Leadership Development Programme – for all colleagues of Vilniaus Duona without exception

Leadership improvement training is periodically held at Vilniaus Duona. They are not only for managers – for all colleagues, no matter what their position is in the company.

"What is the importance of cultivating a culture of leadership? In it, each employee feels empowered in his or her field, and everyone speaks a common language, has a unified understanding and strategy on how we achieve our goals," says Jūratė Kudabaitė-Staškevičienė, HR Manager at Vilniaus Duona.

Includes 21 leadership tools

The training provides employees with knowledge of good practices and leadership tools that help them recognize situations and apply one or another method that suits them. The entire leadership tool program consists of 21 leadership tools: 9 for all employees of the company, and 12 additional ones for managers.

"Although they are primarily dedicated to work, they facilitate decisions in many everyday situations in their personal lives, because they have versatility in them. I hear how colleagues are already automatically using them, for example, when an unconstructive discussion in a meeting is delayed, they say "let's go back to the control wheel". That is, we return to those things that we can control and influence," says Jūratė, one of the internal trainers of the leadership training program.

Here are some of the leadership tools used in the Lantmännen Unibake Leadership Tools Program:

The "Control Wheel" is designed for self-control. Let's say a traffic jam and everything is nervous. Can I overtake him – i.e. do something now, or maybe plan to leave at a different time next time? If I can't change the situation itself, what can I do? I can accept the current circumstances, not waste my energy and not spoil the mood of being in a traffic jam. After all, I can change my attitude to the situation. For example: to relax and listen to an interesting show or favorite song?

"Cathedral builder" – includes the perception of what we are doing, what is the meaning of it. When a person understands for what – even routine, simple work becomes meaningful.

"Root cause thinking" helps you consistently dig into the real cause of the problem and root it out instead of treating repetitive consequences or a false problem.

"Green – Black Trail" – helps to understand how our thoughts, feelings and actions interact to determine the final result. Because what we think determines how we feel and influences our actions. As a result, we get one result or another, whether we achieve our goals or not. After the training, we easily recognize colleagues who are on the "green" or "black" path and can provide feedback and support to those who find themselves on the "black trail". And to help return to the "green path" in pursuit of a common goal.

Hired to become in-house coaches

We have been implementing this programme in Lithuania since 2017. Some employees are only getting acquainted with leadership tools this year, while others are already participating in additional training modules.

Every year, colleagues working in different countries and functions of Lantmännen Unibake are nominated to be internal trainers. Then they learn (live and remotely), improve by sharing good practices and join the ranks of our internal community of coaches. It is gratifying that the old internal coaches Artūras Kokoškinas, Jūratė Kudabaitė-Staškevičienė and Marius Juška were joined by new internal coaches last year. They are Aurimas Matikonis, Jurga Staniukėnienė and Dalia Zdanovičienė.

The vast majority of employees have already participated in the training, new colleagues, bakery employees are also constantly connected to the training and actively participate.

Leadership culture involves every employee "It is good to refresh yourself after another year, because otherwise you will forget, and by sharing practical situations with colleagues, you discover new insights. We aim to introduce 100% of our colleagues to the first 9 leadership tools. All our employees, and Lantmännen Unibake brings together more than 6000 of them, are leaders and each of them contributes to a common goal. Everyone's contribution is important, even if the roles are different – applying the knowledge provided by our leadership program makes it easier to contribute," concludes Jūratė.