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.

“The first and final thing you have to do in this world is to last in it, and not be smashed by it.” – Ernest Hemingway

In Simon Sinek’s book The Infinite Game, the “winners” are those still in the game. Having the will and resources to continue playing the game, long after the other players drop out, will allow our organizations to stand the test of time.

A key part of Sinek’s philosophy revolves around Advancing a Just Cause. It’s what gives our work meaning. It is the world we hope to build and what inspires us to keep playing the infinite game.

Just Causes - and the Infinite Mindsets behind them - require resiliency. They must be durable enough to endure through political, market, technological, and cultural change over the years.

Likewise, so must the individuals that are doing the advancing. But how do we acquire resilience? Is it something we’re born with or can it be learned?

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.

“The true value of an organization is measured by the desire others have to contribute to that organization’s ability to keep succeeding, not just during the time they are there, but well beyond their own tenure.” - Simon Sinek, The Infinite Game

In 2009’s Start With Why, author Simon Sinek makes the point that all organizations and individuals have a “Why.” It’s our origin story, the reason we do what we do.

Why is our purpose, cause, or belief. Our purpose comes from our past. It’s born out of how we were raised and the values we were exposed to.

And, according to Sinek, it’s far more important than how you do it or what you deliver. As he often says, “People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.”