Good afternoon. Welcome to PCI's production workshop series, Building a Plant Culture. Today's workshop is Volume 12, Remedial Actions, Methods and Costs. This workshop is sponsored by the Architectural Precast Committee. My name is Royce Covington, Manager of Member Services at PCI, and I'll be your moderator for this session. Before I turn the controls over to our presenters for today, I have a few introductory items to note. All attendee lines are muted. The GoToWebinar Toolbox has an area for you to raise your hand. If you raise your hand, you will receive a private chat message from me. If you have a question, please type it into the questions pane. Also, a pop-up survey will appear after the webinar ends. Earlier today, we sent a reminder email to all registered attendees that included a handout of today's presentation. That handout for this webinar can also be found in the handout section of your webinar pane. If you cannot download the handout, please email PCI Marketing at marketing at pci.org. Today's presentation will be recorded and uploaded to the PCI eLearning Center. PCI is a registered provider of AIA CES, but today's presentation does not contain content that has been endorsed by AIA. Today's presentation is non-CEU. To start off the presentation, I would like to introduce Randy Wilson, Director of Architectural Precast Systems at PCI. Thanks, Royce. Hopefully technology is our friend and everybody can see my screen okay. We can. Perfect. Thank you so much. This is a continuation of our workshops for Architectural Precast Concrete Committee along with our Plant Culture Series. This one is Developing and Mentoring Personnel. The next one will be Personal Wellness and Life Balance Prioritization, which will be on April 19, 2023. Hopefully you'll be able to put that on your calendar and save the date. Like our previous workshops, we'll go through our agenda is pretty simple. It's pretty much focused around our speaker and got a few questions for our speaker and some topics for discussion. And then we'll try to leave as much time as we can at the end of the presentation so that we can answer any of your questions. We will be monitoring the chat box. Royce will be and I will be kind of tag teaming it. So if you have any questions whatsoever, please just type them in the chat box and we'll get to those as time allows. So this is a PCI event. Anytime there's a PCI event, we will follow PCI's antitrust policy and code of conduct policies. A little bit easier to follow when you have all the lines are muted. So if you do put something in the chat box, please be respectful of all people that may be on the call. So let's talk a little bit about how this series originated. For those that are new to the series, this particular series was that back in 2019 pre-COVID, we had a at one of our committee meetings in Fort Worth, Texas. The architectural precast concrete committee got together, listed some topics to include in these project management workshops. And most of the answers came back that producers want to talk about culture. They really want to talk about, you know, plant culture, safety culture. And they want to talk about quality culture and how to communicate with our customers and how to communicate internally. And a lot of that information has been covered in our first 12 or first 11 workshops. So hopefully today and next month, we'll continue that same learning opportunity for all of our producers. And then last fall, we held an in-person production workshop, which was awesome. And we're going to have another in-person production workshop in the fall. We had about 60 people attend that. Those were all production people, PCI production members. And the topic for last fall was forming. And we shared a lot of great information about forming and forming techniques. But on the last day, we held kind of a roundtable discussion. And one of the producers, who was a bed supervisor, stated that, you know, he felt valued personally because his plant manager always listed feedback from him and the other people on the bed crew about, you know, how to start a project, when to start a project, how to, you know, as one project's going, you know, starting to be completed and another one starts to thumbnail in on the beds, what's the best way of making that transition from project one to project two? So that kind of brought that back to the committee. And the committee loved that idea to be able to try to jump off on that point is really how to engage your employees and your plant people and your coworkers to get the best idea, not just your idea, but the best idea. And that's kind of the premise for this entire series that we've had, this four-unit series. So today we're going to continue on to that. This whole series has got some key themes. And I think the key theme is really self-reflection. Empowerment through trust. Are you trusting your employees? Do they trust you? Do you have a common vision based on consistent principles and actions? Are you establishing expectations through verbal and nonverbal communication? Basically, is your actions consistent with your words? Is your activities consistent with your promise to your customers? A lot of these are not new concepts. A lot of times if you're a veteran like myself, they're renewed concepts. And they all kind of have roots in a lot of different books out there. But I like to go back to the Principle-Centered Leadership series from Stephen Covey. So a lot of the topics we talk about can be found in that book or Stephen Covey's series of Principle-Centered Leadership books and webinars and podcasts, et cetera. So that's one of the sources. The other is our speaker, Kevin Martledge, who's been gracious enough to spend the last few weeks with us. And then also just Internet searches. You never can go wrong with Google it, right? Google it, stupid. Because you'll find something that might resonate with you that may be a little bit more closer to what you're dealing with and what we present here into this series. So to give a little bit of a history, the first workshop in this series, we defined what a good culture looks like. And the second one, which we call Workshop 11, because that's the 11th one we've done in total, was setting expectations and establishing accountability. Accountability kind of has a double-edged sword connotation to it. I love the word accountability because I hold myself accountable. And I know the producers hold me accountable. And some people think accountability is placing blame. And that's really not what accountability should be viewed as. It should really be about doing your job and doing your job well to your own personal satisfaction is how I define accountability. And today we're going to talk about developing and mentoring personnel. These are the four overall topics. But as we've done in the past, we really dive in pretty deep here. And the first one is going to be coaching or mentoring or both. What's the difference? Defining a mentoring culture is your future right in front of you, which I think it is for most of us. We just don't see it. Applying strategies to encourage development. Are we consistent, which is a common theme throughout all of these, is consistency, accountability, and expectations. And then establishing mutual expectations. What is the right fit? So I think that all these things will be of great benefit to all of our producer members. Our speaker is, again, Kevin Martledge. And I thank you, Kevin. Kevin has over 25 years experience servicing corporations and associations, especially when it comes to developing and mentoring and establishing