Planning and Strategizing.”
Speaker Paul Long wore a neon-colored shirt and matching bow tie during the high-energy “Learn and Lead” session, “Fundamentals of Meaningful Leadership.” He shared his insights on “Fandamism,” which offers an intentional approach to maximizing fulfillment, shifting perspective, and becoming more clear about “what is good.” He also provided tactical actions that improve your ability to create meaningful dialogue, listen with intention, embrace awkward moments, and lead with kindness.
Gilberta Thompson, a party plug from Nassau, Bahamas, said there was one thing that really stuck with her from the FUNdamentals sessions. “He said, 'Unexplained expectations lead to pre-planned anger.'” That was so good. We've found that we often expect people to know what we want them to do and then hear him actually explain it to us. That made a big impression on me. “When you choose not to communicate properly, you're planting seeds of resentment,” she says.
CSP speaker Lisa Ryan, in a session titled “Smart Strategies to Prevent Your Top Talent from Belonging to Others,” said that in the post-pandemic mass retirements, employers will be able to retain their top talent. He stated that five points should be taken to retain them. . 1 — Be accessible. She asks for feedback with a 2—“Thank you for sharing” attitude. Number 3 — Share your mission and make your employees feel like they're part of something bigger than themselves. Number 4 — Invest in training. And #5 – Recognize excellence. ” Ryan said each of these adds up to what she calls “GRATEGY.”
“She talked about giving feedback to your employees. You need feedback as much as your employees need it. It's important to continue to create a safe space for them. ” says Tiffany Ash, a first-time customer at Powder River Party Rentals in Sheridan, Wyoming.
“Many employees don't know where they fit in the organization. This seminar summarized that as we emerge from this pandemic, we need to appreciate our employees. “Once you hire employees, you have to encourage them,” says Robert Garrett of the Colorado Rental team in Granby, Colorado.
In the “Planning and Strategy” session “Believe in Safety,” speaker Brandon Schroeder shares life-changing stories and specific examples of why it's so important to be a safety champion for your company. shared. Mr. Schroeder eventually became the company's safety director and emphasized the importance of building a safety culture.
“I said to myself, it's okay to make a mistake once, but it's my job as a company to learn from each one of these mistakes and make sure we don't let something like this happen again in the future. No. All accidents, including mine, are avoidable. The first step to achieving that goal is to believe that it is possible. Have all the meetings and trainings you want. “You can do things, but sometimes things can go wrong. Safety is no different than any other goal you set for yourself. If you don't believe you can achieve that goal, you won't achieve it,” Schroeder said. say.
“I watched a safety seminar and it was an inspiring talk. It was very moving and made me think seriously about safety,” says Reuben Ayoub, CERP, TLC Rents, Doraville, Georgia.
Participants were able to learn several lessons that they can implement in their own businesses.
“I learned about leadership styles and how to deal with different personalities and different employees, and generally understood what each person's needs were. And how to bring them all together. and build a good, strong team,” says Stephen Williams of Massive Equipment in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.
