Earlier this month I attended my first Gibson State Of The Company (SOTC) meeting. All 140 Gibson employees gathered in South Bend for the day to reflect on the past 12 months and ignite our energy for the year ahead.

I set modest goals for my first SOTC. I didn’t want to trip when walking on and off the stage and wanted to limit my creative pronunciations of names when announcing work anniversaries. I even got some laughs during my presentation – I think the laughs were of the “at me”, not “with me”, variety!

In all seriousness, I found this day to be incredibly valuable. Being relatively new to Gibson, the opportunity to meet fellow employees and put names with faces was a big part of the day for me. The energy and pride everyone had about Gibson, their clients, colleagues, and community was very evident and exciting to see. There was no doubt leaving the meeting that the Gibson culture is strong.

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.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Kathy Mayfield, Integrator at Traction Tools. We hope you enjoy Kathy’s wisdom and perspective.

Even if your leadership team has been running on the Entrepreneurial Operating System^® for years, you can still run into speed bumps in your team meetings. Tough Issues can be…well, tough to solve. It’s in those moments when you need your team to step up to the plate with creative ideas. Those are also the moments when your team may feel stymied. Meeting participation drops and you’re left with one or two people who drive the discussion.

If that sounds familiar to you, we’ve got your back. Here are seven proven ways to generate more engagement, stronger participation, and more creative ideas to solve your toughest Issues.

Looking for ways to educate and engage your employees on safety & health topics throughout the year? Check out our 2020 Safety & Health Calendar.

Workplace safety and wellbeing should be a top priority for leadership and employees. But how can you keep your employees engaged all year long? For every organization the approach is different – you could have a safety committee, newsletters, monthly training sessions, and more. The 2020 Safety & Health Calendar is a valuable tool you can utilize to make your efforts more effective.

A new year and new decade are upon us. I’ve noticed social media already calling it the #roaring20s. 

A recent opinion piece in the WSJ recalled the energy and creativity of the original Roaring 20s: “These remarkable 10 years saw the rise, all at once, of the world’s great cosmopolitan cities—New York, Chicago, Paris, Berlin, London. Music, art, drama, literature, ballet, architecture, movies, newspapers—it’s hard to grasp the creative radiance and energy of the decade.”

And just like in the 1920s, we have major political and cultural battles over taxes, tariffs, and traditions. Many are not prepared or willing – just like a century ago – to deal with the coming reality.

The previous era was known for creativity and new thinking about everything. Whether the 2020s will earn the title of roaring or not, with certainty I predict they won’t be the #boring20s.

Don’t let the new year get off to a bad start! Keep safety in mind to ensure you, your family, and your friends have an accident-free New Year’s Eve celebration!

Hard to believe we've been sharing #WhatsTheRisk blogs for nearly 7 years! As we wrap up this year of blogging, I'd like to share my gratitude. Thank you to our guest bloggers for sharing their insight with us! And to all of our readers - thank you for reading and sharing these blogs with others!

Here are the most popular #WhatsTheRisk blogs of 2019:

If you’ve been following my Friday leadership blog posts in 2019, you’ve likely noticed a common thread: excellence. We focused on lessons from Tom Peters’ The Excellence Dividend, with particular attention on these 12 “No. 1s,” - not only with my blogs, but also within Gibson.

As the year comes to an end, it is a good opportunity to recap these topics. Even if you don’t have time to read all 12 blogs, I’d encourage you to spend 5 minutes reading 1 of these posts because as Peters says, “Excellence is the next five minutes”…