a culture that aligns with the customers you serve or the associations you serve, the members you serve. He does a fantastic job of kind of looking big picture, but he has no problem having the difficult conversations that need to be had. So, Kevin, I just want to ask you to start off with, how have you found this series for yourself? And also, what have you learned just by us interacting over the last few weeks? Well, thanks for that introduction. And it's a pleasure to be here with you again. I appreciate the opportunity. And, you know, I think the biggest thing that I've seen or resonates with me over the past few weeks is that, you know, we might be talking about PCI and your producing members and your members that are on the calls, but the concepts that we're talking about, they span, like, every type of organization. They span every type of industry. And they span every level within those industries and companies. And so, you know, I think it's the thing that really resonates with me, especially as I end these calls, is, like, thinking back, it's just, like, the fact that you're focused on, you know, mentorship, on trust, on building a good culture, on, you know, engaging your employees through these workshops, it really shows that, you know, that's, like, key to doing business today, no matter what industry you're in. You have to make sure that your employees are engaged. You have to be looking to the future to see what kind of succession planning you need to have in place so you can anticipate the needs of your organization going in the future. And, you know, turnover is a big thing right now. And so the fact that you're focusing on these things is going to help you encourage those employees to not only stick with your organization, but, you know, stick with the industry too. And so I think it's just tremendous that you're investing time and energy into attending this call if you're on the receiving end. And, you know, Randy, to you and PCI for putting this on and, you know, just the concept in general, I think it's such an important topic across all of these webinars. And I think it's just fantastic that you're doing it, and it's an honor for me to be a part of it. Well, I've learned quite a bit from you because we do, for those on the call, we do a lot of interacting behind the scenes in preparing for these. And I like this quote from Steven Spielberg. It's kind of appropriate for the analogy is that a lot of stuff we talk about ends up on the cutting room floor. We just don't have time for it. It's just there's so much to these subjects. But let's get started. So I guess start at the beginning. Can you define for us coaching and mentoring and kind of explain some of the key similarities and differences between the two? Yeah. So, you know, a lot of times coaching and mentoring kind of fall into the same bucket, but I really feel like there's some distinct differences between the two. And, you know, as leaders, I'll talk about it from like a leadership perspective first, is, you know, coaching is kind of those day-to-day things, in my opinion, that you're doing as a leader to help an individual develop their performance, develop techniques, develop their skills. You know, it's that kind of consistent feedback that you're giving them maybe, you know, in the heat of the moment or after a meeting or whatever. Right. So that's kind of where the coaching comes into play. It's helping that individual kind of develop, like we said here, their performance-based techniques and skills. But it's really kind of like in the moment kind of coaching or, you know, short-term kind of coaching and things that you're doing with them. We're mentoring, you know, is an interesting concept in that it's more of a process. Right. And in which, just like we have here on the slide, an experienced individual will help another person develop his or her goals and skills through a series of confidential one-on-one conversations focused on professional development activities. And I think the key thing to point out in this section, as you're trying to put a definition around mentoring, is, you know, it's a process. It's focused on professional development. It's more long-term, you know, in terms of what you're trying to achieve. And mentoring can be very important to help, you know, your employees not only feel engaged, but also see what is in front of them in terms of their development and how they can utilize their current strengths, how they can focus on maybe some of their opportunities they have within their skill set, and how does that relate then to their overall advancement within your organization and their advancement ultimately in the industry to make an impact. And so I always like to think, just to kind of summarize, coaching is kind of like that in-the-moment, you know, leadership type stuff that you do every day with your employees, where mentoring is more of a formal process focused on the long-term advancement of that individual. And we can go into some specifics here as we get into the rest of the presentation. I like these bullet points. It kind of summarizes some things, too. It kind of helps. They don't necessarily correlate from the right-hand column to the left-hand column, but they do give, I think, a little bit better of an understanding of the two. Absolutely. And I think, you know, under mentoring, you know, like advising and supporting and encouraging and reinforcing, those are all things you do at a leadership type level just when you're coaching, but it's more of a formal process, which we'll talk about, about, you know, mentoring somebody and what does that mean. Because there's an agreement that has to take place between the mentor and the mentee that's going to be really key as we move forward. So, again, today we're going to focus primarily on the mentoring more than the coaching. I think a lot of us have coached our kids through math class. Most of those people are engineers and math-oriented in this industry. Or we've coached our children with a sport or, you know, through a music instrument or something like that. So we'll kind of get the idea of coaching. But mentoring is more of a something that we're not real comfortable with, but I think it's more natural than we think. I think it truly is right in front of us. And implementing a mentoring plan can affect our plant culture. So talk to me a little bit more about, you know, how it's mentoring just right in front of us. Sure. Well, I think, you know, as leaders especially, we're kind of always on stage, right? And so we have things that our employees look up to us about. Even people that don't report to us directly are looking up to us as, like, say, a leadership team. And so that mentoring culture, the future is right in front of you for a couple things, right? You have to lead by example to show the rest of the organization, you know, what good looks like. But from a mentoring culture, the future is in front of you because the people that you're leading today are the ones that are hopefully going to be leading the organization in the future. And so, you know, if you can, you know, focus transparently and intentionally on developing those people around you, that future is right there in front of you in a lot of different forms. It could be, you know, the person that's working for you now could be the next VP in your organization. Or, you know, ultimately as you're, we'll talk about here in a couple slides, as you're looking to the future of your organization, what are the skill sets that we need to achieve the goals that we have planned out? And do we currently have those skill