Funding Awarded: $85,000

INDUSTRY PARTNERS:

Southern MN Association of Food and Ethanol employers (SMAFE) members, Ideation Consulting

Key Partners:

South Central Workforce Council, Minnesota Valley Action Council, Enterprise Minnesota

Project Description:

In 11 Southern Minnesota counties, managers from area ethanol and agri-business companies, including Biofuel Energy Corporation, Minnesota Energy, Corn Plus, and Heron Lake BioEnergy, are benefiting from industry-specific leadership development training provided by a local HR consulting agency. This training includes individual coaching sessions, customized leadership planning, and key leadership principles.

Project Outcomes:

• 41 managers from 11 companies participated in Leadership Training, and developed personalized Leadership plans
• 4 part Leadership Development curriculum created

Project Description:

This customized training program was designed with business leaders from the food and ethanol industries in southern Minnesota through the SMAFE organization.

"The group identified leadership development as the number one training need," said SMAFE member and New Ulm based Ideation Consulting owner, Sara Christianson. "SMAFE was designed to find synergies and cost savings in training needs across member organizations. This was an industry-driven project."

The four-modules in the series are:

   1. Organizational leadership: creating a work environment that drives results

   2. Personal leadership: leveraging strengths to maximize success

   3. Managerial leadership: strengthening engagement to ensure top performance

   4. Operational leadership: improving processes to increase productivity

"The leadership training that we're providing is for our leaders to become coaches," explains Heron Lake BioEnergy Human Resources Director, Carol Larson. "In this area of southwestern Minnesota, the background is primarily agriculture and people learn on farms, so coming into a business situation where you need to partner with others on teams doesn't always come naturally to people. The operational side is easier to train for, but soft skills need to be developed."

General Manager of the Heron Lake plant, Bob Ferguson describes additional benefits to the training, "We took a look at what kind of work environment we were creating for our employees and what kind of role model are we setting for our employees. That's the piece that always needs to be cutting edge."

Eric Thomas, a supervisor at a local food company, found the Managerial Leadership module very helpful in his daily relationship with employees. "I learned how to make better decisions and how to really coach my people without micro-managing them. I've gained so much more time now to manage the operations."

Another LD4 participant, Jeni Forcier, said, "I learned that things can change, if you realize everyone's potential. If you work on building someone's potential, instead of focusing on weaknesses, you're going to have a lot more success."