Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Mike Kemple, Director of Missional Chaplains. We hope you enjoy Mike’s wisdom and perspective.

Gaining an understanding of people, their unique giftedness, strengths, and flaws, is the starting point for empathetic leadership. 

When you examine an individual’s personality, you may find them soft, gentle, defensive, overt, indignant, manipulative, demanding, reserved, guarded, or cautious. We are also genuinely inquisitive and interested in who they are, and we enter into the essence of a redemptive sort of mystery.

This discovery brings you face-to-face with the self-centeredness that creates an environment of distrust, paranoia, and shame. You know that much of the human interaction is shaping and pushing us away from a place of hope, restoration, and peace.

So if you’re in a role of leadership or in a helping relationship, how do you make a meaningful connection?

At Gibson, giving back to the community isn’t just a transaction. It’s part of the fabric that makes up the core of our company. Gibson is always looking for ways to empower all team members to participate in a giving experience, whether that is through direct giving, input on corporate giving, group projects, through volunteer service, or board leadership.

By now, we're all well acquainted with news of the coronavirus (COVID-19), which, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), has now been confirmed in over 70 countries and has affected well over 90,000 individuals globally, resulting in over 3,000 deaths. While the vast majority of cases remain outside the U.S. at this time, it's never too ambitious to begin implementing prevention techniques in our homes and places of work. Below is a list of simple prevention techniques and travel best-practices in order to limit the possibility of COVID-19 spread and exposure:

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Ron Kitchens, Chief Executive Officer at Southwest Michigan First. We hope you enjoy Ron’s wisdom and perspective.

Leaders push boundaries. They’re the first to try out big ideas. But doing what has never been done is not without risks. All leaders will eventually experience obstacles and setbacks—it comes with the territory. One of the things that separate great leaders from the rest is their ability to adapt and navigate adversities.

Here are a few tips you can use the next time you’re down:

According to the American Heart Association, someone dies of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) every 37 seconds in the U.S. This accounts for 2,353 deaths from CVD each day, based on 2017 data, making it the leading cause of death for both men and women in the U.S. As is evident from these figures, it is extremely important that prevention becomes a part of your company culture by ensuring that your wellness program includes education and challenges centered on heart health and how to keep risk factors under control. This provides employees with a benchmark in order to begin working towards heart-healthier lifestyles. Living a heart-healthy lifestyle does take some effort because it involves changing daily habits, so it should be encouraged and exemplified within the workplace.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Ben Berman, Certified EOS Implementer. We hope you enjoy Ben’s wisdom and perspective.

There’s a term to describe tempting opportunities outside of an organization’s core competencies: “Shiny Things.” 

Like sparkling diamonds or the flashing lights of fame, these opportunities beckon. Shiny things lure even the most rational leadership teams into poor strategic choices with real implications. When confronted with a new opportunity -- a shiny thing -- you’ll need to ask if it is a “core” or is it a “lure”? 

Let me illustrate by sharing an experience I had with a company implementing EOS® whose leader is an excitable, passionate Visionary.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Rebecca Fleetwood Hession, CEO/Founder of WEthrive.live and host of The Badass Womens Council podcast. We hope you enjoy Rebecca’s wisdom and perspective.

Maybe you can relate: I spent years of my life longing to see my office, my email, my car, and my house all neatly organized into color-coordinated files. Surely this blissful state would give me peace of mind and finally allow me to reach my biggest life goals.

As it turns out, getting organized is not the path to achievement. In fact, it might be killing your ability to have real leadership impact. While some level of order is essential for success, your quest to reach a blissful state of organized living might actually be holding you back.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Doug Beebe, President/CEO of Benchmark Human Services. We hope you enjoy Doug’s wisdom and perspective.

“That was a stupid idea. I told him it wouldn’t work.”

As leaders, we all pursue excellence for our organizations, but sometimes hear the above. How excellence is defined varies across organizations and within industries. Often, excellence is described as cutting edge or best practice, but how many organizations adhere to the best practice standard? There is ample documentation across multiple disciplines that indicate huge gaps are evident between best practices and actual practices. These gaps are especially prevalent in service delivery.

“That’s not how we do it here.”

Identifying and addressing those gaps are important when trying to differentiate implementation outcomes (Are we following the practice?) from effectiveness outcomes (Are we getting the results we expected?). When poor outcomes result from a new initiative, we often blame the “new way” without holding ourselves accountable on the implementation side.

In this article originally published by Gibson's Loss Prevention Manager, Gary Clark, we explore best practices for staying safe during the cold winter months. With the cold weather, winter brings a slew of workplace safety hazards. From proper attire to snow removal and slippery surfaces, you should be thinking about how the cold weather impacts your employees. How can you protect them from the cold this winter?

Consider the following tips to keep your workforce prepared and protected:

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Jason Meyer, President/CEO of Passages, Inc. We hope you enjoy Jason’s wisdom and perspective.

We’ve all had that boss, supervisor, or co-worker we looked up to and wanted to strive to be one day. We’ve also had the opposite experience – a leader we were sure we’d never be like if we had his or her position.

Now as we lead others, have you ever taken the time to pause to think how you are a different kind of leader? Have you ever taken a minute to take a look in the mirror to see if you are the leader that you never wanted to become? Do you want to become that different kind of leader?

As we lead others, let’s take time to look in the mirror. Are we the kind of leader we always said we would never be?

To be a different kind of leader it takes commitment. It takes a willingness to be vulnerable. It requires us to check egos at the door and to be very humble. It requires LISTENING to the people we lead. Most importantly, if you get nothing else out of this blog post, being a different leader is not rocket science; it is much like the golden rule - leading others as you would like to be led.