The Challenge: Create an open and productive leadership culture.

The Solution: Design and implement training process that was delivered to over 600 leaders worldwide.

The Results: Turnover has been reduced and retention has improved. Improvements in worker satisfaction were also significant as well as the creation of a new corporate culture in which openness and honesty flourish.

Try saying “building materials leader builds better leaders,” quickly three times! It’s a tongue-twister! Fortunately, building better leaders at CertainTeed Corporation is based on verbal communication that’s not quite so difficult to maneuver.

CertainTeed, a subsidiary of French industrial giant Saint-Gobain, makes building materials for both commercial and residential construction. It is headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and has more than 7,000 employees and 45 manufacturing facilities throughout the United States.

Long ranked as one of the best in the building industry, CertainTeed also deserves kudos for its work in developing the potential of its people. A recent initiative is designed to help employees develop self-reliance while boosting the ability of their leaders to identify employee needs and reinforce strengths.

Two years ago, Barbara Giacomuzzi of The Ken Blanchard Companies, partnered with Bob Cole, Human Resource Director for CertainTeed’s Siding and Window Products Groups, to introduce its leaders and supervisors to a new way of managing people and developing in-house talent. The approach is based on The Ken Blanchard Companies’ organizational leadership model, Situational Leadership II (SLII).

“I’ve seen a lot of leadership models, and I find this one to be the most practical and useful tool that builds truly good leaders,” says Cole. What makes the SLII Model so effective, according to Cole, is that it offers a framework from which to develop employees on a task-by-task basis. The model is taught in a two-day workshop, where people in leadership and supervisory roles learn how to diagnose the development level of their employees by task or goal, then determine which leadership style would best match their employees’ needs for direction and support.

The SLII Model identifies four levels of employee development—D1, D2, D3, and D4—along with four matching leadership styles—S1, S2, S3, and S4.

Overhearing, “I may be a D2 in plant safety, but I’m a D4 when it comes to employee compensation,” would cause most individuals to conclude that people at CertainTeed speak an unfamiliar dialect. But it all makes perfect sense to those who have learned the “common language” of SLII—a language that has become integrated into the company’s culture.

Employees often converse in “SLII-speak” during lunch, in the hallways, in meetings, and even off-site. Chuck Campbell, President of CertainTeed’s Siding Products Group tells the story of how one employee-after playing a baseball game at a recent company picnic-jokingly announced, “I’m a D1 in right field.”

Learning the language is an inherent part of understanding the SLII Model, which identifies four levels of employee development along with four matching leadership styles.

For instance, employees diagnosed as Development Level 1 (D1) are “enthusiastic beginners” who have a low amount of competence relative to goals, task knowledge, and skills, but are highly motivated and committed to performing a specific task or meeting a goal. D1 employees require a Style 1 (S1), or “directing” leadership style, which provides a high amount of direction and low support.

Likewise, D2 employees are “disillusioned learners” and have developed some competence but have low commitment to accomplishing a specific task or goal. They need a Style 2 (S2), or “coaching” leader, who offers a high amount of both direction and support. D3 employees are “capable, but cautious, performers” and lack the confidence they need to achieve a given task or goal, so they need a Style 3 (S3), or a “supporting” style of leadership, which offers a high level of support and a low level of direction.

Finally, D4 employees are identified as “self-reliant achievers” in a specific task or goal. They are highly committed and competent to complete the task or goal at hand and need a Style 4 (S4), or a “delegating” leadership style, that provides low support and low direction.

When Situational Leadership II was introduced at CertainTeed, senior executives were the first to attend the workshop so they could model and reinforce SLII behaviors. Approximately 700 employees have since completed the program.

Before attending the workshop, CertainTeed’s leaders self-assess their leadership behavior and style by completing a Leader Action Profile (LAP) assessment. They ask up to seven of their direct reports to evaluate their leadership behaviors and style by completing an LAP assessment on their leader. Not surprisingly, Cole says the results often show large differences in perceptions between managers and their staff.

Being that the SLII Model is also tied into the group’s performance appraisal process, all employees have the opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness and appropriateness of their manager’s leadership behaviors and style.

“It’s a big deal for someone to tell the boss that he or she is not doing a good job in a certain area,’” says Campbell. “The language used in the SLII Model has made it less threatening for individuals to tell their boss that they need more or less support or direction with a particular task. It’s no longer seen as a potential weakness that could result in a negative action.”

Campbell adds that managers often assume that highperforming employees will always deliver the same quality work regardless of the task they’re assigned. But that’s not always the case.

Instead of evaluating employees’ capabilities from an overall perspective, he says it’s better to recognize their developmental needs according to specific projects. That’s why during annual performance planning at CertainTeed, each employee’s current development level, as related to specific tasks or objectives, is clearly identified along with the appropriate leadership style the manager needs to provide for that development level.

While the SLII Model is being credited for reducing employee turnover and boosting improvements in worker satisfaction, the company is gathering hard data to support this claim. CertainTeed recently distributed Leader Action Profile (LAP) post-assessments to 360 employees who had completed the SLII workshop and the LAP pre-assessment six months ago.

Meanwhile, training and development on the SLII Model continues not only for CertainTeed leaders but also for nonmanagement individuals who are attending Situational Self Leadership (SSL) workshops. Team leaders and members are also learning to maximize their teams’ potential through the Building High Performing Teams program.

These SLII Model-based offerings marry its commonly shared language and approach to leadership and develops a culture committed to both employee and organizational growth.

“We’re creating a culture and environment where people can feel comfortable being open,” says Campbell. “The SLII Model has helped us implement the kind of employee development initiatives we’ve always wanted to offer.”

With sales that exceed $2 billion and an employee development program that assures solid leadership for the future, CertainTeed continues to shine as one of the building industry’s brightest stars!