Let me paint a picture; an interviewee walks into a room full of 5 people, and has to sit in the hot seat. Each one takes a pot shot, reading off of a notecard some lame-generic question they pulled from the internet 5 minutes before the interview started, something like "If you could be an animal, what would you be?" (an eagle because I want to fly) or the dreaded "What is your greatest weakness?," and the even more dreaded response "Um, I think it's that I'm a perfectionist" ... kill me now!

To me, the best interviews I've had are conversations, not inquisitions. Obviously there are things that you can't ask legally. However, through thoughtful and relaxed conversation, you can learn a great deal about a person. And I think the point is not to find the perfect candidate, but to find a creative, qualified employee who can grow into a dynamic part of the team.

A friend of mine who recently went in to interview for a sales job was given a pen at the beginning of the interview. The CEO then asked him to "sell me" on the pen. If I was in that interview I would have said "Thanks for the pen" and bolted. I don't want to work for someone who is that limited in their vision. What's next, charades?

Here are my thoughts on good interviewing. Dispute at will:

• I want to know not just what someone thinks, but what they feel too. This will tell me how they will react emotionally, and complement or aggravate the people they might work with.

• I like people to be real, and honest. I don't want them to answer the questions as best they can to increase the chances of getting the job, I want them to be honest and share their challenges, fears, and triumphs comfortably.

• I like interviews in which both parties are prepared and engaged. Every position, no matter the level or pay, deserves to be evaluated and treated as an integral part of the association.

• I would never disqualify someone for a typo or a weak hand shake; those things are small when taking into context the entire experience that is a single human being.

• Negotiating salary should not be a "whoever says the number first" event, but rather a discussion of resources and individual needs.

Let's hear some fun interview stories! Me first; once, I showed up so early for an interview, I interrupted the one before me. Another time, I was specifically told NOT to dress up, and I did so anyway ... and they never called me back ...

There was a veritable flood of tweets yesterday during Dan Pink's closing general session (note to self: Get a copy of Drive). Today's Tweets of the Day represent some major themes that seemed to resonate with folks participating in the #ideas10 conversation:

RandiSumner: Dan Pink: Human nature is not passive. Have you ever met a 2/4yr old who wasn't by nature active & engaged? #ideas10

slopez1: The more people have autonomy over time, team, technique and tasks the better the performance #ideas10

FrankFortin: Self direction is the path to engagement. #ideas10 This might be my takeaway of the week.

shellyalcorn: Activity and scurrying is not evidence of creativity #ideas10

raganfore: @DanielPink: By far, biggest work motivator: making progress in one's work. #ideas10

maggielmcg: If making progress in one's work is biggest motivator, what does it mean that assns are notorious for slowness hampering progress? #ideas10

maddiegrant: The purpose motive is associations' secret sauce. #ideas10

SteveDrake: Pink: Key question for each of us: was I better today than yesterday? #ideas10

In "The New Face of Publishing" session, the three speakers stressed that it's important to move away from thinking of your publications as only publications. Think of them as content. And as you move forward with your content strategy and start incorporating digital and electronic versions, keep reminding yourself that you're still pushing out the same content, just in different vehicles that will still benefit your members.

I heard the phrase again in Sean Walters, CAE, and Beau Ballinger's presentation this afternoon. They shared their experience with the Investment Management Consultants Association and how both their members and nonmembers alike value their content, whether it's peer-reviewed journals, conferences, or research materials. The results of their content strategy: increased membership and attendance at their events (something that all associations are looking for in this economy). What practices are you implementing to keep your content king?

On a side note: Wondering what the queen is if content is king? According to a quote shared by Amy Lestition, CAE, in her presentation, it's ease of use.

The first: What's your sentence? "When it's all said and done, ask yourself what it's all about?" says Pink. He gave the example of President Lincoln's sentence: "He preserved the union and freed the slaves."

The second question: Was I better today than yesterday? Pink admitted to the audience that most of the time his answer to this is "no," but very rarely does he have that answer two nights in a row.

So as you wrap up your Great Ideas experience and head to the airport, keep these two questions in mind.

Emotional intelligence is the degree to which you understand your own emotions, others' emotions, and how you use this information to build relationships. Baker, the director of public relations for AAEP, answered questions about her perception of her own emotional intelligence as her staff did the same. She found a huge disconnect between how she viewed her relationship management skills and how her staff viewed them, overestimating her emotional intelligence (again, the awareness of emotional states of herself and others) 67 percent of the time.

