Chuck Lane Reflects on Learning & Development

Training has always been my passion. I believe a career journey requires a combination of skill sets, mindset, and willingness to take risks. In my case, it started with finding my passion. I never had the luxury of being one of those people who knew they wanted to be in a certain role. I just wanted to find the crossover of doing what I enjoyed and finding a good organization who needed those skills.

Chuck Lane

I have spent most of my career in a cycle of learning, doing, and then teaching skills to others. I often tell my colleagues I am at my professional best when I am helping others to learn and achieve. As an instructor, speaker, and leader I have always loved watching the moment someone discovers they’ve learned something of personal or professional benefit to them. As I reflect on my career so far, I have to acknowledge any of what I have achieved that can be called “success” is due to three critical elements: tenacity, passion, and relationships. Each has played their own role but are all equally important.

Tenacity, because I sought out opportunities to learn new things, take on new responsibilities, and work on cross-functional projects. I also took advantage of training and development programs offered by the company and invested in my education outside of work. Essentially, if I didn’t know how to do it, but wanted to learn, I went and figured it out. Fail has never been a word to me. It is an acronym which stands for First Attempt In Learning. I viewed every challenge as an opportunity to learn and grow, and I was not afraid to take on new and unfamiliar tasks. When I encountered setbacks or failures, I used them as opportunities to reflect, learn, and improve.

Passion, because I recognized to succeed, you must care about your mission. I also needed to have a mindset of ownership (I attribute much of my attitude as a leader to the works of Jocko Willink), a willingness to take risks, and an openness to feedback. I often tell people, don’t find your career or job by looking for a title, find something you enjoy doing most days. My passion is helping others achieve their goals, and I get to do this most days.

Lastly, relationships are a critical part of success. Form them early, ask for help, be authentic, and be vulnerable. Ego builds walls, destroys relationships and can be one of the greatest barriers to success and growth. Never burn bridges and never believe you alone have all the answers. I have learned so much from so many people once I was able to set my ego aside. Simply put, if you want to lead and succeed, form meaningful relationships, and seek to understand others.

The Future of BluSky

As BluSky continues to experience rapid growth, our focus is not only on developing a strong national workforce who can perform excellent work for our customers but developing the future leaders of this industry. To do this effectively, we have implemented multiple programs across the organization to support every level.

Some examples of this include:

  • a dedicated, role-specific onboarding program which involves a 90-day peer mentoring program for key roles
  • initial and ongoing live and virtual training sessions
  • implementation of a new learning management system which will house a library of over 1,000 courses for self-paced employee development
  • a renewed focus on advanced employee certifications through organizations such as the IICRC, RIA, and more

We are also developing a robust leadership development program which is being masterfully implemented by my colleague, Simone Kelly, our Vice President of Leadership Development. As we weave these programs together, we are creating true career development pathways for employees within the organization. BluSky has a strong commitment to empowering employees to take charge of their careers and achieve their goals. Our focus within the Learning and Development team is to give employees the opportunities and resources to realize those goals. Our mission is to develop employees who continuously strive to be their best, achieve their best, and are prepared for the challenges of tomorrow.

We are building a culture of learning that doesn’t ask “What now?” it asks, “What’s next?”


Chuck Lane

Vice President of Learning and Development

Chuck spent over a decade in healthcare and emergency management before joining the restoration industry in 2019 as part of the SRP team as the Director of Training and Education. He then began managing all organizational learning initiatives after the merger of SRP with BluSky in 2020. Chuck has driven many successful initiatives over the past three years at BluSky, including developing and implementing the organizational-wide learning and development program, including a multi-role new hire onboarding and mentoring initiative, and a new learning management system to further enhance career growth for all employees.

Chuck Lane

Vice President of Learning and Development
chuck lane headshoot