Illinois Agricultural Leadership Program Participants Complete
Communication Excellence Seminar
The Illinois Agricultural Leadership Program (IALP) Class of 2020 was provided in-depth communication skills training at John Deere World Headquarters in Moline, December 12-14, 2018. Over the course of three days, participants learned the value of communication and relationship building in developing strong leadership for agriculture.
The seminar began with a session on “Effective Influence and Negotiation” presented by Missy Helling, HR Integrator for Deere and Company. During her presentation, Missy was joined by Melissa Junkins, Division Manager for Deere Harvester Works, and Matt Haas, Manager, Product Support Services for the company’s Construction and Forestry Division. Junkins and Haas shared with the IALP fellows their professional experiences in building relationships and understanding another’s perspective.
The class also heard from David Ottavianelli, Director, Global Labor Relations & Continuous Improvement for John Deere and Company. He led a discussion on “Transforming from Management to Leadership Through Effective Communication”, focusing on influence without authority skills. The day concluded with a reception at the River House Grill in downtown Moline with IALP alumni.
Participants of the IALP Class of 2020 listen to David Ottavianelli, Director, Labor Relations and Strategic Products for John Deere Company.
A day-long workshop on “Communication Training” was facilitated by presenters from Dardis Communications, in which participants learned specific presentation skills and techniques. Class members received instruction, as well as a review of their individual recorded presentation to evaluate and develop their public speaking and presentation skills.
Paul Johnson of Dardis Communications leads the IALP Class of 2020 in developing effective communications and public speaking skills during the Communication Excellence seminar.
The final day of the seminar consisted of Class of 2020 participants giving presentations that utilized skills learned in the previous day. Dardis Communications also taught a session on how to efficiently “Brief the Boss.” Class members ultimately learned to be more effective communicators as they develop the proper skills to be leaders for agriculture.