sets in-house? Are we going to have to go find them? Are we, if they are in-house, what do we need to do to hone those skills and to advance them to the level we need them to be? And so, you know, that's an interesting statement. You say mentoring culture is a future right in front of you. It absolutely is, because as leaders, we're always looking to the future, but we also have to pay attention to what we currently have on our staff and how are we developing them and engaging them to help us achieve those goals of an organization. And more importantly, help those individuals achieve their personal, you know, career goals as well, as they align with the goals of the organization. When we talked about this, I kept going back to the book, Acres of Diamonds, which basically, if no one's familiar, or if you're not familiar with that, is this quick story is the gentleman had a farm and had a bunch of land and wanted to be rich. So he sold his farm and moved across the country, you know, gold rush, right? And then find out that the biggest gold find was the property he just sold. So whether you're a leader now and looking for, you know, the next draft pick or the next big thing, the next big thing might be the next person walking in putting an application. It could be the person in the plant you just haven't asked the question. And from the other side, the person in the plant might be looking for opportunity, but they haven't raised their hand and said, what can I do to create opportunity for myself? So I think I've been to a lot of precast plants, met a lot of great people, and there's a lot of skill, a lot of talent, I think a lot of growth opportunity for individuals within precast. And that's why I really kind of love this whole concept here is including mentorship as part of a precast plants culture. Sure, absolutely. And, you know, there's a couple of key points on here under advantages of mentorship about improving retention, fast track leadership, accelerate learning, professional and personal development, elevate morale. You know, there's some studies out there from Gallup and some others that, you know, talk about, you know, turnover in different industries. And, you know, turnover is at kind of an all time high right now for people that are, you know, we're losing people because they may be looking for a different work life balance, which is I know is the topic of our next webinar, or they may be looking for different opportunities or whatever that may be. Turnover right now is a key thing, and it costs trillions of dollars annually to U.S. businesses because of turnover, not only because people are leaving, but the cost to replace those people. And some of these studies that are out there, you know, they talk about why are people leaving? And almost it's between 60 and 70% of people that leave organizations do so because they do not feel like they have that connection with their manager or that their manager isn't focused on their personal development as much as they would like it to be. And you could debate those numbers all you want, but the key point of this is even if that number is 20 or 30%, that tells me that as a leader, there's something we could do to make sure that we're creating the best culture possible to have our employees engaged, to retain them as employees by showing them, you know, what the future might look like and really taking onus in their development. But it's also going to, you know, mentorship and coaching and focusing on people's development, it elevates morale. And if you're elevating the morale of each individual person, that's going to grow into your whole team. And so you're going to quickly become one of those places that's a great place to work. People want to come work there. And why in my right mind would I ever leave coming here? Because I got so much opportunity. And even if that opportunity is not there to get a promotion, I really am developing myself personally and professionally because they're focused on making that happen and giving me opportunities to grow personally and professionally. So I think it's more than just having a mentorship program on paper and actually doing it, but it really can impact your culture from an engagement and a retention and morale standpoint that a lot of people don't realize as you're looking out on the surface. I don't either. I met with the plant manager yesterday and he said that they take the approach that we spend more time with each other than we do with our own families most weeks. Sure. You better enjoy what you're doing and what can we do to make it more enjoyable even though they're working in the heat and they're working in the cold and it's dirty and hard work and backbreaking work. At least they try to make it as much fun as possible. So kind of moving on is that now that we got by and we did a great sales job there, Kevin, to make sure that everybody out there is going to start a mentorship program. What are some of the key questions the plant leader is going to need to ask themselves and what do they do with the findings? Sure. So I think we have this slide separated into two sections. I think they're key. So the first one, say as a leadership team in general or as an organization, you need to identify the opportunities there. So okay, we've identified that we want to have a mentorship program, but we need to also really do a deep dive or understand what the individual skill sets are of our employees and the organization's existing skill sets. And why that's important is because you want to be focused on as you're developing this mentorship program on specifics that you're going to not only as an organization achieve or drive or goals that you're trying to attain by doing this, but it's also going to help you then communicate that to the people that will be a part of this mentorship program as to why it's important that they're wanting to be a part of this and kind of the marketing piece behind it. And so it's important as an organization to really sit down and say, okay, what is the opportunity that we're going to try to achieve by implementing a mentorship program? And let's start by looking at the skill sets that we have within our team and what skills we think we might need for the future. And so how are we going to then kind of close that gap, so to speak, between those two? And then before you roll things out, you need to define those desired results. What are we going to be doing specifically to achieve the goals that we've set? And let's identify kind of the strengths and weaknesses currently that we have amongst our organization from a skill perspective or from a personnel perspective and look at it through the lens of not only current, but also the lens of strategically in the future. Where are we going to be five or six years from now? And do we have those skill sets that we need? What are our strengths now? What are our weaknesses? And are those going to be the same as we're progressing over the next five or six years as an organization? So it's important to kind of do some planning beforehand, is the gist of my rambling there for the last five minutes. But you need to identify what you're trying to achieve by this mentorship program that you're going to be implementing. And I'll jump in real quick. And that's kind of where, you know, you bring in your marketing team, you bring in your sales team, and you want to say, okay, are we in alignment with what our customers are buying? So I think it's got to make sure you look at holistically, you know, are we including everybody into this directional arrow, so to speak? It's kind of like, sorry