ESCANABA — Delta Force students met for Community Leadership Day on Thursday, March 2 to learn from professional trainers in the Delta County community on how to hone their communication and leadership skills.

Community Leadership Day, the first session of this year’s Delta Force Class, was held at the Delta County Commerce Center. The day started with breakfast and a dynamic presentation by BDD Training Associates.

Leadership skill-building with BDD Training Associates

Owned by Steve Buckbee, Dan Doyle and Michael Dupont, BDD Training Associates coaches people on how to deal with the process of change, including how chaos can lead to transformation.

“Leaders should put their energy into consistency,” Dupont said,” If you keep changing things, chaos ensues.” This led to a discussion about effective leadership strategies, and successful communication techniques.

During this discussion, the trainers shared a quote from Virginia Satir with the students: “Once a human being has arrived on this earth, communication is the largest single factor determining what kinds of relationships she or he makes with others and what happens to each in the world.”

They also stressed the old adage that many of our choices, when selected carefully, can lead to personal transformation, but you must practice new skills in order to master them. “Learning has to be integrated; in order to become proficient in something, practice is required.”

The students asked questions, offered ideas, and solved a puzzle requiring them to challenge their typical way of thinking about a problem.

In the end of the BDD presentation, Buckbee closed with: “In the long run, the thing that matters most is our ability to love, and how we take care of each other. You have to start with yourself.”

Students then enjoyed lunch at made by Rick Micheau of Grab and Go, networked, and shared stories with one another.

DiSC Behavioral Style Assessments with Coaching For Results

Prior to Thursday’s session, the Delta Force students had each taken the DiSC Assessment, which gave them a letter corresponding to their behavioral type: D=Dominant, i=Influence, S=Steadiness, and C=Conscientiousness.

Sue Roll, owner/facilitator with Coaching For Results, was the next presenter. She had already gathered the students’ responses and provided each student with personalized DiSC Workplace Profile reports describing the strengths and weaknesses of their specific behavioral style, and tools in dealing with each different style.

She explained that when we are in a leadership role, it is extremely beneficial to learn how to best motivate our team to be better employees. “By understanding how people with different behavior styles are motivated and what challenges them, we can really thrive, especially when working in a team environment.”

Roll then answered students’ questions and gave examples of scenarios in which each behavioral style can thrive and use their traits to their advantage. Students discussed the challenges they have at work — corresponding to their different behavioral styles — and learned how they can use their newfound knowledge to their advantage in both a leadership role and as a team member.

Impressed with the intellectual curiosity of the Delta Force students, Roll said, “I love how people are willing to step up and involve themselves in the community and learn about their roles. They are open to filling their knowledge buckets so that they can grow in their professional lives.”

Students found the BDD presentation and the DiSC behavioral assessment – along with the subsequent discussions – extremely valuable.

“This Delta Force session was very insightful,” Delta Force student Kimberly Maloney said. “We re-learned many things that we already knew, but we heard them in a different way and re-organized them in a way that made the information much more accessible.”

Another Delta Force student, Heidi Haeusler, said, “The most helpful things that I learned are how to recognize people’s different behavioral styles and how to effectively work with them. Overall, the class provided me with more self-awareness and insight to help improve operations and teamwork that I will apply at my business.”

Roll concluded that working with people’s behavioral styles can sometimes be a challenge, but understanding others’ strengths and weaknesses is key to being an effective leader. “Leadership is a constant learning process,” she said. “But if you learn to effectively align people’s behavioral styles and preferences with the needs of the team, and communicate well with appropriate feedback, you can ultimately inspire your team to work better together.”

Next, on Education Day, the Delta Force students will learn about the complexities educators face.

The objective of Delta Force is to acquaint future leaders with community issues, resources and opportunities; increase the leadership skills of participants; provide participants with opportunities to network with each other and community leaders; assist them in finding volunteer roles in the community; and encourage graduates to continue their involvement by participating in community service programs.

Created and facilitated by the Delta County Chamber of Commerce, Delta Force encompasses a series of ten full-day sessions covering areas such as media and communications, education, leadership, health and community services, law and order, government, and other segments.

Sessions are designed to be highly interactive and thought-provoking. Visit HYPERLINK “http://www.deltami.org/delta-force-leadership-program” www.deltami.org/delta-force-leadership-program for more information about Delta Force. Victoria LaFave works with the Delta County Chamber of Commerce.

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Victoria LaFave is with the Delta County Chamber of Commerce