Successful Careers Require Partnerships!

By Jackie Damrau, 1^st VP

• Are you more focused on providing technical solutions, or on solving your client's business issues?
• Can you easily shift between strategic and tactical conversations with your clients?
• Are you able to influence your clients and get them to listen to your ideas?

Many of us fill the technical communicator roles of contractor, consultant, or temporary-to-permanent. Regardless of your role, we all communicate with SMEs, end-users, co-workers, and others that require us to build effective business partnerships.

Suzanne Saxe opens our membership year by talking about "Building Business Partnerships: The Key to Your Success." She is Co-founder and President/CEO of Advance Consulting, Inc. where she works to improve an organization's performance by providing tools, processes, and skills to enhance their internal and external business relationships. According to Saxe, "Technical expertise is no longer enough in today's demanding business environment. Your success largely depends on the ability to partner with your clients by understanding their business issues and strategic goals."

She will deliver an interactive presentation that will leave you with the benefits of:

• Adding new tools and techniques to your technical communicator toolbox
• Assessing your ability to play a variety of consultative roles, including technical expert, coach, facilitator, problem solver, administrator, influencer, strategist, and overall partner
• Receiving the strategic highlights from her workshop The Consultative Approach

These benefits will help you start down the "yellow brick road" to success in building key business relationships! Come to this meeting and bring a client situation with you to work on during the session!

Saxe co-authored the book, The Consultative Approach: Partnering for Results! with Virginia LaGrossa in 1998 as one way to provide those in a consultative role with the strategies and tools that are vital for achieving success in business relationships. This book will be available for purchase at the end of the meeting. She will be glad to autograph your purchase, or you can visit her website (www.advanceconsulting.com) to purchase the book online.

Join us at our September 11^th meeting! Costs for the dinner and program are $20 for STC and $25 for non-members. Anyone can attend the program only at no cost. To attend, register by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, September 8, 2003. You may register by calling 972-558-1622 or visiting the LSC website at www.stc-dfw.org.