Highlights: Bauer Built Tire & Service
The Company
Developing Managers Ensures a People-first Approach to Building the Business
It’s people that make the products and deliver the services that allow companies to grow. Bauer Built recognizes this and knows that the commercial drivers and fleet managers they serve trust their family-owned company to provide quality services and products that keep them on the road mile after mile.
They also understand that to ensure their people are efficient, effective, and engaged they need to grow and develop managers who can support the company’s culture and help to meet its goals year after year.
That means leadership and management training—not just for current managers, but for those who are poised to become the company’s next group of supervisors and managers.
Going Strong for Almost Eight Decades with Eight Manufacturing Plants and 35 Service Centers
Founded in 1944, Bauer Built Tire & Service has grown to become one of the largest commercial tire dealers and retread manufacturers in the United States. A family-owned company, Bauer Built was founded by G.F. “Sam” Bauer.
Today, the company has 35 tire and service centers, a wholesale division, six Michelin retread plants, and two rim and wheel reconditioning plants.
Bauer Built has more than 600 employees working in nine states across the Midwest in service centers, petroleum, and administration divisions.
Its management staff was promoted from within. They have a wide range of experience and training related to effective management. They all could benefit from immersion into the best management practices for working effectively with others.
The Challenge
Limited Time to Train Managers on People Skills
Bauer Built is a family-owned company with a strong commitment to service and excellence and great pride in their friendly and knowledgeable staff members.
With their long tenure as a leader in the commercial tire and service business, the company was adept and confident in its ability to provide training on the technical side of the business. But they recognized the need to turn to outside expertise for assistance in training current and future leaders in people skills.
Many frontline leaders were skilled at performing their operational work, but most had no formal training or experience in supervising or managing others. Even little things—like handling disciplinary issues—created challenges and had the potential to result in inconsistencies across departments and locations.
Bauer Built wanted to change behavior—of managers and staff. They wanted:
- Managers to become better leaders so they could work smarter, not harder.
- Staff aligned behind a shared and consistent vision and service excellence culture.
- To make management positions more appealing so more internal candidates would step up to lead as opportunities emerged.
Then they learned about The Leadership Journey.
“With The Leadership Journey, our goal was to make better managers and leaders while changing behavior — mission accomplished!”
Todd Weber, Executive Vice President, Bauer Built Tire & Service
The Leadership Journey™
Real-world Solutions to Apply Practical Skills on the Job
Bauer Built turned to Business Training Experts for a solution. They felt The Leadership Journey was a very applicable and real-world solution to address their needs. It was “the perfect answer” to the challenges they were facing.
They also liked the training model—short bursts over time to help supervisors and managers learn practical skills—and the fact that the training was flexible enough that it could be used by both those with and without management experience.
The Leadership Journey fit the needs of busy store managers who had the opportunity to complete courses at their own pace, at home or at work.
The flexibility of The Leadership Journey allows companies to deploy the training in whatever ways make the most sense for them and their staff. For Bauer Built that meant having participants go through one course a month—requiring only a 30-minute time commitment.
Early each month, they take a course, work on their personal action plans, and apply what they’ve learned on the job before taking the next course the following month.
Course content is practical, not theoretical. It not only helps trainees understand specific leadership and management issues, but also teaches them how to address these issues back on the job.
Students “take away a nugget from the material, develop it, work on it for 30 days, and make a habit of using it.” Action plans help to hold participants accountable to drive behavior change.
The Results
“Fantastic ROI” with Improved Communication, Teamwork, Productivity, and Problem Solving
When Bauer Built first introduced The Leadership Journey to its staff members, the first round of training was so successful that enrollment doubled the next time they offered the program.
Participants included not only store managers and supervisors, but also manufacturing managers, future store managers, and core support staff in administration, finance, HR, accounting, IT, and sales.
The return on investment “has been fantastic,” they say. They point to a number of benefits they’ve achieved since implementing The Leadership Journey:
- Improved communication.
- Better teamwork.
- Better ability to cope in a fast-paced environment.
- More efficient and more effective job performance.
- Improved big-picture thinking.
- Reduced stress.
- Improved ability to create solutions rather than point to problems.
They’ve even experienced an important side benefit from the program: an improved quality of life. Participants—and their direct reports—are better able to deal with the issues they face daily, are more efficient, and have been able to apply what they’ve learned to their personal lives.
For Bauer Built, The Leadership Journey has proven to be a solution that works across all divisions and for current and future managers with a wide range of backgrounds.
“Our return on investment has been fantastic. The Leadership Journey is a strong, solid program that is a very good deal.”
Todd Weber, Executive Vice President, Bauer Built Tire & Service
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