Of course, this is huge. But it's not uncommon. How often do you go to work and feel like your boss is ignoring you? Or how often are you the boss and you are busy with projects, not realizing that it seems like you are ignoring those you work with?

Baker says that it was a tough pill to swallow, but instead of retreating decided the best way to help herself and her organization was to work on self-management and her interactions with others in the office. Unlike IQ, you can significantly alter and increase your emotional intelligence through active observation and change.

Switch to the staff's view of their emotional awareness, emotional management, internal relationship management, and external relationship management (which members had already rated staff interactions with them between four and five out of five). Each level scored high marks, with the exception of internal relationships.

So what's next? AAEP staff made simple promises to one another. First, permission to ask why or how decisions in the organization were made. So much of the negative internal relationships were a product of miscommunication, with no one asking "why?" and instead making their own (incorrect) assumptions on why things happened. Staff leaders made a point to visit with each of the 14 staff members daily to show that communication is at the top of their to-do list.

Second, staff members promised to end what Baker calls the "downward spiral of conversations"--ones that begin in a negative way (like office gossip) and will inevitably go downhill from there. Staff decided on the safe words "downward spiral" to stop those conversations before they started.

One year later, staff took the same test. Their internal relationship management increased by 30 points because of what Baker calls the "small things that staff committed to and participation from each staff member."

Luckily, these small changes have a huge trickle-down effect. Not only did staff relationships improve, but Baker says she hopes it will increase members' satisfaction as well. A lot of my posts have focused on member relations, but colleague relationships are the root of better service. Taking a serious look at your emotional intelligence makes for happy employees and happy members.

Pink says to take performance reviews into your own hands and be proactive with your goals. Enter DIY [Do it Yourself] Performance Reviews. Pink says to set your goals independently at the start of the month, don't outsource this exercise to your boss. At the end of the month, assess your progress on the goals you made for yourself. What tools do you need to succeed? What would you do differently? What did you do well?

But maybe the DIY method is intimidating. Instead, Pink says to meet with a small group of colleagues or peers to create goals at the start of the month and evaluate progress together later. Added bonus: group members will hold you accountable for the goals you made.

Either method you choose will increase the level of engagement and ownership you take with your work with just a few simple steps.

Lynn Morton shares her notes from Guy Kawasaki's and Dan Pink's general session talks. She also posted some thoughts about what an association of the future might look like, inspired by a session she couldn't attend. (I'd love to see what others have to say about that!)

Jeffrey Cufaude argues that sometimes the best idea is just to leave well enough alone.

Ellen Behrens suggests an idea in response to blog posts from the conference: implementing exit interviews for members who don't renew.

And if you're sad you missed Dan Pink's general session speech today (and it sounds like it was inspiring), you can still see his TED Talk, or read his recent interview with Associations Now.

"Tweet I should really put into practice" award: tee_special: It is more effective to do 1 thing in 10 minutes rather than 3 things in 30 minutes #Ideas10

"Tweet that made me think" award: AssocBisnow: Relationships with members begin long before they join and never end #ideas10

"Tweet that made me laugh out loud" award: FrankFortin: Aaaah... power. Now I know how Mad Max felt about gasoline. #ideas10

Any ideas or tweets that really made you stop and think yesterday? Share them in comments!

They both take trust. Once you learn the five basics of your swing, you have to trust that you're doing them well and that they all work together. The same can be said of the staff you manage. You have to know what their talents are, give them work to do, and trust them to do it well.

They both require a stance. As a leader, when you take a stance, you identify your values and focus in on a goal. In golf, that may be hitting the ball straight or landing on the green or getting your ball in the hole. Another commonality: Your stance requires a bit of flexibility.

They both deal with alignment. Much of your golf swing depends on how your body is aligned. When it comes to leadership, you want to hire employees who align with your organization's core values.

They both have to do with force versus power. In golf, the harder you try to swing (the more force you use), the shorter distance your ball will travel. According to one of the facilitators, what you're looking for is effortless power, not powerless effort.

They both require tools. In golf, each club does different things and requires different movement. Its application to leadership? Depending on the task at hand, you are required to put different tools to work.

Any other golfers out there who see other commonalities?

Create logic to help you remember. Rote memorization doesn't always yield the best results, but using your own creativity can greatly improve the amount of information you retain. Bornstein says that your mind works best when making connections, so creating a connection point that makes sense, even if it's just to you, can be the best way to recall the information you need.

