Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy is a global leader in the manufacturing of wind turbines. The company is focused on developing strong leadership throughout its business and wanted to roll out a specific programme for onshore and offshore team leaders.
The operational wind environment can be extremely challenging. Technicians are often working in small, noisy areas within richly diverse teams. Team leaders need specific skills to manage and lead personnel in this unique environment.
SGRE awarded the project to 3t.
The Challenge
The programme needed to cover a wide range of topics, including how to motivate teams, how to handle conflict resolution, and how to deal with employees from different backgrounds and cultures.
An added challenge was that it needed to be completed within a strict one-day timeframe.
The Solution
We developed a bespoke ‘Effective Leaders in a Turbine Environment’ (ELITE) programme that was wholly tailored to SGRE onshore and offshore team leaders.
To maximise the learning time available, we devised an eLearning course covering theoretical elements of leadership to be completed prior to a one-day in-person training session.
Pre-learning leadership theory meant that the one-day, in-person training session could be entirely focused on practical learning to enhance understanding and increase retention of knowledge.
The in-person training was heavily scenario-based and tailored to situations commonly faced by team leaders in the field to maximise effectiveness. It is also grounded in the language and behaviours seen in the field to resonate with the course delegates.
Our unique approach incorporated actors to role-play personnel with different personality types from diverse backgrounds. Delegates were encouraged to interact and participate at different points to build confidence until ready to step into role-playing situations.
As well as building individual confidence and leadership know-how, this meant everyone could learn from the experiences of others and discuss and share best practices.
Currently, we are collating feedback from the workplace to support the long-term development of the programme.
The Result
The ELITE programme has been extremely well-received with overwhelmingly positive delegate feedback – achieving a 92% approval score.
The impact of the programme has been so successful that SGRE is now looking to roll it out company-wide.