Karen Cates - PHD, Author
The Top Free eBooks and Downloads on RCS
By Karen L. Edwards, RCS Editor. From fun, to informative, to educational there’s an eBook or download on RoofersCoffeeShop® for you. Did you know that RoofersCoffeeShop has an eBooks and downloads page that is filled with valuable resources for your business and for your customers? It’s becoming one of our more popular ...
Psychological Safety in the Workplace
By Karen L. Cates, PhD In a psychologically safe workplace, employees feel confident that no one on their team will embarrass or punish anyone else for pointing out a mistake or asking a question In the past, I’ve written about the need to get into the mind and the heart of the ...
The Ins and Outs of Peer-to-Peer Mentoring
By Karen L. Cates, PhD The roofing industry is no different than others with its good intentions around mentoring programs. Pairing a seasoned leader with a new or emerging manager, can result in a “student-teacher” relationship that is satisfying for both. Strong mentoring programs provide guidelines and structures to support mentors ...
Elevating Your Game: Why Training Isn’t Just for Field Employees
By Karen Cates. Every business benefits from the continuous learning of its leaders. Going back to school doesn’t have to mean a full-time commitment and a six-figure price tag. But the very nature of our fast-moving economic and labor environment means we can never sit back, kick up our feet, and ...
Believing in Safety: One Company’s Approach to Closing in On Zero Incidents
By Karen Cates. OSHA’s Safe + Sound week is coming up August 13-19. Why is it that despite the best intention and prevention, people still get hurt or worse while on the job? This question was the premise for a consulting engagement several years ago. My client had asked, “How do ...
The Power of Gifts: Feel-Good Moments That Last
By Karen Cates. Learn how the gifts that you incorporate into your employees’ lives can really make an impact – especially when it’s something that enables parents to share their experiences with their children. When I’m not consulting, coaching, or writing children’s books about roofing, I am an Academic Director at the ...
The Head and Heart of Safety
By Karen Cates. Make safety more than a lesson, make it an emotional commitment. Important messages don’t really stick the first time you share them with your workers. Research has demonstrated that new information must be shared at least seven times for it to be fully processed and adopted. One roofing ...
Fire Chiefs, Ballet Dancers and Roofing Workers
By Karen Cates. Children’s book encourages kids to consider a career in roofing. Fire chiefs and ballet dancers are officially on notice. Children, ages three to twelve, are talking about doing much more when asked what they want to be when they grow up. According to one national survey, girls and boys ...
A Father’s Day Gift for Children Too, Roofing Safety
By Karen Cates. Reinforce roofing safety with a book that workers can read to their children Did you ever wonder, “What was that guy thinking?!” when you noticed a safety violation on the job? You just finished refresher training for the whole team, and their first day back in the field, someone ...
Children Today, Roofing Professionals Tomorrow
A focus on children is one more way to fill the pipeline of employees for the industry. By Karen Cates. For the 20 plus years of my involvement with the roofing industry, I have heard a common lament about the labor shortage in roofing. Advances have been made to attract new workers. ...
