Aggregates Manager Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/756888
AGGREGATES MANAGER / December 2016 3 December 2016 Vol. 21, No.12 aggman.com /AggregatesManager @AggMan_editor Editorial Editor-in-Chief: Therese Dunphy Editorial Director: Marcia Gruver Doyle Online Editor: Wayne Grayson Contributing Editor: Kerry Clines editorial@aggman.com Design & Production Art Director: Sandy Turner, Jr. Production Designer: Timothy Smith Advertising Production Manager: Linda Hapner production@aggman.com Construction Media Vice President, Construction Media: Joe Donald sales@randallreillyconstruction.com 3200 Rice Mine Rd NE Tuscaloosa, AL 35406 800-633-5953 randallreilly.com Corporate Chairman: Mike Reilly President and CEO: Brent Reilly Chief Operations Officer: Shane Elmore Chief Financial Officer: Russell McEwen Senior Vice President, Sales: Scott Miller Senior Vice President, Editorial and Research: Linda Longton Vice President of Events: Stacy McCants Vice President, Audience Development: Prescott Shibles Vice President, Digital Services: Nick Reid Vice President, Marketing: Julie Arsenault For change of address and other subscription inquiries, please contact: aggregatesmanager@halldata.com. Aggregates Manager TM magazine (ISSN 1552-3071) is published monthly by Randall-Reilly, LLC copyright 2016. Executive and Administrative offices, 3200 Rice Mine Rd. N.E., Tuscaloosa, AL 35406. Subscription rates: $24 annually, Non-domestic $125 annually. Single copies: $7. We assume no responsibility for the validity of claims of manufacturers in any advertisement or editorial product information or literature offered by them. Publisher reserves the right to refuse non-qualified subscriptions. Periodical circulation postage paid at Tuscaloosa, Alabama and additional entries. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage retrieval system, without written permission of the copyright owner. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS. (See DMM 507.1.5.2); NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: send address corrections to Aggregates Manager, 3200 Rice Mine Road N.E., Tuscaloosa, AL 35406. Millennials and Mentoring by Therese Dunphy, Editor-in-Chief tdunphy@randallreilly.com EDITORIAL 2016 has been a big year on numerous fronts. Aggregates Manager turned 20 in March and, during the same month, I celebrated 25 years of covering the aggregates industry. In November, I turned 50, or as my youngest likes to put it, half a century. Great perspective check. As I'm busy parenting my older sons through educational and career decisions, I've also realized that I have fewer work years left ahead of me than I have behind me. It's a sober-ing thought to look up and realize how quickly time passes. Perhaps it's dichotomy of watching my children try to figure out where they are going as industry peers who don't seem nearly old enough begin to mention that "r" word, but I'm more keenly aware of generational issues in the workplace than at any point in memory. That may be why it struck me when Tom Hill, CEO of Summit Materials and our 2016 AggMan of the Year, spoke fondly of Don Godson, former group chief executive at CRH. Godson served as Hill's mentor during his tenure with Oldcastle (see page 8). Lessons imparted decades ago have stayed with him and shaped his own manage- ment beliefs and style. There is quite a bit of research on the effects of mentoring, but the prevailing wis- dom is that most highly successful business people have had a mentor. In fact, more than 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies have some sort of mentoring program. It is the new corporate perk being used to attract employees. That's not a surprise. Millennials are a generation who are used to being praised. They've grown up asking advice on social media and crave feedback. But there are significant differences between today's mentor programs and those you or I may have had when we were at the outset of our career. First, the feedback is not always top down; it's a two-way relationship with each party providing use- ful information to one another. Getting useful insights — such as tech savvy from a younger employee — make the time invested by an already overscheduled more senior employee more worthwhile. Next, most younger employees seek multiple men- tors; with each serving as a subject matter experts for issues such as operational ex- pertise, work/life balance, professional development, etc. The aggregates industry is a little older than the overall U.S. workforce, so genera- tional issues may not be as apparent, but it's coming. Quickly. By 2020, nearly half the U.S. work-force will be comprised of Millennials. Companies that take their cues from all generations, not just the most experienced of their staff, will be better posi- tioned for success in the workplace. Just ask Tom Hill. As his mentor, Don Godson, said, "You don't come down with all the wisdom from above. Sometimes, you learn from below."