John Baines’ Post

Congrats to my big sister, Allison Botros, for celebrating 30 years with PricewaterhouseCoopers/IBM. You had success in a number of roles during that time, positively impacted coworkers and clients, and raised three terrific kids. Rare air indeed!

This month the Vistage Emerging Leaders group began their Self-Awareness leadership module with speaker Alex Swire-Clark. The cohort welcomed several new members including three from SiteWORX_Ohio. Members learned about their personality preferences, how to improve communication and ways to shine a light on their own blind spots. Next month we'll go even deeper on this topic with more activities to apply the learning.

Congratulations to the Gateway Community & Technical College Class of 2024! As the child a first-generation college student who worked full-time to pay his own tuition (and compressed a four-year degree into two to make the costs possible), I appreciate each of you for your courage and perseverance that it took to earn your degrees, diplomas, and certificates. It doesn't matter which path led you to the start of your Gateway journey - it only matters the path you create from here moving forward. Celebrate this moment with those you love and those that look up to you. Then do what you've proven you can do: go get it done!

The next Vistage Emerging Leaders Cincinnati cohort starts May 15. Speaker of the Year winner, Bill Crawford, Ph.D., kicks off the first module (Emotional Intelligence). Are you looking for a proven leadership development program for your high-potential leaders? This two-year program covers the key aspects of what it takes to be a great leader in a format aligned to the adult learning cycle. Seats are still available. Contact me if you are interested in learning more.

Congratulations to the graduates of the Vistage Emerging Leaders program! They made a commitment to improve themselves and put in the hard work. We celebrated promotions together and built strong relationships that have already had an impact both professionally and personally. It was especially great to celebrate the occasion with their CEOs and mentors. Special thanks to Katherine Bruce, Matthew Morandi and Leigh Hartung, MBA for your remarks to your cohort. And thank you to everyone in the program - graduates and those still continuing - for helping shape this program and making it fun. Several are continuing their leadership development journey in Vistage either through the Advancing Leaders or Key Executive groups.

Great Vistage workshops this week with Ken Clark helping members learn how to address conflict. Leaders tend to be great problem-solvers who can diagnose the issue quickly and determine an effective solution. This superpower can also be their kryptonite: solving the issue on the surface and not knowing if that's the real issue needing to be addressed. Demonstrating value and expressing empathy in the process is a key step to uncovering the real issue and what the person truly wants from you regarding a solution. The tools we learned will make us better as leaders and as humans. A lot of light bulbs went off for members this week - myself included!

Sharing this to complete the circle: I posted a photo of a cohort one night after a Gateway board meeting and it received a lot of positive feedback. Please join in celebrating their milestone accomplishment!

As a manufacturing guy, this quote stood out: "When I walk through the hall in the evening and see how the Euro pallets are at right angles to the machine, how all the cable ties mounted in one direction have been separated flush at the closure, how all screw connections have been sealed and how the cable and hose routes have a clear signature, then I know that everything is on the right track." If the little things are right, it's safe to assume the big things are too. At SOJKA this is true not just on the shop floor but also in engineering, project management and customer service.