Coaching a millennial mentality

July 11, 2017

Commentary Anyone in a managerial role in today’s business climate knows the challenges related to and benefits of hiring millennials. The Pew Research Center defines millennials as the first generation to come of age in the new millennium, those generally born after 1980, now in their 20’s and 30’s. Forbes recognized the influence of this generation as early as 2015, when the publication predicted that millennials would become the largest and most influential generation in the workplace. Seminars, workshops, even entire courses of study have been developed to help ...

Tracing Steelers’ winning culture

July 9, 2017

In Steelers country, and around the world, the name “Rooney” stands for something: excellence, integrity, vision, winning. The family is one of the most respected in all of sports, known for big-picture thinking, strong values and a culture of excellence, all of which have contributed to building of one of the NFL’s most successful franchises. Jim Rooney is the eighth of nine children of longtime Steelers chairman, Dan Rooney, who passed away earlier this year. The founder of FirstLink, a company which provides culture consulting for businesses, he has a unique view of ...

Nothing like baseball on the Fourth

July 4, 2017

Commentary Happy Fourth of July! This national holiday is a chance for America to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and gives many of us a day away from work to enjoy all that summer has to offer: picnics, family, fireworks, and of course ... sports. Baseball and the Fourth of July go together like peanuts and Cracker Jack. Across the country, hundreds of thousands of people will watch the pyrotechnics after a baseball game. And what could be more American than spending an afternoon enjoying “America’s favorite pastime,” even if its popularity has been ...

Jr., NASCAR prepare for next chapter

June 27, 2017

NASCAR’s Monster Energy Series barrels toward the playoffs with just 10 races to go until the Championship Chase. But as each week flies by, we draw closer to the end of the era with Dale Earnhardt Jr as a full-time competitor. Earnhardt announced the decision in April, saying he was leaving full-time racing “on his own terms.” That, after missing 18 races in 2016 with a concussion and related symptoms. During a long and unexpected news conference, the long-time holder of NASCAR’s fan-favorite driver designation insisted that he would be part of the sport for many years to ...

Community deserves to celebrate

June 20, 2017

Summertime in Martinsburg looks a lot like the movie “The Sand Lot,” set in 1962, when boys played baseball every night until the street lights came on. With tree-lined avenues, meticulously manicured lawns, and beautiful community pool, you could almost see Smalls, Squints, Bennie the Jet and all the gang trolling the streets, bats over their shoulders, looking for a pick-up baseball game. That is part of the charm of Morrisons Cove. In all the best ways, the community is a Hamlet, seemingly frozen in time, circa “The Sand Lot” era, a little slice of Americana, where ...

‘American Ninja Warrior’ creates community feel

June 13, 2017

With summer unofficially underway, I find myself looking forward to one of my guilty pleasures: “American Ninja Warrior.” The popular NBC show features a series of crazy obstacles, laid out in a sort of a modern-day medieval gauntlet, testing participants’ balance, strength, grip and mental toughness. In the few years since I was first introduced to this intriguing phenomenon, “ANW” has grown into more than just a series of shows or competitions: “American Ninja Warrior” is a culture, and even a community. And it’s a community that draws more and more women every ...