Do you have any family recipes? Maybe, like Mom-Mom’s cheesecake, the recipe needs no perfecting. But even if a recipe has been handed down through the generations, you may find a way to add your own flourish. Sometimes, as we learn new information about ingredients and techniques, we may even improve upon it. 

This month in “The Making of an Everyday Leader,” Katie Kuehner-Hebert shops for a few of the different “ingredients” some firms have mixed together to make a great leader. How would you tweak their recipes to fit your own company? The story is on page 22. 

Susan DeGrane dives into a bit of history, teaching us about the tragic fire at Our Lady of Angels Catholic School in Chicago and how the attitudes and techniques of fire prevention shifted across the country as a result. We can learn a lot from the tragedies of the past to save more lives now and in the future. “The Fire That Changed Prevention” is on page 34.

Back in the present, Susan talked with leaders in the industry about finding the balance between medical and recreational marijuana use and maintaining a safe, drug-free workplace. Read “Legal Dance With Mary Jane” on page 42.

We sometimes talk about the ins and out of hiring digital natives in these pages, and this issue looks at the advantages playing video games could bring to the next generation of electrical workers. In “A Digital League of Their Own,” Jared Christman considers how today’s young gamers could be tomorrow’s BIM and VDC experts. Read it on page 50.

Finally, we take a look at battery energy storage in Nevada. BEI Construction Inc. helped construct a utility-scale energy storage facility out in Nevada, giving renewable energy one more boost in that region. “A Revolution in Renewables” by Susan Bloom is on page 62.

Thanks to everyone who filled out this year’s Profile of the Electrical Contractor Survey. Look for the results in the upcoming July and August issues of ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR.