Funding Awarded: $60,000

INDUSTRY PARTNERS:

MTM Performance Solutions, BioFuel Energy, So MN Beet Sugar Cooperative and Ace Ethanol, LLC

Key Partners:

MN West Community & Technical College, SW MN Private Industry Council, MN Department of Employment & Economic Development

Project Summary:

Managers at local renewable energy companies, along with Supervisors and Team Leaders participated in leadership training from a Willmar-based management and organizational development consulting company in coordination with the local community college. The companies will benefit from the leadership assessments and training/coaching processes, which were developed individually for each company, as they hire and promote future supervisors.

Project Outcomes:

• 55 supervisors, team leaders, and managers trained

• 58 assessments completed to date, used to customize training to each individual company

Project Description:

In most renewable energy businesses, people are hired for their technical skills and promoted as they gain more expertise. This project added coaching skills and leadership principles to help technical leaders work more effectively with employees.

"We focused on seven key principles of leadership and applied these over 4-5 months using e-learning and small group follow-up training sessions to apply the principles, in addition to one-on-one coaching and reinforcement by internal local leaders," said Tracy Mullin, President of MTM Performance Solutions in Willmar. "The learning starts to anchor when they apply the principles to many different situations."

During her work with Ace Ethanol, BioFuel Energy and the Southern MN Beet Cooperative, Mullin helped Managers in the businesses:

• Use an assessment tool to understand their current Supervisors, Team Leaders and Operators in order to coach them to higher levels of productivity and performance and
• To establish a Success Profile for each position that can be used for more effective employee selection for future open Supervisor/Team Leader and Operations positions. Employers can then use Success Patterns in establishing career pathways for these jobs to help choose people that match workers who are already high performers in these roles.

These strategies all contribute to better employee retention. Better coaching skills help supervisors improve how they work with their employees and to develop them the next level. The tools also help put people in positions where there is the highest likelihood for success.