for the sports analogy, it's kind of like a baseball team has a low ERA, they can hold other teams down to, you know, a run and a half a game. You don't really, you really don't need a lot of home run hitters to be a champion in a team like that. But so you got to know what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are, maybe you put your all your money into the pitching, payroll into pitching staff versus your fielding or hitting staff. But I think it's, it's good, it's important that you align your overall corporate goals with your, with your, your staff and your talent. Absolutely. And, you know, and then that kind of goes to the point about, you know, how do you embrace this opportunity then, and then you have to appreciate all those things. And, you know, the next couple bullet points, committing to the challenge, accepting constructive feedback, you need to have the discipline to improve and you need to find the milestones, right? I've been, I've worked with a lot of organizations over the years, both as an employee of an organization and from a consulting standpoint, where they talk about mentorship or professional development or this and that, and they may have a great plan, but it's, it's, it's hard to implement, it's hard to follow up, it's hard to make it happen. And it quickly becomes, oh, it's another thing we have to do instead of, oh, this is a thing we get to do, right? And so you have to really make sure that your leadership team and specifically your mentors and mentees, which we'll talk about here in a second, are committed to this and understand that why and understand the benefit to not only them, but also the organization and the industry of, you know, partaking in this mentorship program. And it's just like another project. I hate to say it that way, because everybody's like, we don't need another project, but you got to have milestones and you got to have, okay, if we're going to meet once a month for an hour or once a quarter for two hours, whatever it is, we got to make sure that happens. Let's get it on the calendar now. And there's no exceptions to, to missing that short of, you know, a family emergency or some kind of emergency like that. But we're gonna do everything that we can to make sure that we're, we're doing this, and we're putting the time and energy into it, that's going to benefit everybody. Because it's the quickest thing that's going to go out the window as soon as things get busy. You know what I mean? Well, that's, that's, that's it. I think, I think that's, that's very important that you've got to stick to the plan, because you got this vision. You've, you've got some, some, some tactics established. So then it really becomes more about, you know, trying to implement some of this stuff. So what, how do you start engaging team members and start to begin to implement the plan? Sure. Well, I think that, you know, it's not, it's not necessarily something, I guess it depends on the size of your organization, and you know, the goals that you've decided to, you're wanting to achieve by employing the mentorship program. But you know, the first question is, do we open this up to everybody? Do we open up to a select few? What is our goal? And how do we do that? And so once you've identified the goals of the organization, and the why behind that program, you need to identify your mentors, and we have coaches there, and define the criteria. So, you know, there may be members of your leadership team, or members in your organization, that are going to be great mentors. And there's others that maybe that's a, that's a aspect of their leadership skill that they need developed as well, right? And so you need to be able to identify who on your leadership team, or who's going to be those mentors that you're going to hang your hat on for this program that to help you, you know, provide value to your employees, you'd identify who those are, and define the criteria of what makes you a mentor, and could be considered a mentor. And, you know, there's some organizations too, that, you know, the mentors don't necessarily have to be within the organization, right? I've had some organizations that I've worked with that, you know, ideally, it's the leadership team kind of taken somebody on their team under their wing. But could there be a volunteer with your organization? Could there be, you know, some somebody else from the outside that could be a great mentor based on what you're trying to achieve? So that's a topic for another discussion. But, you know, the goal is, is to really identify the criteria of what makes a good mentor. And do we have that on our team? And if not, before we roll this out, maybe we need to get some extra training for those people. So they can really hit the ground running and don't get frustrated with the process, because maybe it's a skill they need to work on on their own. And then once you've identified that mentorship pool, you want to really look at, okay, who on the team is going to be mentored and coached? And how do we build that relationship with them? And, you know, like I said, is it gonna be for everybody? Is it just a select few? Is it people that have been identified as, hey, they're capable of making that next level or have a skill set to become, you know, sales or marketing or operations or whatever, and make that next step? So how are we going to identify those? And then we say build relationships, because one, it's very important as you're rolling out these mentorship programs, that if it's not for everybody, you're making those expectations and those criteria of why you're doing those things as transparently clear as possible to the rest of the organization. Because you don't want to have something as great, as impactful as a mentorship program, then cause the people that aren't part of that mentorship program to hate the fact that they're not involved in it, right? They need to understand why and how they become involved in it and just say, hey, maybe it's not your time to be a part of this mentorship program, but maybe you could be in phase two. Or, hey, it's great. Now I know that you're interested in becoming a mentee in our program. I'm going to put you on the schedule and we'll start tracking that and we'll work together as your leader to make sure that you're set up to take part of it when we start the next cohort or the next mentorship group that we're going to be doing. So I think it's very important that you're identifying those criteria and you're communicating those out and everybody in the organization, whether they're involved with it or not, knows what those expectations are and what that criteria might be. Yeah, again, it goes back to what you said in the last slide, which was you really got to prioritize it and then you've got to execute it. It's going to look different for everybody and that's kind of one of the messages we're trying to get across here today is that it's going to be different for every plant. When I'm in a plant that does a small plant of 20 acres that are doing bridge feeding compared to going to a plant that might be 80 acres that does complete total precast structures, you're going to have a little bit different level of culture in there and maybe the process is, it goes back to what you said about if an individual is not participating in the first round but they're ready for the second round, there may be multiple levels. Coaching a person that's a one-year person that finally decides, you know what, I'm going to make a career out of this versus coaching somebody who's there for three weeks. So, it's a different level of coaching and