For example, if you'd just met me at the conference but I wasn't wearing my shiny gold name badge, you could remember that my name is Summer by deciding it's your favorite season, and I'm your favorite staff person that you've met so far. OK, that may be an easy one (and slightly ridiculous). But what about the name Stephanie? Maybe you met Stephanie when standing on the steps of the hotel, and you noticed that she was wearing a skirt down to her knees.

Review information seven times within the next 10 days. For better long-term memory, Bornstein says that you must practice what you want to remember at seven different times--not necessarily for a long time or consecutively--in the 10 days following the introduction of information. So when you hear a great idea tomorrow that you want to remember, you should retrace your footsteps into next week to recall that idea without reading your notes. Plus, each time you review your information, it will be easier than the time before.

So when you see me, or my fictitious friend Stephanie, please be sure to say hello.

Have you found yourself saying this, or hearing it? Just recently I heard these words in a meeting, met with a positive response by all in the room.

Today in the session "Using Ambassadors to Increase Membership," staff of the Alliance for Innovation discussed the book club that they created for their member ambassadors (the spokespeople of their organization among colleagues), part of an overall effort to increase engagement. After a while, the Alliance for Innovation did a survey of how the ambassador program was progressing and the value of their benefit offerings--their blog, e-learning, and book club.

And as it turns out, the book club was competing with a very valuable member asset: time. The ambassadors said they have no time to read the books. So instead of scrapping the book club plan altogether, Alliance for Innovation decided to increase engagement with ambassadors by finding out their favorite reads on innovation and making a reading list from those titles. They also decided to invite more guest speakers to discuss the books and create webinars around the revamped list.

There are two things that stood out to me with their book club revamp. One is that they listened to members, made the survey public, and are showing an effort to change to reflect the feedback received, a major theme throughout the sessions I've been to so far.

The second point is the idea of competing with, basically anything and everything, for members' time. Working on the magazine and newsletters, we know that our audience is a busy group of people and between work and personal life have little time to spare. One of the most important things about member offerings is proving that they're worth members' time. What makes your association worthy of a member's time?  

What does cooking have to do with running an association? As it turns out, quite a lot. In today's session "Cookin' Up Leadership," Rhea Blanken gathered a mixed group of association professionals, from CEOs to entry-level to mid management, then created diverse teams to make a meal from scratch.

"I just want it to be good. I'm not a manager," says one of the lead chefs while she's stirring a steaming pan of tasty-smelling food. She was chosen to be head chef of her group, though typically she works under others' leadership. The food her and her teammates are cooking will be served to another group.

"We're working for the other team and not just for ourselves. I just want it to be good for whoever eats it."

What does this have to do with running an association? Think about it this way: how often are you short on resources? How many times does your team need to work with another department to meet a goal, but it doesn't seem like that other team will give up ownership of a project?

Blanken admits there were a few tricks in the process. CEOs were purposely put in positions that had to answer to others, while those that typically aren't in the lead were put in charge. It was interesting to watch the head chef evolve during the cooking process. To start, she seemed a bit unsure of herself and obviously ready to please others. But when the sous chef hadn't measured out the melted butter before another teammate poured it into a dish, the head chef sprang into action. "We can just add flour to the mix."

As time went on, her confidence level in leading noticeably increased. Meanwhile, the sous chef was ready to throw out the dish before asking the head chef what to do. "That's typically how I operate at work," she says. But when another teammate pointed out that maybe the head chef would have an idea of what to do to salvage the dish, the sous chef says it all clicked. Sometimes leaders, who are ready to spring into action, should find out what your teammates know. That's the point of having staff members. They bring a new idea or perspective to a situation or project that you might have been ready to toss out.

Her point was that your members are constantly bombarded with content, whether it's coming from your association or not, so they have to be choosy. What can you do to help? She says not to throw everything at them. You have to edit information down into edible bites that they can digest. That means everything from your magazine to your journal to your emails to your marketing materials. Put yourself in your members' shoes. Wouldn't you want to receive information that is pertinent and digestible and that actually compels you to read it? Which all ties back to a point that Guy Kawasaki made yesterday (which Sheri Jacobs repeated in her session again today): The worst thing for your association would be your members ignoring you. What are you doing to keep your members from doing just that?

• Establish a rewards program that offers rewards (meaningful rewards) to members for being highly engaged with your organization.
• Foundation fundraising idea -- Have a consultant, staff person, other expert who is really engaged with your organization and is pretty well known among members. Ask them if they'd consider giving a free day/program/etc. that your foundation can auction off.
• You've heard this one before: Get new members involved immediately. The idea part: if you're a national organization with chapters, what can you do to help your chapters accomplish this?