How Humility Builds Trust in Professional Relationships

As we looked at investing in mentorship for exponential returns, I shared how Kevin Arnold frequently taught me things that he had learned from his mentors. I can’t remember a single time where Kevin took credit for how much he knew about workplace safety or the results he achieved. He was always qu...

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The Myth of the Self-Made Leader and the Power of Humility

We started down this path with an emphasis on the reality that there is no such thing as a self-made leader. For someone like me with a highly DRIVEN behavioral style, it would be nearly impossible to get much value from anything resembling a candid conversation with someone who believes they’ve bec...

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Growing Through Others’ Success

In What’s KILLING Your Profitability? I referenced how I frequently caught flack from our plant operations manager because employees across his areas routinely bypassed the chain of command by taking issues to behavior-based team members for resolution rather than their immediate supervisors. Throug...

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Fostering a Mentorship Culture

By the time I had accepted the full time role facilitating the behavior-based safety process locally, I had become one of the most effective in the facility at conducting the observations involved and providing the necessary feedback to my peers. I had also developed a reasonable level of competence...

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Celebrating Growth to Build Trust

As we worked through the process of investing in mentorship for exponential returns, I made a brief reference to how long-time supervisor, Kevin Arnold (no, not from The Wonder Years; he heard that shit all the time…) was always so quick to me praise for successes he and I achieved together - even w...

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Empowering Through Delegation

Teaching others across North America what I had been applying personally in our local behavior-based safety process sharpened every aspect of how I understood the methodology it was based on. Further, it forced me to learn those concepts so well that I could explain them to people with varying backg...

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Teaching Sharpens Your Edge

I had been extremely consistent in completing the expected weekly observations, became a member of the steering committee, and got somewhat involved in the training sessions during the two years leading up to accepting responsibility for facilitating the behavior-based safety process at our plant in...

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The Power of Paying It Forward

So far, we’ve looked at why relationships are the key to unlocking our potential (there’s no such thing as a self-made leader), how harnessing the power of candid conversations builds strong foundations for those relationships, and steps we can take to maximize the return on investment from each rel...

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The Tradeoff: Growing Yourself to Lead Others Well
Leadership isn’t a destination; it’s a journey that demands intentional growth, sacrifice, and a commitment to becoming better every day. For Wes and me, the pursuit of leadership development started humbly with books but quickly evolved into something bigger—attending conferences, often out...
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How Relationships Have an Ongoing Impact

When we’re intentional about building each of those steps into sustaining the relationships we build with our mentors, the long-term return will compound - in our lives, in the organizations we’re part of, and in ways we likely won’t see for years to come. Terry, Rod, and Kevin have all actively men...

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Sustaining Relationships for Long-Term ROI

One common thread with each of the amazing mentors I’ve interacted with to this point in my life has been that all of them have juggled incredibly busy schedules. I’m always amazed at how they’re all willing to block time to provide mentorship insight routinely - especially when they’ve seen their p...

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Turning Relationships into Measurable Leadership Growth

Every important relationship requires a strategic investment and when that investment is made in building authentic mentorship, whether we’re receiving it or giving it, the return will be exponential, especially when we’ve developed a high level of emotional intelligence. For more than three decades...

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