DELONG’S EASES TRANSITION WITH CUSTOMIZED LEADERSHIP TRAINING
DeLong’s, a diversified structural steel fabricator based in Jefferson City is known for producing plate girders for bridges, fabricated structural steel, joists for buildings, and various other products. With a history spanning 70 years, DeLong’s is transitioning to its fourth generation of family ownership. To support this transition, DeLong’s identified a need for customized training focused on enhancing leadership skills specifically for their Team Leads and Supervisors.
The company decided to partner with The LearningForce at State Fair Community College (SFCC) to offer training programs that would develop leadership abilities throughout their workforce. DeLong’s also partnered with Missouri One Start to assist with the cost of the training. The participants covered a vast range of experience levels, with some being new to leadership roles and others possessing over 20 years of supervisory experience. Since January 2024, a dedicated SFCC trainer has been delivering customized training to DeLong’s employees, with topics including time management, management styles, flexibility versus firmness, trust-building, conflict resolution, motivating others, and discipline.
In total, The LearningForce has provided leadership and supervisory training to 37 DeLong’s employees. Of these trainees, 95% report they gained additional knowledge and skills, and 100% found the material useful and the overall quality of the training exceptional. They also note that the customized training positively impacted their patience, time management, communication skills, control over personal and professional life, and ability to positively influence coworkers. However, these weren’t the only impacts of the training.
“The biggest impact I have seen is just an increased comfort level discussing situations that occur in the workplace that are influenced by leadership decisions,” says Ted Wood, DeLong’s Workforce Development Manager. “I believe the training has helped them build a foundation to work off of, given them some confidence, and put them in a place where they are more comfortable talking about different types of leadership skills. This has made them better coaches, empowered them to be more positive, and helped them do their evaluations, counseling, and provide recognition.”
About Missouri One Start:
Missouri One Start is a Division within the Department of Economic Development. Training programs are administered regionally by local education agencies (LEAs). In addition to meeting certain eligibility criteria, companies must be making a capital investment five times greater than the amount of training funds they receive.