it's also a person being coached to move from year one to year two could be coaching the person's moving from month one to month two. So, there could be someone who's a coach and a coachee at the same time. Yeah, yeah, they could be. Yeah, and also I see two paths here also, again, trying to bring it to a precast plant or at least the perfect analogy in my head to a precast plant. You may find an individual raises their hand and says, you know, I've got a two-year tech, a two-year degree and you know, basic management studies. I want to go into project management but then once they start going down that path, they may find that maybe they want to be more of a plant management. So, there is an opportunity here to, you know, set down and work with an individual to see that they are going down the right path but prioritizing the time is the most important thing. It's building that relationship, that one-on-one relationship, that group relationship so the people do feel like they're part of something bigger than themselves. Absolutely, and I think you hit on a key point there as you talk about kind of setting individual goals and I think this is a key point for a mentor to kind of understand and we'll get into this here in a few minutes too but, you know, it can't be cookie cutter, right? Everybody can't be treated the same way when you come to mentorship because there may be people like you said on different paths and so it's important during that initial stages of the mentor-mentee relationship for the mentor to understand what are your goals as a mentee, what are you wanting to get out of this, what's success look like in your mind and how do you want to move this forward. Obviously, within the parameters of the program that you've developed but you want to really make it kind of fluid and nimble enough that they're able to focus on things that the mentee wants to focus on in alignment with where we're wanting to go as an organization, right? Because you don't want it to be like, well, you're going to be the next plant manager and this is what you have to learn and these are the things you have to do because that's the beauty of a mentor-mentee relationship and I've been on both sides, like I said. A lot of times when I'm a mentor, I learn just as much from them as I hope they're learning from me as part of that relationship because it's giving me a different perspective on their development and what's important for them. So, it's really important to stay nimble and keep that kind of open mind in there, you know, as long as you're moving things forward in the right direction. Exactly, which sets us up for kind of the fun, I think the funnest part of this day, this topic is the skills, experiences, tactics required for both the mentor and the mentee. To some degree, this applies to coach or a coachee, but let's walk through some of these experiences and these tactics and the skills that these mentors should have and some of the advantages they get out of it. Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, as a mentor you have on there, you know, must be more prepared and I think that's important, right? And I think especially as, this is a whole another probably three-hour webinar about generational gaps and how people coming into the industry now are different than the people that have been in it for 20 years, like we won't get there, but I think you'll find that especially if you have people that are go-getters in your organization, they're ready for the next thing, they're going to be pushing the mentor to help them understand and advance and build these skills. That's my opinion and my experience I've been there. So, as a mentor, you got to be prepared for that, right? And you have to have that conversation about what do you want to get out of this mentee and what are your goals and what's success look like and, okay, based on that, here's the things I could bring to the table and some things that, you know, I may need to go do some more research on my own, right? And there's a lot different approach to, you know, teaching somebody something versus being their mentor, right? You have to learn, you got to learn to know how to teach somebody, but you also have to do it in a way that, you know, as Jack Lilland says there, you know, you don't preach them, you set an example and you shut up. I think that's hilarious, right? Because you do have to set that example and say, okay, here's the resources I'm bringing to the table to help you achieve these goals and some discussions that we can have around that. Now, what is it you want to do with that, right? What are you going to do with that newfound information and have that trusting relationship with them where they can say, well, I appreciate that, but I still don't understand this. And so, it's really that two-way street. And as a mentor, you have to be very prepared and being able to not only pull from your past experience, but also stay kind of on the cutting edge of what's going on so you can help prepare them the best that you possibly can to reach that next step. And so, I think that preparedness is so key and it's going to look different for every relationship, obviously. But I also think that mentors must listen more than speak. And did you have a comment on that first one before we go on to the next? I just, you know me, I got a million thoughts. I have a million thoughts. I look at it like, when you go to work and it's just you, especially since a lot of us that are office jockeys just go down to the basement or just go to the next room, you really don't have to think too much about what other people are going to say or think or do, right? You're just really kind of in your own head and you just get your head down and you start to go on. But when you're going to work and you know that there's a staff of people that's going to look to you and say, what are we doing next? That's a whole different way of approaching your job. And I think that's labeling somebody a mentor, labeling somebody a manager, a bed foreman. You get that label, you really elevate yourself, you elevate your game. So a bigger picture, I just hope that this series helps add a level of professionalism to everybody on the call. Because if you're working at a precast plant, you're somebody special. I don't mean that in any way you want to read, except for face value. You're a professional, this is your career. And I know that there's precast plants all around the country that are in the same boat that you're in. But it is kind of special that what you do is specialized and it's important and the skills that you developed are important. So what's your next step is kind of why I like that sharpen the saw. What are you doing today that you take for granted that you know you probably could do a little bit better? And then how does other people observe you and see that, wow, if he's done it or she's done it that way, I can do it that way. No, you got to do it better than me. So anyway, I digress like you. No, that's a perfect way of putting it. And I think that is important. And I think that also in some of the bigger organizations I worked with, like especially at FedEx and so forth that had like kind of formalized kind of mentorship programs, I was with them for about 15 years, is as a mentor, if you were chosen to be one of those mentors to help bring up the next generation or whatever it may be, it really helped you to kind of advance and prepare yourself for that next level as well. And so there's a lot of benefits on both sides being a mentor or a mentee, not for your organization, but for you personally. And so I