Another Buckingham Leadership Conference is in the books, and our team members had a blast Celebrating & Accelerating at The Alexander Hotel. From a networking scavenger hunt and foundation initiative building bikes to learning from conference speakers and celebrating outstanding team members at our Awards Ceremony, we had a great time connecting with peers and gearing up for a productive year.
Celebrating 35 years as Buckingham Companies, our COO, Scott Sladek, took us through an interesting journey of the evolution of the mobile device from his car phone to the iPhone. He showed us that over time things change but the change is usually better than it was before. Another huge thanks to the Pacer’s drum line for introducing Scott and giving him a proper closing!
Everyone’s favorite speaker from the conference kicked off the event with a moving presentation on the importance of play in the workplace. His story of adversity from a young age to the roles he’s held at multiple Fortune 500 companies, Kevin brought the energy for our team along with many lessons, including:
· It’s easy to be transactional, but you need to be transformational
· Find time to have fun. Play is serious business
· Who’s your CEO (Chief Encouragement Officer)?
· Always be in BETA as yourself
· Stay motivated
· High performance teams are the way they are because they collaborate and are encouraging to each other
· If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough
Other speakers included Beth St. Claire, who discussed the importance of collaborating in the workplace, DJ KB, who walked us through managing difficult conversations, Dr. Rob Bell, who conveyed the value of hinge moments, and Jay Baer, who walked us through the value of Talk Triggers, which Buckingham is rolling out this year.
Our Buckingham leadership team, including Josh Landry, Scott Sladek, and Brad chambers, joined Theresa Rhodes on stage for the Buckingham Insight. Each member talked about what’s to come in the next few years for Buckingham and what we’ve accomplished so far in 2019. A key takeaway from the event was Brad’s community initiative this year with Challenging Heights. Buckingham Foundation is working with the Chambers Family to install a functioning water faucet to a city in Ghana. This will be a year-long project with a lasting impact on the community there.
Our annual conference wouldn’t be complete without our awards dinner. Buckingham team members are nominated by their peers for each award category, and one award is given out to the winner in each department. Congratulations to our award winners!
· Customer First
Accounting Team, Operations (Johanna Bastin, Sean Carothers, Beth Cash, Mike Hassell, Shannon Johnson, Jane Kennedy, Jennifer Macaluso, Chris Myrvold, and Carmen Sporleder)
Sean Morrison, Production
Evan Corcoran, Site
· Teamwork
Nicole Wetzler, Operations
Jennifer Salemme, Production
Vanessa Smith, Site
· Positive Attitude
Christina Bledsoe, Operations
Angela Combs, Production
Kristin Haggard, Site
· Community Involvement
Kellie Linzner, Operations
Kristen LaPorte, Production
Harold West, Site
· Exceptional Leadership
Nicole Crosby, Operations
Nate Stoops, Production
Holly Jordan, Site
· Outstanding Performance
Debi Fougerousse, Operations
Dave Joyce, Production
Kristin Edmonds, Site
Other team members that were recognized at Leadership Conference include our Blue Door Society members. This elite group of individuals have been with Buckingham Companies for over five years. Their tenure and dedication to our team is invaluable. Congratulations to the following team members:
Five Year Members:
· Justin Brown
· Jeff Clark
· Justeen Conner
· Doug Hart
· Kevin Kilcoyne
· Rosey Morgan
· Sean Morrison
· Chuck Newton
· Tera Odom
· Scott Sladek
· Shannon Sorrells
· Nicole Wetzler
· Brian Zawadzki
Ten Year Members:
· Tony Anderson
· Tom Clark
· Helenann Klukowski
· Rodney Neubauer
· Buddie Nichols
· Ebony Oliver
· Brad Reed
· Katie Reed
Fifteen Year Members:
· Tim Hinds
· Jennifer Macaluso
· Rose Rigdon
· Jennifer Salemme
Buckingham team members wrapped up the Annual Conference with our Buckingham Foundation Q2 project – building bikes for kids in foster homes with our partnership with Together We Rise. Kids in foster homes may not have as readily available access to toys and personal items to call their own, especially the beloved bicycle. Buckingham Foundation aimed to change that for 80 kids who would be given a brand-new bicycle thanks to the generous donation of Buckingham Foundation and the time and talent of our team members assembling new bikes.
Kudos to our Leadership Planning Committee for their time, energy, ideas and flawless execution to make it an exciting experience for all. We’ve already begun planning for 2020, so if you have any ideas or want to be involved, please contact Becca Manolov.
With another successful conference under our belt, our team is ready to put into place key takeaways we learned from our guest speakers and executive team. We enjoyed celebrating wins and look forward to the bright future of Buckingham. Some say, ‘the best is yet to come’ and we couldn’t agree more!
