“I believe that emotion eats reason for breakfast.” – author & entrepreneur Tim Leberecht

As a marketing professional, I have been on both sides of the same equation. As a corporate leader for a global company, I made decisions to ensure our local community was supported by making charitable contributions to worthy nonprofits.  Later, when I worked for the nonprofit Kelly Cares Foundation, this arrangement flipped. I was the one asking corporate executives for charitable contributions to my nonprofit. Now, as the Director of Marketing at Gibson, seeing both sides of the equation and matching those experiences with our own set of priorities has me seeing the whole arrangement from a new vantage point.

As soon as I joined the Gibson team, I asked myself: Are we fully embracing corporate giving? I knew right away, Gibson is an incredibly generous company. It’s very clear we have a culture of servant leadership from the top down and our donations and time prove this. But what difference is it making? Should we have a plan for giving, just like we have a plan for every other part of our company? Of course, the answer is yes.

Research shows nearly 90% of consumers say they’re more likely to buy from a company that supports activities to improve the community. With a statistic like that, do employers really have a choice when it comes to giving and their social reputation? I can enthusiastically say no! But this doesn’t mean throwing together a disjointed giving program that exists outside the bounds of your company’s primary goals.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Dr. Julie Lauck, Superintendent of Valparaiso Community Schools. We hope you enjoy Dr. Lauck’s wisdom and perspective.

Great ideas often come from simple beginnings. Much like the beginning of a favorite movie of mine, Out of Africa begins with “I had a farm in Africa…” the story of an initiative we started this year in our district begins like this, “I had a Yorkie with a tummy ache.”

I took my dog to the vet late last spring. Dr. Bill Donohue and I began talking about his sponsorship of our one and only therapy dog. My comment to Dr. Donohue was that I would have a therapy dog in every school if I could. Dr. Donohue offered to sponsor any dog we could place. He added that he had a patient expecting a litter of ten English Cream Golden Retrievers. I looked at him and said, “I’ll get every single one placed.” He provided me with the contact information… and so it began.

“The single most significant strategic strength that an organization can have is not a good strategic plan but a commitment to strategic listening on the part of every member of the organization.” – Tom Peters

Those are some pretty strong words. I think we all know listening is important, but are we treating it as Peters says, “the bedrock of leadership excellence,” and thus giving it the attention it deserves? Are we truly being effective listeners?

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

It has almost certainly happened to each of us - you’re driving down the road on cruise control. You’re not doing anything reckless, but your mind is on a million things besides the stretch of road you’re on. You’re thinking about your destination, how long it will take to get there, whether you have enough gas, what’s for lunch, and why no one seems to know how to use a turn signal any more.

The next thing you know, you’re literally shaken back into focus by the rumble strip just on the other side of the white line. You’ve drifted a bit, so you make a slight course correction to straighten things out, and continue on your way with more focused direction.

No big deal, right? Right. But things could have gotten really dicey if it weren’t for that rumble strip.

The rumble strip was there to serve a purpose: it let you know that you were off course before you barreled into the ditch. It nudged you into making a small adjustment so you could avoid disaster.

There are rumble strips available to your business. Are you using them?

Nobody thrives in a plague or does their best work while fending off lions. And it doesn’t take a catastrophe to throw stress reactions into overdrive. When people don’t trust that they’ll be able to complete their work without surprises — especially those that come with negative consequences — engagement is nearly impossible. 

Being prepared to maintain employee engagement by addressing the difficulties that come with change is mission critical when triggers arise. Change is tough to absorb individually and as a company; keeping tabs on exactly how it affects your team should guide your efforts to maintain engagement through the shift. Without this feedback, you risk adding to your difficulties by setting the stage for disengagement and its costly sidekicks — low productivity, absenteeism, subpar customer service, and turnover.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Renea Boots, EVP & Chief Administration Officer for Farmers State Bank. We hope you enjoy Renea’s wisdom and perspective.

I recently ran across the following quote.

“Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere.” – Ronald Reagan

Reading these words, I felt myself smiling, remembering that I have often said “Get great people, empower them, and get out of their way!” Maybe I read this quote earlier in my career and stole it from President Reagan, or maybe it just made sense and great minds think alike (except that I don’t consider my mind great).

Regardless, there is tremendous truth in the statement. As my career has morphed from HR into corporate leadership, I’ve learned that developing self-confidence in people, removing hurdles when needed, praising good work, and occasionally cleaning up a mess is really the true day-to-day nature of my role. The other focus of corporate leadership is looking out to next month, next quarter, next year - and preparing the organization for what lies ahead.

Mid-level managers are best equipped to handle most challenges an organization faces each day. The question is - are you letting them?

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger René Boer, a Certified Implementer of EOS. We hope you enjoy René's wisdom and perspective.

It’s probably no surprise that employees would prefer feedback to be positive. But what may surprise you is that employees would rather have negative feedback than no feedback at all. Despite this, many bosses confess that they’re not particularly good at giving genuine praise or helpful criticism.

“The magic formula that successful businesses have discovered is to treat customers like guests and employees like people.” - Tom Peters

With annual budgeting season upon us, many organizations are facing the age-old question of cutting or spending their way to prosperity. Many businesses talk about the importance of growth yet allocate much of their planning time toward cost control initiatives. Yet, the celebrated stories of success rarely involved a sustained history of austerity. Business consultant Scott Edinger sums it up well in a Forbes article, “I believe strongly that we should attack waste, and there is often plenty of fat to trim. Unfortunately, many executives are so laser-focused on cost-cutting that they lose sight of their real objective: actual growth, not just the bottom line.”

Treating your clients well by investing in new and better solutions and attracting, growing, and retaining the best talent in the market can’t be accomplished through spending cuts. It requires investment.

In The Excellence Dividend, Peters pleads for leaders to over-invest in people and facilities. “Cost cutting is a death spiral,” he writes. That said, successful companies remain profitable over time.

Twenty years ago my wife and I were about one month into our new jobs after a cross country move to Arizona. I had just turned twenty-five and was figuring out the pecking order in the highly competitive sales focused culture of my new company.

Our firm was the dominant insurance provider in Phoenix. We worked with most of the major sports teams and that came with a reciprocal understanding that my company would be an active supporter of the teams through advertising and purchasing suites.

On Friday morning, September 24, 1999, news came that our office head had suffered a mild heart attack. He was going to be okay, which we were all thankful to hear. Not long after I observed many of our senior people huddling and excitedly talking about “the trip.” I got up from my desk to see what was going on.