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Honeywell to host 2 interactive leadership seminars on Sept. 16

Jones Loflin, a professional speaker, author and trainer, will be virtually hosting classes through the Honeywell Center on Wednesday, Sept. 16. Registration for the virtual classes is open via honeywellcenter.org/jones-loflin.
Jones Loflin, a professional speaker, author and trainer, will be virtually hosting classes through the Honeywell Center on Wednesday, Sept. 16. Registration for the virtual classes is open via honeywellcenter.org/jones-loflin. Photo by Mandy Mahan.

Jones Loflin, professional speaker, author and trainer, will be coming to the Honeywell Center, virtually, on Wednesday, Sept. 16, to stream two different interactive leadership seminars via Eagles Theatre studios.

Loflin was a former middle and high school teacher. He made the switch to his current line of work in 1994. Initially, Loflin started out as a generalist when it came to speaking, and as his career went on, he began to focus in on time management, productivity and work-life balance.

According to Loflin, the books he has written stem from personal experience.

“My books have usually grown out of wanting to grow and develop myself, and then I find something that works and I want to share that with other people. That has certainly been the case with ‘Juggling Elephants’ and ‘Always Growing.’”

When asked what made him decide to pursue this path of being a speaker and author, Loflin said that he asked himself how he wanted his future to look, and then took the needed steps to get there.

“My wife and I were both in education and we loved teaching, but we started asking ourselves hard questions about what we wanted our lives to look like as a couple and knowing that eventually, God willing, would have a family. So, we started talking about the quality of life we wanted.

“It wasn’t from an economic standpoint, but talking about what we want our days to look like, and what we want our years to look like, so we made the decision that I would pursue speaking and training. She loved teaching, but knew that she probably didn’t want to do it as a full career and so I headed out to do what I always enjoyed, which was making presentations and connecting people and doing training type of events. I made the change then, and it worked out that my wife was able to be at home with our two daughters and also teach from home, so it just really worked out well.”

Loflin says that outside of his professional life, he loves being a father to his two daughters and that in his free time, ideally, he loves to sit down with a cup of decaf coffee and engage in good old conversation.

He will be giving two sessions through the Honeywell Center, “Time Management,” which will be from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.; and “Are You a Bankrupt Leader?” at 1 p.m. until 3:30 p.m.

“Both sessions are for anyone. I truly believe that anyone will get a benefit from being in either session,” adds Loflin.

As for the first session, he encourages anyone who feels like they are struggling with too much to do, whether a high school student, or an executive or anywhere in between. This session will be beneficial by teaching time management skills.

“If you’re struggling with too much to do, the framework that I will offer that day is applicable to you. We are going to look at a lot of things to manage that,” said Loflin. “You know, how do I manage my own expectations and the expectations of others? What’s causing this overload? And it’s easy to just say ‘COVID,’ and that’s part of it, that’s a huge driver of it, but we have to get deeper than that. We’ve got to look more at what about this season is causing me to feel greater stress and less productive, because if we can get specific about it, I think we can find solutions that work.”

The second session, “Are You a Bankrupt Leader?” is all about leadership and how leaders can change and evolve to match the current season and continue to be a good leader for their teams.

“Whether you’re leading an organization, a team, your own family, what does being an effective leader look like right now?” he asked rhetorically. “So many leaders right now, I think, do feel like they don’t have what they need to offer to their team members or don’t know how to be supportive or how to provide that leadership they need in a virtual environment, so for the afternoon session we will look at strategies on how to become that leader, effectively during this season.”

Loflin says he looks forward to connecting with all who attend these seminars and wants each person to walk away feeling like they have learned something.

“Even though this is a virtual session, I do want people to know that this will be interactive. We will be using the chat feature. I want them to bring their challenges and their specific situations to the session because the last thing I want them to do is to leave and say, ‘Yeah, that was helpful, but this is what I really was looking for,’” said Loflin. “Even very early on in the session, I’ll be asking the audience to respond to some questions that help me understand what their needs are.

“People’s time is so fractured these days and it’s hard to focus; I want to make sure that we are relevant, and the only way that I can be relevant to them is if they bring the challenges and needs they have to the session, express them and leave with the clarity and the confidence to do better.”

Mandy Mahan is a reporter at The Paper of Wabash County.