Carol Johnson, Southern Indiana Business Report
BEDFORD – Lawrence County is revitalizing investment in the workforce by offering a specialized leadership development program for supervisors who work in manufacturing.
Leadership by Design, an enterprise of Indiana Wesleyan University, is leading a six-month leadership development curriculum at StoneGate Arts & Education Center.
Once a month, Jason Wisley, Elvis Mattingly and Justin Baker, supervisors from Heidelberg Materials in Mitchell, and Dan Blocker and Bryan Thacker, shift supervisors at Stone City Products in Bedford, gather at StoneGate for a class session with Jillian Gilbert, director of the Leadership by Design Center at IWU.
The course has covered topics such as handling conflict as well as identifying leadership styles and what makes an effective leader. The men are comfortable in their roles but all said they signed up because they wanted to learn more about how they might improve their leadership.
“I want to be better at my job,” Blocker said of why he joined the course. “I asked for more training on how to be a supervisor and learn how to lead.”
Navigating the change from hourly employee to salaried supervisor is an adjustment. The move from “buddy to boss” can affect friendships and, as supervisors, the responsibilities are greater. Leadership by Design provides a place to discuss the change in roles.
Stone City Products is a precision metal stamping company with about 130 employees. Blocker is shift manager on SCP’s day shift and oversees a crew of about 50 employees.
Thacker is a second shift supervisor of about 30 employees. He said most of the employees he works with know their jobs and do their jobs well.
“You mentor more than you supervise,” Thacker said. “In manufacturing, a lot of them don’t have family or friends, they need someone to talk to.”
Stewart Rariden, SCP owner and president, said providing leadership training locally to manufacturing supervisors used to be standard practice about 30 years ago. Over time, the training went by the wayside.
For that reason, Rariden was pleased when he learned StoneGate and IWU teamed up to bring leadership development to Lawrence County.
“This is something that’s been missing for a long time,” he said.
Stone City Products operates three shifts, seven days a week. Having qualified, experienced supervisors is important for production efficiency and employee satisfaction. Rariden acknowledged employees can be reluctant to accept supervisory roles.
“It’s Important to us to promote from within,” Rariden said. “I’d much rather take an existing employee doing well, move them up and give them additional responsibilities rather than hiring from outside. But with that we’ve got to be able to equip our new supervisors properly and support them.”
The class represents a shift toward StoneGate becoming a workforce development hub.
“Being able to bring Indiana Wesleyan University to provide training to local businesses and manufacturers so they can get reasonably priced training for their employees without sending them to Chicago or Louisville is a blessing to them,” said Linda Henderson, executive director of StoneGate. “Anything we can do at StoneGate to support the business community, we want to be that friend to business and economic development.”
Developing leaders from local workforce
As the name implies, Leadership by Design is tailored to fit specific needs. Gilbert said StoneGate, Heidelberg and Stone City Products reached out to Leadership by Design out of a desire to make an investment in the local workforce.
“The thought was if StoneGate could support leadership development and make it available to anyone in the county, it would be a way to invest back into the cities and the community in a tangible way,” Gilbert said.
The sessions are interactive; employers can also opt for one-on-one professional coaching.
“We crafted a unique series for them. Leadership by Design can customize programs for a day or six months. Specifically with Heidelberg and Stone City Products, they have a need to develop their own supervisors and they wanted it in-person,” she said.
Topics covered include:
- Developing Leadership Habits
- Emotional Intelligence
- Understanding Your Leadership World View
- Building Trust
- Conflict Competence
- Giving and Receiving Feedback
“They are challenged to assess their leadership approach and then reflect on the impact of their approach on their relationships in the workplace. ” Gilbert said.
Heidelberg Materials
Jason Wisley and Elvis Mattingly were both hourly employees at Heidelberg Materials for about 10 years before they accepted new roles as supervisors about a year ago.
Wisley is a quarry supervisor and Mattingly is a maintenance supervisor.
Mattingly had some reservations about moving into supervision, but after some time in the new role, he’s happy with the decision. As a new supervisor, learning about leadership in the IWU class has been beneficial.
“Having the tools and knowing how to use them has been one of the biggest takeaways,” Mattingly said.
“I would recommend any new supervisor or even if you’ve been a supervisor for years to take this class. You learn quite a bit about yourself,” said Wisley.
Providing growth opportunities was Heidelberg’s motivation for making the class available to employees.
“At Heidelberg Materials, we believe that development is for everyone – at every level. In Mitchell, we’ve been working to strengthen our approach to personal and professional growth by identifying meaningful training opportunities that support both employees and future leaders, said Kendra Lankford, senior human resources manager at Heidelberg Materials. “One area we recognized as a gap was the transition from hourly roles to salaried supervisory positions. We weren’t looking for a business-heavy course – we needed something that focused on the people side of leadership. Indiana Wesleyan’s Leadership by Design program has been a great fit and StoneGate Arts Center has been an amazing host for these classes.”
Lankford said classes like Leadership by Design have helped the cement plant equip emerging leaders with the interpersonal skills to succeed in supervisory roles.
“Over the past few years, we’ve proudly promoted eight hourly union employees into front-line leadership positions across multiple departments,” she said. “These internal promotions have allowed us to retain valuable experience and talent while continuing to grow as a plant and as a company.”
Leadership by Design makes an important distinction between development and training.
“Leadership is a development proposition and in the long run, development will build more sustainable leaders than if you tell them what to do and train them,” Gilbert said.
The current session wraps up in November. The second cohort will begin in spring 2026 at StoneGate.