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One of my greatest pleasures in life is reading.  Although I enjoy books on a wide range of subjects I find most of my reading centers around two broad subject areas: business and American history (my kids have accused me of being a frustrated History teacher).  Over the years I’ve learned that many of the clients with whom I work are also avid readers.

With the holidays approaching and hopefully a little more time to enjoy reading, I thought this might be a good time to solicit your ideas on recommended books.

If you’ve read a good book you think others might also enjoy reading, how about sharing it?  Tell us the name of the book along with the author, and if you’re in the mood you could even include a short synopsis of it.  I’ll get us started with a couple I’ve recently enjoyed:

How The Mighty Fall by Jim Collins.
You’re probably familiar with Collins from his two best-selling books, Good To Great and Built To Last.  In this book Jim outlines five distinct stages a business goes through as they fall from greatness into decline, and what you can do to avoid them.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.
You might remember Malcolm from his earlier books Blink and The Tipping Point.  In Outliers Gladwell attempts to explain why some people are exceptionally talented in certain areas.  In the process you’ll learn what your chances are of making the Canadian National Hockey Team (remote), the secret behind Bill Gates’ genius (not so secret), and how many hours you’ll have to work at something to become a real expert at it (lots).

I can’t wait to get started on my next book, so come on – give us your suggestions!

Chuck Violand


 
 
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At my most recent Restoration Estimating class, an eager young student told me that one of his reasons for attending was to try to strike a better balance between his personal life and his professional career. This may seem like an odd objective to take away from an estimating class, but believe it or not – he’s actually the fourth person to mention this since VMA started the program last year.

I feel this topic warrants attention and discussion not only because it’s an important part of our employees’ well-being, but it may also have a significant impact on the recruitment and retention of quality future employees.  It seems the younger generations in the workforce (Gen Xers & Millennials) highly value a healthy work/life balance.  

I’m interested in hearing feedback from our business owners and managers as to how you’ve been able to successfully provide value to your employees in this area.

Tim Hull