think that's key. I think the other part that's important is from a mentor standpoint is to, you must listen more than speak. I love that because you're asking questions and you're avoiding directing them. Well, this is how you should do it. This is what this means. There may be some very specific things like that that you're going to talk about from a precast concrete approach, but I think that your job as a mentor is to challenge those assumptions and impulses and to help guide them in a direction of kind of self-discovery. And there's another great book. I just thought of it as we were kind of sitting here talking by Marsha Reynolds, who used to be the president of the International Coaching Federation. And she has a great book out there. It's called Coach the Person, Not the Problem, a Guide to Using Reflective Inquiry. And I can send this to you, Ray, if you'll send it out to the participants today. But it really is an interesting way to approach coaching or even mentorship is that, you know, I'm going to work with you specifically about what you want to achieve and help you as a mentor, ask questions of yourself to challenge some assumptions that you have, challenge yourself in a way that's going to help you reflect internally about what you can do to continue to advance those things. And once we identify what those things are and I help you identify those things, then we can get specifics about, okay, here's how you can go build this skill. Here's how you could go, you know, focus on this and so forth. And so it's a really great book. I recommend it. It's a pretty easy read, but I think that may, if you get into that mentor, you know, situation where, hey, I'm gonna be a mentor, you've never done that before, there could be some, you know, words of wisdom in there that come from that to help you through that process. And then I think the last point here that's super important and we touched on a little bit was others observing the process will improve by observing the training and be encouraged to grow in advance. And I think that's important. If you do this the right way and you implement it in your organization, it's gonna hopefully help others say, hey, how can I be a part of that? And how can I grow in advance? And you may have, every organization has those people that are just, they're perfectly placed. Hey, I'm gonna do this the rest of my life. I'm happy doing that. I don't want to advance up the food chain, so to speak, into other positions. But that's fine. But you could still mentor somebody in that situation, because how can you be the absolute best person you can be in the role that you're in? It doesn't have to mean that you're going to go up three levels. And that's why you're part of this mentorship program. But it's always about that continuous improvement. And so I think that's as you're setting up this program, is that something that you want to focus on as well, as you're implementing a mentorship program in your organization? Definitely, because I added a couple other things that I was thinking of while you were speaking, because you always bring out really good points that we haven't even talked about, that I remember reading about. So if you're a mentor, and you're working with somebody, and we talked about this in a little bit of past workshops, don't be so closed off. You're challenging your own assumptions and impulses, just like you're challenging somebody else's assumptions and impulses. A good kid analogy is, you tell them, don't touch the stove, because that will burn them. But if they're going to try to do something that's not going to cause any damage, it might cause a little bit of a mess, it might get a little embarrassed by it, kind of go ahead and let them do it. Learn the hard way, right? The other thing is, A, learn hard way. B, maybe your way, you've been doing it, and your grandparents, your parents taught you, maybe it's not the best way. There's an analogy of, when you make a bowl of cereal, do you put the milk in first or the cereal in first? Does it really matter? What's your personal preference? So those are some things that I think, as a mentor, you got to really challenge yourself to say, is that, okay, instead of imposing your will on somebody, because we talked about, we've been doing this for 50 years, that's the way we've always done it. Well, maybe that's not the best way to do it. Maybe somebody else coming in would have a better way. So when you have an open, honest relationship, and nobody knows, they use the word accountability in a positive sense versus the negative sense, then I think you get that idea of saying, you know what, I think I'll put the milk in first today. Okay, give it a try. Maybe that's more efficient. And then maybe they learn after a few weeks, they go, yeah, I think I'll put the cereal in first, or vice versa. So I think it's challenging yourself when you look at things from a different perspective, a different set of, a different view. It really, I think, helps advance your company, advances you and the other person. So let's talk about the mentee a little bit. Same, kind of the same question, but quicker. I think it's a quicker answer. Maybe. Well, yeah, I mean, you know, from the mentee perspective, it's, you know, begin with the end in mind. You know, I think a lot of people that I've coached or mentored over the years, and, you know, I always ask them, I say, okay, you know, what's your next step in your career? Tell me how you got to this point in your career. Okay, now what's next? A lot of people, they don't, they don't know what's next, you know, hey, I just know, I want to make a lot of money and be successful and be able to provide for my family or friends and, you know, do whatever. Okay, well, that's great. But how are you going to do those things? Right? Okay. Do you need to advance to the next level? What's the timeframe to get you to that next level, all these kinds of things. And so, you know, from a mentee perspective, you got to begin with the end in mind. And I think, you know, if the people that are joining this, this program that you've created, don't have that end in mind, it's up to you as the mentor to help them identify what that is by asking those questions, right? And even given some insight into where the organization is going, you know, in the next five years, and do they see themselves fitting into that. So that's, I'm kind of getting back to the mentor side. But, you know, the mentee really needs to do all the heavy lifting and some of the mentorship programs that I've been a part of throughout my career, is when the mentee takes the ball and runs with it, and is the one driving the success of it is the one making sure that meetings are scheduled is the one intentionally following up with action items that come out of the meetings, whatever. Those are the ones that are the most successful, right? A lot of people when you think about mentorship program, the mentor themselves is like, Oh, my gosh, you know, this is going to be so much work and all that. And it is you have to sharpen your saw, you got to be prepared, all those things we talked about. But ideally, you have that mentee that's driving the success of this, because it is about their, their, their professional development, it is about their advancement. And so as a leader, you can kind of get some insight into how much they're, they're focused on this, and taking the ball and running with it. But also set that expectation at the front, you know, hey, we're gonna have these meetings, I'm always going to show up, but I need you to be the one to be driving this relationship. And