Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Scott Franko, President of Franko Design Concepts and Consulting. Tim Leman is taking the summer off from writing his weekly blog to spend time on an exciting project focused on culture and leadership. We hope you enjoy Scott’s wisdom and perspective.

There are a set of principles that delineate champions, winners, and leaders. They are quite simple to understand. They rise, win, and lead through ambition, dedication, and hard work with passion toward a vision or goal. 

We’re blessed at Gibson to have a great corporate culture, one that is welcomed enthusiastically by all our employee-owners. Make no mistake – we’re not perfect nor are we utopia. But I’ve been here over 14 years, and I can tell when it’s good and when it’s not as positive.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Dr. Kathy Cramer, founder and managing partner of The Cramer Institute. Tim Leman is taking the summer off from writing his weekly blog to spend time on an exciting project focused on culture and leadership. We hope you enjoy Dr. Cramer’s wisdom and perspective.

Failing fast.

Sounds good in theory but in practice it can feel very wrong—and be very painful.

For most of our lives we’ve been told that failure is not an option. So despite the obvious benefits of experimentation, bouncing back from failure—much less bouncing back “fast”—remains a lofty ideal. And the challenges of failing fast are magnified when you’re dealing with teams of people each with their own personal investment in the success of a project.

So how can leaders make failing fast a part of the culture?

According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), about 30 million workers in the U.S. are exposed to hazardous noise. One of the most common occupational diseases is noise-induced hearing loss. With this many workers at risk each day, it also means very high risks of workers’ comp claims, which can be very costly to companies. What can be done? How can you protect your workers against hearing loss?

Every minute of the day, Facebook users share 2,460,000 pieces of content. Twitter users tweet 277,000 times. YouTube users upload 72 hours of new video. Over 120 users sign up for LinkedIn. That’s a lot of action!

The benefits of social media use for businesses have become clear. It helps with building brand and awareness, managing reputation, crowdsourcing, customer service, gathering customer insights, recruiting, driving website traffic, and the list goes on. But with these benefits come risks. The first step to managing the risks is to recognize them.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Karen Moscato, Chief Human Resources Officer at Notre Dame Federal Credit Union. Tim Leman is taking the summer off from writing his weekly blog to spend time on an exciting project focused on culture and leadership. We hope you enjoy Karen’s wisdom and perspective.

Ah, fall is coming when you see pre-season football on TV. The anticipation is building for college football to begin. I just love the game and everything about it. There is so much pageantry, tailgates, and the half-time adjustments. Now I may have caught you saying, “What?” when you read ‘half-time adjustments’. But that part of the game is the most intriguing to me. What an advantage to stop a contest, talk about what your opponent is doing, and have the ability to change your tactics for a possible victory!

What was the price of a gallon of gas this morning on the way to work? You could probably easily rattle off the answer. Big neon signs outside convenience stores on numerous street corners make this request pretty simple. But do you know what your monthly prescription costs are? Or the total price of a simple visit to your family doctor?

Unfortunately a majority of Americans would probably struggle to answer these questions. Most people would say it’s the amount of their health insurance. But this is only part of the overall cost. In a third party payer system, shadowed by copays and very opaque pricing, most people honestly don’t realize the true cost of their health care.

At Gibson, we are proud of the company culture we have established, but in order for our culture to stay strong, we must pay attention to how to we handle the integration of new employees. This is the onboarding process.

The goal of onboarding is to have engaged employees who feel valued and become a part of the company culture. Not only does onboarding teach an employee about the company and their role, but it helps them feel like a part of the organization, which in turn makes them a more engaged, empowered and productive employee.

How do you accomplish this? How do you successfully integrate new employees into your company culture?

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Blake Cavignac, President of Intellectual Innovations and Founder of YoungPro Elite. Tim Leman is taking the summer off from writing his weekly blog to spend time on an exciting project focused on culture and leadership. We hope you enjoy Blake’s wisdom and perspective.

Do you know of any young professionals today that dream of retiring from the same company where they began their career?

With young professionals changing jobs faster than the generations that came before them, it’s rare to find companies capable of accomplishing this.

However, they do exist.

These companies are breaking through barriers and redefining the new standards of leadership. They’re trailblazing thus gaining well-deserved recognition for creating cultures that are highly attractive to young professionals.

This post summarizes Matthew Moore and Thomas O’Neill’s presentation titled “To Arm or Not to Arm” from the August 6, 2014 Securing & Surviving The Active Shooter Epidemic Seminar. It is meant to convey his ideas and opinions without endorsement or criticism. Therefore, the ideas and opinions in this post are not necessarily those of Gibson.

As active shooter events become more prevalent—not just in schools but in workplaces too—we need to do something to make where we work safer. One idea schools and businesses are considering is arming their employees. It’s an option that elicits strong and passionate arguments both pro and con. But those arguments often fail to consider the risks associated with arming (or not arming) employees or the controls necessary to undertake arming employees properly.

Ultimately, there is no “right” answer; there is no “easy” answer. It’s a decision each organization must make on its own. But when an organization weighs the option to arm its employees, it must consider all the risks and controls to make sure arming is the right decision for its workplace.