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The IMPACT of Work Culture

This content originally published in the Winter 2024 print edition of NAPA Quarterly. Subscribe here.

By Ty Johnson

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The IMPACT Leadership Group Conference offers emerging leaders opportunities to grow.

Up-and-coming stars of the asphalt pavement industry gathered in Washington, DC, in September 2024 for the IMPACT Leadership Group Conference.

The event returned to the nation’s capital and, in co-locating with Hill Day, a joint advocacy event that allowed emerging leaders to meet with their congressional representatives following the IMPACT activities.

John Broer with Real Good Ventures led a couple of sessions featuring structured activities aimed at facilitating learning, sharing, and expanding peer networks. Broer also moderated a panel titled “The Power of Truth: Honest Conversations for a Thriving Culture.

NAPA Chairman of the Board of Directors Brady Meldrem and First Vice Chair Pat Nelson spoke on the panel, which examined how open communication with employees can foster trust, transparency, and psychological safety. Meldrem will hand the gavel to Nelson, the incoming chair, during the Annual Meeting in Maui on Feb. 2.

Meldrem, with Norris Asphalt, said maintaining a good work culture can be achieved through hiring transparency, since it helps keep toxic workers at bay. He explained that by communicating ahead of time what you expect from employees, you ensure those who get hired are already aware of your culture.

He also said it’s important to practice what is preached, even for executives.

“If you do it when nobody’s watching, you realize that they’re watching,” he said.

Nelson, President of Lehman-Roberts, said when leaders describe their company as a family, it can be easy to forget that doesn’t always mean smooth sailing.

“Families are messy. There are problems and things that come up in a family that have to be addressed and leaned into. It’s important as leaders that we run to those situations and we offer coaching,” he said. “Sometimes the employee needs to leave the organization or there are other hard conversations that have to happen. That’s one of the hardest things for me as a leader is to move into those situations because I don’t love conflict, but healthy conflict is not a bad thing. We just have to have an understanding or some ground rules about how we go about it.”

IMPACT Chair Mandy Gerken of Gerken Paving said communicating on culture can sometimes look like storytelling.

“Due to a lot of growth in the last decade, we’re trying to do a better job of defining our culture and, in doing so, we’re trying to do a better job of telling our story,” she said, adding that the company is using employee surveys to help define Gerken’s core values.

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