I'm going to be here to support you and help you and guide you the best of my ability, no problem. But as a mentee, they're the ones that do some of that heavy lifting, they got to be ready to put in the work, and they got to be vulnerable and disciplined in the process. And I think that vulnerability is a key piece, because as you're building that trusting relationship with your mentor, you have to be able to hear the good with the bad, right? And the bad isn't going to be, hey, you're terrible at this, but the bad is going to be, hey, let me give you a different perspective as the mentor in this situation, as to how you reacted to that situation, or how this skill maybe isn't at the level we need it to be, let me give you some perspective on that from my, from my point of view. And so the mentee has to be vulnerable and empathetic with that enough that they can take that and use it as constructive criticism, and not be an attack, right? Because it can sometimes come across that way, especially if they've been very successful at this point, and it's like, well, you know, I appreciate being in this relationship with my mentor, but, you know, you don't really have a lot to tell me, you know, I'm just doing this because I had to, you know, so you don't want to have that situation, so. No, you don't. And I, again, I love that vulnerability and discipline. What does that remind you of? Your children, right? Yes. Tell your teen, you know, catch your five-year-old or eight-year-old or 12-year-old doing something they're not supposed to do. They don't have a poker face. They know right away, you look at me, they got that look on their face, like, oops, caught my, got my hand caught in the cookie jar. And sometimes they're going to try to lie out of it, but most kids are going to be, because they're looking at their parent in the eye, and their parents giving them that parent look, like I'm getting ready to spank your butt, or, you know, give you the lecture of a lifetime. And they come clean. And when they break down their vulnerabilities, and I think when, again, as a parent, when you as a parent can sit down and say, you know, buddy, when I was your age, I ate a whole box of Hostess cupcakes. And my mom was so mad at me, and I got to spank it for my dad. When you break those things down and say, I know, and you get there, you get on the same level. I remember 20 years ago, when I was in your shoes, I was out there tying rebar. It's not the, it's not the walk up hill in 10 foot of snow, both ways story. But it is, I was, I was, I was in the mud tying rebar, just like you are. And yeah, it's, it sucks. But when you practice it, and you get good at it, you know, your multiplication tables, going back to kid analogy, you've practiced your multiplication, you know, backwards and forwards, the rest of your math life is going to be easy. The rest of your precast life is going to be easy. Because once you become that project manager, you're going to be able to think on the fly. When it when a customer says you, oh, that panel, that's panels not within color variation, or those those stacks are too tall, or that that panel wasn't rubbed out properly, you're able to say, well, no, it really was rubbed out properly, or the app, the director did that, or the hauler did that, or the other trade guy did that, you're going to be able to talk the talk because you've walked the walk. So vulnerable and saying, I'm ready to run up that that ladder, because look how great I am. You got to be disciplined to the process, set your butt back down, get comfortable in the first run, then you can move to the second run in the third run, five years, seven years from now, then you're gonna be ready for where you need to be. So yeah, I think that's, it's so important to both parties have to be vulnerable enough to don't put yourself on a high horse, set your butt down, look at look yourself realistic, self reflection in the mirror, and let's walk together. Yeah, and I think it helps. That's a great point. I think it helps if you're setting those expectations at the very beginning, right? And when you're starting that first conversation with them, say, look, you know, I'm probably gonna say some things that are gonna rub you the wrong way, but it's all intended to help you think outside the box a little bit, maybe break some of those paradigms that you might be working in and to help you kind of holistically look at your development. And so if there's ever a point in time as we're going through this, that you're like, hey, I don't appreciate how you said that, or I don't understand, I want you to feel comfortable to call me out on it, right as your mentor, because I'm just trying to help. And so as we build this relationship, we're gonna have to make sure that we're always on that same page. And at any point in time, if you feel like, you know, hey, this isn't going the direction you thought or whatever, we need to have a discussion about it, right? Because the exception to this is we're gonna just break the mentor-mentee relationship and not go any further, because we just aren't getting anywhere. We're not gonna let that happen. And so we have to have conversations along the way to make sure that we're both advancing this, and especially you, mentee, advancing this in the direction that you want it to go. Yeah, and you can't be offended too as the mentor that, hey, this mentee is just not clicking with you. Yep. But by the third or fourth mentor, I'm sure that's the mentee's fault. Maybe, I don't know. But talk about, again, I like what you've added there in regards to, you know, the challenges the mentee is going to face. Yep. So I think this goes back to the very beginning as you're rolling this out to your organization. You don't want it to be a secretive kind of exclusive club that, oh, you're in the mentor program, you know. But you want to have some level of that, because you want everybody else in your organization to understand that, hey, there's an opportunity to continue to advance my professional development by being a part of this mentorship program. And, hey, the organization put this together, and that hopefully that shows that, hey, you know, you're anxious to get them and supportive of them to advance their development and their skill set. And so if you're not very transparent and not, you know, open about the program with your organization, about what it takes to get in there and this and that, you know, there could be some mocking that goes on. It could be some hurdles. I've seen it in organizations before where, you know, it's like, oh, you're part of that group, you know, and they got the air quotes going on. And, well, what does that mean, right? So you want it to be rolled out in a way that, you know, it's inclusive to everybody to have the opportunity based on the criteria that you've set up, not meaning that you give everybody the opportunity to be in it, unless that's just what you want to do as an organization. But if you're not involved in it, there's a clear path about how you go about becoming involved. And it starts with having a conversation with your manager about, hey, I want to improve. I want to advance my professional development. What are some things that I can do? And so it's very important that you're very transparent about everything. And obviously you're not going to be transparent into your necessarily talking about, right? That's between the two of them. But you want to have that open understanding about what this looks like. So people that aren't included in it can see it as an advantage of working there and something they can maybe