AIDT building ‘effective leaders’

Published 8:47 am Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Nine.

That’s the number of jobs an average 30-year-old has had by his or her 30th birthday. The reason that number is so high is actually quite simple, according to Kendall Haywood, a leadership development manager for Alabama Industrial Development Training (AIDT).

“Bad bosses,” she said. “The No. 1 reason people leave their job is because of issues with a supervisor.”

On Tuesday, Haywood was in Greenville to provide leadership training to 18 employees from Hwashin America, Coastal Forest Products and Connector Manufacturing Company. The training session is the first of three AIDT seminars scheduled by the Butler County Commission for Economic Development.

At the completion of the day-and-half-long training session, the participants will take a test. If they pass, they will receive Level I leadership certification.

“The main thing we want to accomplish is to help the participants become effective leaders,” Haywood said. “What often happens is someone is really good at what they do. For example, maybe someone is the best widget maker in the company, and so they get promoted to a supervisor position. But now they aren’t making widgets anymore, they are dealing with people, and maybe they aren’t equipped for that. The goal of these classes is to equip those people to lead and to lead effectively.”

According to Ricky McLaney, executive director of the Butler County Commission for Economic Development, the demand for the classes is so great that the BCCED has already scheduled two more sessions for October and December.

“We’ve had a lot of interest, particuarly from Hwashin,” McLaney said. “They have brought a lot of new people on board and they want them to get this training. Personally, I think that’s a great idea. This is one of the great services that our state provides for new industries coming into Alabama and also existing industries.”

The mission of AIDT is to provide quality workforce development for Alabama’s new and expanding businesses, and to expand the opportunities of its citizens through the jobs these businesses create.

AIDT, an institution of the Alabama Community College System, encourages economic development through job-specific training. Training services are offered in many areas, at no cost, to new and expanding businesses throughout the State.