Parts Life, Inc. and DeVal Lifecycle Support recently participated in the Strictly Business: The Dale Carnegie Immersion Seminar, a transformative three-week course designed to enhance leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills. This immersive experience provided invaluable lessons based on Dale Carnegie’s proven principles, fostering stronger connections, motivation, and personal development among our team members.
A Legacy of Dale Carnegie Excellence: Transforming Leadership Since 1912
Dale Carnegie’s influence on personal and professional success dates back to his groundbreaking book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, first published in 1936. His principles have shaped generations of leaders by focusing on self-confidence, relationship-building, and effective communication. His other bestseller, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, offers timeless strategies for managing stress, improving public speaking, and fostering positive interactions.
The Dale Carnegie Training programs have evolved over the years, incorporating modern leadership insights while staying true to these core human relations principles. More than 9 million professionals worldwide have completed the program, using these techniques to build stronger careers, businesses, and teams.
Inside the Dale Carnegie Seminar: Key Takeaways for Parts Life, Inc.
Over three weeks, teams from engineering, business development, business intelligence, contracting, HR, and marketing engaged in an intensive, hands-on program designed to develop leadership skills, refine communication, and strengthen collaboration across departments. Each week team members focused on building effective presentation and communication skills with each other in a safe and energetic space.
The program, led by Don Warkentin and Andy Zinsmeister of the Dale Carnegie Training of Central and Southern New Jersey, along with our Vice President of Business Development Jeannie Whitfield, solidified our commitment servant leadership and team building.
Below are some of the most impactful areas we explored.
1. Strengthening Relationships & Motivating Others
One of the core principles of the Dale Carnegie program is the importance of relationship-building. Our team members worked together to identify key professional and personal relationships they wanted to improve and actively applied Carnegie’s principles to strengthen these connections.
Activities that Enhanced Team Collaboration:
✔ Defining Moments Exercise: Each participant shared a personal defining moment, helping build trust and understanding across teams.
✔ Human Relations Commitment: Participants practiced Dale Carnegie’s Nine Human Relations Principles, such as giving honest appreciation, becoming genuinely interested in others, and remembering people’s names to strengthen workplace connections.
✔ Motivation Challenge: Team members applied specific principles to improve a relationship and then presented their experiences and results to the group.
2. Clarity & Confidence in Communication
Being an effective leader means being able to communicate clearly and persuasively. This section of the seminar focused on refining our messaging to ensure we are understood, remembered, and respected in professional interactions.
Activities That Improved Communication Skills:
✔ LIONS Presentation Method: Using the acronym LIONS (Language, Illustration, Organization, Need, and Summary), team members delivered two-minute presentations designed to make complex ideas easy to understand.
✔ Energizing Communication Exercises: Participants practiced speaking with enthusiasm, energy, and clarity in simulated business scenarios.
✔ Prop-Based Presentations: Each individual used a visual aid (prop, flipchart, or diagram) to reinforce their message and make their presentation more impactful.
3. Managing Stress & Building Resilience
Workplace stress is inevitable, but learning to manage it effectively can make all the difference in leadership performance. The seminar explored stress-reduction techniques from Dale Carnegie’s How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, emphasizing practical solutions to maintain a balanced mindset.
Key Stress-Reduction Exercises:
✔ Stress Reflection Exercise: Each participant identified personal stressors and explored actionable ways to manage them, sharing success stories and ideas with the group.
✔ Golden Book Principles Discussion: We reviewed stress-management strategies found in Dale Carnegie’s Golden Book, such as living in “day-tight compartments” and focusing on solutions rather than problems.
✔ Resilience Commitment: Each person made a commitment to reduce a specific stressor and shared their plan with a peer for accountability.
4. Gaining Willing Cooperation & Influencing Others
A great leader knows how to gain cooperation from their team and inspire enthusiasm without resorting to authority alone. This section focused on principles for gaining willing cooperation and handling disagreements without creating conflict.
Key Influence & Collaboration Exercises:
✔ Cooperation Challenge: Participants practiced using one of the gaining cooperation principles—such as giving the other person a fine reputation to live up to—and reported their results.
✔ Disagreeing Agreeably Activity: Through role-playing exercises, we learned how to disagree with others in a way that maintains respect, avoids resentment, and fosters teamwork.
✔ Flexibility Challenge: Teams participated in problem-solving activities that required adaptability and creative thinking.
5. Recognizing & Building Others Up
A strong team is built on recognition and appreciation. This final section focused on the impact of acknowledging and uplifting others.
Activities That Strengthened Team Morale:
✔ Colleague Recognition Exercise: Each participant identified two colleagues, highlighted a specific strength they had demonstrated, and gave them personal recognition.
✔ Strengths & Achievements Sharing: We explored the power of highlighting others’ achievements and its positive impact on team dynamics.
✔ Final Leadership Commitment: Each person made a final leadership commitment to continue applying Dale Carnegie’s principles long after the seminar ended.
A Commitment to Leadership Growth
As we wrapped up the Dale Carnegie Immersion Seminar, our teams made a commitment to carry forward the lessons learned into tangible action plans.
As Dale Carnegie said:
“Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.”
Our journey as leaders and collaborators continues, and we’re excited to see the long-term impact this training will have on our companies and our communities. Thank you Don and Andy for an incredible experience!
Want to Learn More?
For those interested in leadership development, check out Dale Carnegie’s resources:
Parts Life, Inc. is a certified AS9100D engineering service provider, manufacturer, and alternate source supplier for DMSMS and obsolete replacement components on military systems and subsystems. Our value-added reverse engineering processes address missing or incomplete technical data needed prior to manufacturing. Services, such as R.O.P.E.® (Rapid Obsolescence Planning and Execution) and 5R® (Reverse Engineering, Remanufacturing, Recertify, Repair, Replicate) deliver manufacturable data with source approval to manufacture replacement parts. In our Prototype Integration Facility, parts and components are manufactured and tested for form, fit, and function to ensure each piece meets and surpasses OEM requirements. Our electronic, electric, and electrical manufacturing capabilities include wiring harnesses and electronic test sets.
DeVal Lifecycle Support, a Parts Life, Inc. Company, is a full service build to print mechanical manufacturer of armament and ground support equipment, sub-assemblies, and major parts and components for military systems and sub-systems for 70 years. As a small business certified HUBZone contractor for the Department of Defense, DeVal LCS is a full-service original equipment manufacturer with extensive high precision machining capabilities used to support our prime and government customers. Products include munitions trailers adapters & add-ons, drawbars, cargo loaders, weapon transport adapters, bomb hoist, dollies, self-propelled weapons loaders, testing and tool sets, and more. DeVal operates under regimented performance guidelines constituted by ISO9001:2015 and AS9100D Certified Quality Management Systems Programs.
Comments