One of the largest investments GUC has ever made in its employees is underway. The leadership training program developed at the end of 2021 (and delayed due to the pandemic) is finally here.  

This new management and leadership development program addresses the overall development of supervisors. This includes classes for all leaders, with specialty “tracks” of classes based on the level each leader is within GUC. Employees who are not in official leadership positions will also have a class on how to lead from where they are.  

GUC has hired the Center for Leadership Studies (CLS) to develop and conduct the training along with E-Learning Instructional Designer/Trainer Carrie Peed and Safety Culture Specialist Kelly Smith. This will be an ongoing program that requires a significant financial commitment by GUC and a large investment of time from our employees. 

“We always talk about how our employees are our most important asset,” said General Manager / CEO Tony Cannon. “We invest in their safety, we invest in their future in retirement, and it just makes sense that we would invest to help them develop and reach their full potential at GUC. They are worth it.”  

Training started on March 21st with the Management Team. Superintendents, Managers, and other leaders will begin the “Advanced Leadership” classes in April. Supervisors and Crew Leaders will start the “Fundamentals of Leadership” in June. Employees who are not in direct supervision roles will begin “Leading for Team Members” in July and will have additional classes available as electives. Even though these employees do not lead others from an organizational level, it’s important to remember that we all can lead and influence others around us.  

“Classes and curriculum are based on the Situational Leadership model,” said Carrie. “GUC used to require leaders to take classes based on Situational Self Leadership years ago but moved away from that as we focused on other things like safety and customer service. We’ve come to realize, however, that with so many people retiring or eligible to retire and so many new people coming on board, we really needed to make this training a continuing priority.  

“Each group will receive similar training so that we are all speaking the same leadership language but will have different components to help us each in our current positions. This should help us on an individual level and help GUC to be better as an organization.”  

When developing the curriculum, CLS partnered with DEKRA (the company who helped GUC develop the Corporate Safety Initiative and processes like Lighthouse and SafeAlign) to ensure that the leadership classes will help make our safety programs more effective.  

Admins will register you for the workshops in Learn, so keep an eye out for emails and postcards for more information.