NAES leadership investment powers long-term success – Combined Cycle Journal

NAES leadership investment powers long-term success

Developed by and conducted for employees of NAES Corp to ensure the company’s ongoing success

Academy team leader: Alan Bull, VP, O&M services 

Challenge. In evaluating its success in becoming the largest provider of third-party energy services, NAES Corp recognized that its success is based largely on the leadership demonstrated by its employees at all levels. To ensure the company’s ongoing success, continue to provide best-in-class performance, and prepare for the natural course of growth and succession, NAES executives recognized the need for ongoing training of current leaders, as well as leadership development training for those aspiring to become leaders. 

Solution. The company assembled a team of employees who were passionate about leadership to develop and establish the NAES Leadership Academy. With a mission of “Growing leaders today to meet the challenges of tomorrow,” the team began offering a leadership development program in April 2019 that has included the following components: 

  • Monthly webinars featuring internal and external speakers providing training on leadership topics—a program now in its sixth year.
  • Online cohort classes with computer-based material and periodic group discussions for first-time leaders, experienced leaders, and those aspiring to be leaders.
  • Cohort book-study classes where participants progress together through a leadership book over several weeks and have online discussions around questions and ideas.
  • Recommendations for books and outside training courses. These are reviewed by the Academy leadership to ensure proper content and quality.
  • Promoting additional articles and publications covering leadership development topics.

Results. Since its inception five years ago, the NAES Leadership Academy has provided hundreds of hours of leadership training, resulting in improved skills for employees at every level of the company and helping to prepare aspiring leaders for advancement and success. This training has included the following: 

  • More than 60 monthly webinars, each attended by between 150 and 350 employees from the NAES plant fleet, corporate team, and subsidiary companies. Every webinar is then published on the NAES website for future reference.
  • Dozens of third-party leadership development classes, each targeting specific leadership skills. These classes have been attended by more than 100 employees,
  • Eleven cohort classes, each attended by 15 to 25 employees, discussing leadership books focused on leadership essentials, first-time manager training, and experienced-leader training. 
  • Support for HR, upon request, with recommendations of targeted classes and materials to address the department’s specific training needs.
  • Providing keynote speakers for NAES conferences who focus on leadership skills development. 

In addition, the feedback from senior leadership and employees has been overwhelmingly positive and has resulted in stronger cultures and improved retention within NAES’ corporate team and its plant sites. 

According to Charlie Hoock, NAES’ president of energy services, “The Leadership Academy is an important way in which NAES invests and develops its employees, thereby enhancing the level of service we can provide to our clients. By developing our leaders, we are enabling our future as well as the future of our people.” 

Employee testimonials included these: 

  • “I thought today’s Leadership Academy session was one of the best and most practical with great ideas easily applied. It might be interesting to invite this speaker back for another talk; I thought he was phenomenal.”
  • “Thank you for this webinar. It has been a topic that I have struggled with for some time.”
  • “I thoroughly enjoyed the webinar. I put the act of expressing gratitude into action almost immediately. It has been very well received and seems to be contagious. The focus on the positive has definitely left me feeling very optimistic.”
  • “I wanted to share how grateful I am to have participated in the webinar on burnout. I truly enjoyed it and learned from it. Thank you for offering this opportunity. I look forward to attending future webinars.”
  • “I have been participating in the presentations for years now and have sincerely enjoyed them, but today’s session was EXCELLENT!”
  • “I did things a bit differently today; typically, we watch the presentations ‘alone’ in our respective offices, but today I put it up on the big screen and we watched together. I’m glad that I did. The presentation was on-point, and we were able to discuss and share as our own small team. We moved a little closer on our path toward perfection today.”
  • “Thank you for bringing these and other presentations to the team as we continue to grow in our leadership roles.”
  • “I enjoyed the team meeting calls after each lesson. Since I’m relatively new to a leadership role, it was extremely helpful for me to listen to the thought process and ideas of others on how to handle different situations.”
  • “Not only did I find the First Time Manager cohort informative and relevant to the experiences I was encountering as a first-time manager, but it also was quite enjoyable. The content of each week’s tracks, combined with the shared insights from the other members of the group, was educational and entertaining. The facilitators were excellent. I highly recommend this cohort to others as they begin their management journey.”
  • “The First Time Manager’s course was very engaging, and the timeline and the content fit well with my workload. I found that the most rewarding aspects of the course were the discussions that occurred among all of the other first-time manager attendees; it was great to listen to my peers and hear perspectives that I wouldn’t normally have access to.”
  • “I really enjoyed the First Time Leadership journey. It provided tools and ideas that I was able to immediately use with my team. I have been telling just about everyone just how good, fun, and beneficial this was. Thank you so much for doing this.”
  • “I thought this was a very good course and thankful NAES provided it. The facilitators did a great job coordinating the training. I hope NAES continues this effort.

Project participants:

Alan Bull, VP, O&M services, Leadership Academy team lead
Eric Woods, operations director
Vanessa Castillon, HR business partner
Sean Thompson, supervisor, NERC services
Jeremy Sylvain, maintenance supervisor, ENMAX Cavalier Facility
Jason Hixson, plant manager, Victoria Power 

 

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