work towards. And if you hear any of that negativity around it, it's important as a leadership team to kind of squash it immediately, right? And say, you know, that's not what it's about. Let me sit down with you and kind of help you understand the specifics around this mentorship programs. I think you may have a different perception of what actually is going on and what this is about. So it's very important as a leader, if you're hearing those things, to address them immediately, because you don't want it to, you know, derail a great program that you put together and the great advancements and development that you're achieving, you know, through this. Well, definitely. And I got a couple of questions that I'm going to go ahead and tie them together into one. And I'm going to answer it, and then I'll push it back onto you a little bit. See if I can summarize both of these up into one little good question. Because it's kind of, it's talking about, number one is, you know, the process can be undermined when the person being mentored might leapfrog, the person, the mentee being leapfrogged, leapfrogging the mentor, but also about you train somebody up, but there's no room for advancement in your company, and they end up going somewhere else, maybe your competitor. And so I'm going to, how I would answer this from a precast perspective is that I think that's fantastic. Again, sports analogy, if I'm a star pitcher of a team, and I'm starting to age out, and I can mentor the new guy that's the rookie, and they become the ace, and I become, you know, the middle reliever, which is typically the not so good pitcher, then I'm going to feel really good about myself, because I can live vicariously for the next generation through that next person. And typically, when a precast plant, those have natural attrition, you do have that individual that you can partner with, because they, hopefully, they've, they're open and honest and vulnerable enough to give you credit for helping them reach a pinnacle earlier in their career than when they would have if they would have had to learn the hard way. So that's, the other part is, hopefully, this aligns with everything we do at PCI from a marketing perspective. Hopefully, we've educated somebody that they've, they really love precast, they really see the advantages of precast, then when they go off and maybe work for either another producer, they will advance the industry, or they'll go work for a construction manager, or an engineering firm that will advance the industry. Either way, you win in the long run, because the demand will increase. And I've got a real life story on that, because we hired a project manager when I was working at a precast plant, you know, 30 years ago, 25 years ago, and he worked for us for about five years, and he took a job as a project manager for a major health organization. Now he's head of their overall construction, and he's built, I don't know, probably half of his projects, and most of them have some form of precast on it. So precast is his first go-to product, all because he knows it so well, and he's comfortable with the medium. So I really want to encourage people that don't be discouraged about using this program, because it could damage you personally, or it could damage your company, because actually it's going, everyone's going to win when you get somebody that's involved in a program like this, because they know deep down in their heart where their advancement came from. Yep, absolutely. And I think, you know, that's a key thing, and you know, I've mentioned a couple times I worked for FedEx for 15 years, and why I left that company to go on to a different, to move out of corporate America and into associations and like non-profit and tree care of all things. I still every day think back about all the things I learned at FedEx, and I still stay in contact with people at FedEx, right? And I really, you know, hang my hat, so to speak, on some of the, especially some of the process development work I'm doing now, and the, and you know, even culture and all this kind of stuff. It really came from my time there, and why I didn't continue to advance up through the ranks at FedEx, I still always go back to them and say, or mention them about, oh, when I was at FedEx, we learned that, you know, and that just really stuck with me through the whole, my whole career. And so I think, you know, go back to the beginning, what we talked about, how a mentorship program can really help drive engagement and retention even within your organization. And, you know, I have all kinds of stories of people that have been with an organization for 30 years, and they know they can't advance to like, say, the executive director level. They're as high as they can go, and that person has to leave before they can get advanced, you know, promoted into that position. But they stay with that organization because they know that somebody personally is involved in their development and personally cares about them as an individual and their advancement personally and professionally. And that doesn't always mean for some people that it's the next level, or it's the CEO, or it's the whatever. It's different. And so I just encourage you not to get discouraged about that and to not worry about that. I mean, you have to worry about it because it's a competitive world that you guys all work in. But at the same time, it's important to be focused on your people. And ultimately, it's the impact you're making on those people's lives and the industry as a whole, whether they're hopefully working at your organization forever versus, you know, hey, they're going to leave at some point, but they're always going to remember what they learned at your plant, right, and your development that you provided them. So yeah, great. Yeah, well, again, I appreciate it, Kevin. And we added this slide because we want to make sure that you all have an opportunity to go back and look at past workshops, whether it's this series or another series. But also, there's a retainage and engagement program that I think is fantastic for especially the HR people on the call. You can access that through pci.org's education link or just oasis.pci.org. If you can't find it, use search words, either workshop, retention, or employee. Somewhere in there, you'll be able to find it. It's the name of the program is retention and engagement. And it's a really good program. So this is going to conclude the first 12, three in this series. Next month, we'll jump on personal wellness and life balance prioritization. We kind of hinted around some of the subjects that we're going to talk about, different generationals coming into your employment, maybe a little bit about what's going on in not political climate, but in our current climate, and how we can help each other, encourage people to come work at precast plants, and really going to be a lot about retainage of employees and kind of jumping off on this mentoring and development subject matter. So with that, I'll pitch it back to Royce to wrap us up. And I just want to thank everyone for attending today. Thank you. On behalf of PCI, I'd like to thank both Randy and Kevin for their great presentation. If you have any further questions about today's webinar, please email marketing at pci.org. As a reminder, a pop up survey will appear after the webinar ends. Thank you again. Have a great day, and please stay safe.

mentorship program

engaging team members

implementing the plan

personal development

professional development

listening skills

challenging assumptions

end in mind

vulnerability

employee development