November ARWO Liquid Knowledge Webinar Featured EJ Water on Training and Succession Planning
Bill Teichmiller, CEO of EJ Water in Dietrich, Illinois, and his colleague, Willie Love, who leads training and development at the regional water organization, presented the November ARWO Liquid Knowledge Webinar, “Training and Succession Planning for Resiliency.”
In the presentation, Teichmiller and Love advised other leaders to draw on the strategic plan to identify goals for growth, drafting a growth plan for each employee. EJ Water has encouraged intentional growth by asking employees to prepare a growth plan for the following year. The organization follows up with each employee on a specific timeline to verify implementation and to evaluate progress.
For its leadership development program, EJ Water uses John Maxwell Leadership, a relatively inexpensive method to certify employees in leadership training and coaching. The platform provides access to training materials such as books, master classes, DISC assessments, and training.
It uses the John Maxwell Leadership program to certify its executive team and supervisor-level staff, which Teichmiller said “unifies the language and gets everyone on same page.” The utility also uses John Maxwell Leadership program master classes to train its team, presenting the trainings in two classes, one for leadership-level employees and another for rising leaders.
EJ Water, which seeks employees with growth capacity and a desire to be future leaders, also develops succession plans for positions filled by employees anticipating retirement.
ARWO thanks the sponsor of this webinar, CoBank.
