Employee Engagement. Company Culture. Establishing a positive company culture matters. A company’s culture can be an incredible asset…but if not given the proper attention, it can become your greatest risk.

Culture is the values, beliefs, and the norms of a company. It’s not your policies and procedures; it’s the way you do things. It has many facets. Safety, employee wellness, employee wellbeing, and even the overall organizational health. And in order to establish a positive culture, you must engage your company leaders AND your employees.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Mike Cahill, member of the Gibson Board of Directors, CEO of AWS Foundation, and former CEO of Tower Bank & Trust. Tim Leman is taking time off from writing his weekly blog to work on an exciting project focused on culture and leadership. We hope you enjoy Mike’s wisdom and perspective.

People who know me know I enjoy mentoring young people. Maybe it’s because I have four children born between 1984 and 2000. Maybe it’s because the demographics show this to be the largest population group. Or maybe it’s because this generation is just beginning to influence the workforce.

As much as we talk about Millennials, let’s not forget about Boomers and Gen Xers. These two generations currently dominate the workplace. I’m a Boomer. The gray hairs give it away.

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

Who is your harshest critic? I’m guessing it’s you. Like most highly effective people, you probably have high standards, big expectations, a keen eye… and are well practiced in self-criticism.

What Is The Mark Of A Proactive Safety Culture?

Early in my career I spent time working in manufacturing as a safety director. After an injury occurred, we would complete the accident investigation and root cause analysis. We figured out what happened, when it happened, why it happened, and how it happened. From there we determined how to keep the injury from occurring again. But why weren’t we doing this before the injury? Why weren’t we doing inspections, reviews, and managing processes BEFORE an injury to prevent it? Why were we waiting until an injury occurred?

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

Highly effective leaders tend to be highly responsive leaders. In psychological terms, being responsive involves thoughtfully and intentionally adapting your behavior to the current circumstance. It entails first taking the time to calmly digest what is happening.

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. 

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?

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!

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.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Jerry Scott. We hope you enjoy Jerry’s wisdom and perspective.

One of the coolest and most interesting things about working at Gibson is the influx of millennials. Having survived the “once in a generation” downturn, we are sourcing talent with gusto to meet the mission of our strategic plan to double the size of our company by 2022.