National Poison Prevention Week is always the third week of March. It’s an opportunity to emphasize the dangers of poisoning for people of all ages and highlight prevention strategies.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Mark Lunardi, Department of the Air Force Civilian. We hope you enjoy Mark’s wisdom and perspective.

“No one is perfect.” “You’re only human.” “To err is human…” It’s hard to argue the wisdom of such time-honored sayings given that the human condition is rife with imperfection. Mistakes are inescapable, though blessedly most are relatively minor and of limited consequence. But what about the big ones, mistakes…either by intent or negligence…which have significant and lasting impact? Though human nature is no less to blame in these instances, their costs are often too great for rationalizations of our imperfections. I therefore offer the following quotes, courtesy of Hollywood, to assist in addressing, and avoiding, the most grievous of errors.

March is Workplace Eye Wellness Month. Work-related eye injuries are common and preventable.

According to OSHA and Prevent Blindness:

• Over 2,000 people injure their eyes at work each day.
• 1 in 10 of these injuries require one or more missed workdays.
• 10-20% of work-related eye injuries will cause temporary or permanent vision loss.
• Eye injuries cost over $300 million per year in lost production time, medical expenses, and workers’ compensation.

It was from Jim Collins’ masterpiece Good To Great that I learned Admiral James Stockdale was something other than Ross Perot’s running mate in the 1992 presidential election. Long before he was a target of Saturday Night Live’s irreverent humor, Stockdale was the highest ranking naval officer to be held as a POW in Vietnam.

After Stockdale's A-4 Skyhawk was shot down over North Vietnam in 1965, he shared space at the “Hanoi Hilton” with, among others, John McCain. He was brutally beaten, starved, and denied medical care, never knowing if he would survive or see his family again, until his release in 1973.

Stockdale and his wife Sybil shared their story by writing alternating chapters in the book In Love and War. Collins, in preparing to meet Admiral Stockdale, read his book, describing it as bleak and depressing, even though he knew that Stockdale got out and reunited with his family. When Collins asked Stockdale what it felt like living the story and not knowing how it ended, he replied:

Children are becoming an easy target of identity theft not only due to their blank credit files, but because the theft can go unnoticed for years and not be discovered until well into a child’s teens.

Chronic conditions including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity account for the majority of America’s medical costs. A common link between these conditions is poor nutrition. Daily nutrition can directly affect day to day lives, including energy, activity, and stress.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger, Jim Canfield, Managing Director at CEO Tools. We hope you enjoy Jim’s wisdom and perspective.

As the company grows, it requires a different approach for the leader.

When it comes to business leadership styles, there’s an obvious sentiment that bears repeating: How you manage is as important as who you manage, if not more so. To ensure your business weathers any storm, your leadership style should incorporate various management methods to use in different situations. But for even the most experienced business leader, that can be easier said than done.

According to Willis Towers Watson, nearly half of the employees enrolled in a qualified high deductible health plan (HDHP) in 2017, did not contribute their own money to a Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). It is important to educate employees and help them understand what an HSA is and the benefits of setting aside pretax money for qualified medical expenses.

Risk is defined as the potential gain or loss of something valuable. Many risks are easily identified as physical, financial, or strategic loss. Others, like emerging risks, are difficult to identify or quantify. They typically have a high degree of uncertainty and there tends to be no common approach. Emerging risks often start as a trend, or slight shift, that will ultimately have impact years down the road.
New risks often take years to mature and are very complicated in the process. As little as five years ago, cyber risk was considered an emerging risk. Today, it is better known, but arguably still emerging due to the highly uncertain, unpredictable, and rapidly changing nature of the risk.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger, Rick Nichols, Managing Partner of TechCXO's Sales & Marketing Practice. We hope you enjoy Rick’s wisdom and perspective.

We define corporate culture as a shared pattern of values, beliefs, and expectations. These values produce rules for behavior and pressure to conform on the job. Tom Peters’ timeless book In Search of Excellence tells us that “excellent companies are marked by very strong cultures, so strong that you either buy into their norms or get out. There’s no halfway house for most people in excellent companies.”

Fortune magazine pointed out in an article several years ago that it may be easier to change a company’s people than to change its culture. In the long term, the key to culture is whom you hire and promote. People often get jobs and move up more based on the degree to which they fit prevailing cultural norms than for any objective reason. For hiring leaders who must interview and hire candidates from outside the company or industry, this carries very important implications. We need to know if candidates will fit into our culture.