It’s February. Is your 2014 off to the kind of start you wanted? It’s not too late to turn the ship around. Even with an uncertain economic and regulatory climate, leaders of businesses large and small have a great opportunity to step up their game.

Recently I visited with my friend and business advisor Tom Searcy, co-founder of Through Eagles Eyes. He talked about how difficult the past half dozen years have been for many organizations. Beyond the headwinds of cost control, unengaged employees, and some of the slowest GDP growth in our nation’s history, Tom pointed to the unprecedented level of reputation damage we’ve witnessed as leaders cut corners.

We are fortunate to have a very talented team at Gibson. Seeing them put their various strengths to work in the name of our #1 core value, Clients Come First, is one of my greatest joys. I feel blessed to work with a group of folks so devoted to excellence.

“Our response to your proposal is that you can call my corporate counsel. Thank you.”

Last month one of my partners and I went to speak to a group of CEOs, Presidents, and founders. The gentleman who runs the group is a retired executive from a large accounting firm. They meet monthly to discuss issues facing their businesses and organizations. While they’ve made a lot of progress with their businesses, he was worried about neglect in their personal affairs and put together a panel of experts to address various topics.

His line up featured a physician, an attorney, a personal wealth advisor, and us to speak on personal risk management. When he first asked me, it didn’t take long to accept as you might imagine. Getting a captive audience of executives in small group is a great business opportunity.

Last week I wrote about my year in blogging. It seemed only right to start year two with a companion post with what I’ve learned about being personally engaged with social media as the CEO of Gibson.

Does it make sense for leaders to be socially engaged in business?

This is my 52^nd weekly blog. It’s hard to believe a year has passed since I first gave this blogging thing a shot. Thank you for reading it, thank you for your comments – both public and private– and thank you for your inspiration!

There are plenty of articles that point to the value organizations receive when their leaders actively communicates to stakeholders. Blogging is a great way to do that and I thought I’d share what it’s meant to me.

• Platform For Important Issues:  Every week I have a formal venue to share my thoughts, struggles, goals, plans, or just my feelings on issues I think are important to our company, clients, and community.
• Record Of Gibson: There is a healthy written record of what we believe in at Gibson. If a prospective employee or client wants to know what we’re about, it’s all out there.
• Accountability Partner: I soon realized that every Friday when I publish another blog, in essence, I raise the bar for what others should expect of me.
• I’m Human After All: The thing is I make mistakes. Lots of them. And even I don’t have the discipline to follow my own public advice every time. (Those of you that already knew me well had ZERO doubt about my “human-ness”!) At the end of the day, I’m just a Dad, Husband, Friend, and Grandson myself, facing all the same issues that everyone else does.
• Honoring Mentors: It’s been rewarding for me to share how some truly amazing people took a liking and invested in me over the years. I’ll never be able to fully repay them other than trying to pay it forward to others. But the blog has given me a forum to tell a few more folks about these special individuals.
• Remaining Engaged With Clients, Centers Of Influence, And Other Leaders: Whether they are just being very kind or don’t know what else to talk about, rarely does a business meeting take place anymore without some good natured ribbing about a recent blog or advice for a future one. I’ve gotten some great ideas from them and learned about their journeys as well.
• Reconnecting With Old Friends, Professors And Colleagues: As the blog gained traction, emails and texts started to pour in with memories, fresh advice, and gratitude. Many start out with a “Your blog reminded me of my….” They are great stories and it means a lot that I am able in some small way to help trigger those memories.
• I’ve Learned A Lot: Some of the blogs were just stories I’ve wanted to tell, but others required some research. Even the whole idea of blogging turned me on to some great writers and thinkers. The advice and ideas I’ve received from others along the way has made my blogging experience worth it all by itself.
• I’ve Become A Better Communicator: My apologies for the length of some of my blogs. It’s tough to get your ideas out there in a concise 500 to 1,000 words! I knew I had some work to do when just a few blogs in, my Dad told me that he “really didn’t care for the most recent blog”. Hopefully they’ve gotten better! I don’t know if my 7^th grade Language Arts teacher Mr. Rothert saw it or not, but here I am, a writer of sorts.   
• Renewed Bond With My Grandmother: Yes, the blog about life advice from my Grandma Dorothy Gerber has been the most popular post. While that’s kind of neat and shows you how much people enjoy personal stories, it meant so much more to me. As we played a domino game over the Christmas holiday this year, it was still the topic of conversation with my Grandma, aunt, and cousins.

You hear it often in business: work/life balance is important and when it’s out of sync it can significantly impact employee engagement and your organization’s overall health. Much of it seems to be device and data driven. In this age of instant technology, we have more information than ever before to process and its available 24/7 on our smart phones. Being “smarter” might actually be costing all of us at the end of the day.

We are paying a price personally with fatigue and stress and may not even realize it. A study conducted in 2010 shows that information overload costs American businesses just under $1 trillion in employee time lost to needless email and distractions. As Shelly Smith, our Director of Human Resources told me recently, “There is an expectation to tune in and turn on more, but I wonder if we’re getting additional value from it?”

Are you feeling over-whelmed by all the lists of how-tos and resolutions? Perhaps you're deeply engrossed in an elaborate strategic planning process? Maybe you've already broken a promise to yourself for 2014? Don't feel too bad - the odds of success just aren't in our favor.

Given we’re just rolling (perhaps literally) out of the holidays, I’m sure you won’t be surprised that my blog this week is the third and final installment of my discussion about personal health management. After all, there’s something about the start of a New Year that causes most of us to reflect on what’s working, what isn’t, and seek improvement through the proverbial New Year’s Resolution! I’m sure more than a few of you received diet or nutrition books, perhaps a new piece of exercise equipment, or video series from that loving and ever encouraging spouse of yours.

As we ring in 2014, safety becomes a hot topic. Being an insurance and risk management firm with a mission to Protect What Matters Most, we take safety very seriously.