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Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)

Servant Leadership Training Leads to Happier Employees and Customers

With the help of: FloridaMakes

About

JELD-WEN, Inc., is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of reliable windows and doors with 245 employees located in Venice, Florida. Their extensive product offering encompasses windows, exterior doors, interior doors and related building products that are sold globally through multiple distribution channels, including retail home centers, wholesale distributors and building products dealers.

The Challenge

Servant leadership training teaches a leadership approach that focuses on creating an environment in which associates can thrive as a team while maximizing job enrichment and satisfaction, and as a result, achieve the highest levels of productivity and customer service. This is accomplished when servant leaders put service to others above their personal goals and priorities.  A strong believer in taking care of and listening to their employees, JELD-WEN has a written, very specific code of conduct and expectations they call simply “The Code.” JELD -WEN turned to the Sarasota-Manatee Manufacturers Association (SAMA), part of the FloridaMakes Network and the MEP National Network™, for training in servant leadership. 
We partnered with FloridaMakes for servant leadership training. The purpose of the training was to help give all leaders better tools to use in their day-to-day work as well as the tools to help them build relationships with all team members across the organization. Leadership is a privilege, and we want all our leaders to understand the main goal is to serve. If we are listening, removing obstacles and providing resources to our team members, they can be set up for success. The FloridaMakes team did a great job of facilitating fun and educational sessions to our leaders and the sessions were filled with tools they could immediately implement and use not only here at work, but with their friends and family outside of work. Slow to speak and quick to listen goes a long way, regardless of where you are. The training has helped our team become closer and helped our JELD-WEN family continue to grow.
— Mike Curtner, Plant Manager

MEP's Role

JELD-WEN determined that the servant leadership approach supported the tenants of their company code, which includes an expectation that managers keep communications open by encouraging associates to speak up and to show respect. It also supported the company’s values. Servant leadership is practiced in some of the top-ranking companies with those companies highly regarded and followed because of their leadership style. To ensure that their employees embrace the company’s values and code of conduct, Jeld-Wen invested in their leadership by inviting all of their senior leaders, group leaders, and team leaders to participate in 2 full days of servant leadership training. The training included lectures, videos, role playing, group discussions and pre- and post-training quizzes.

Created January 9, 2024