Leveraging the Integrated Approach: Strategic Planning, Leadership Development, and Data Insights

Established in 1910 in Ashland, Nebraska, Mead Lumber has humble beginnings. Mead has been a family-owned and operated business up until 2014, when the company transitioned to being fully owned by its employees through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). Although the family ownership has transitioned out, the family feeling you get when walking into one of their operating locations has not.

Today, Mead still operates in the building materials industry, however it looks a little different than 1910. Boasting 52 operating locations and over 1,300 associates, Mead has seen expansive growth over the last decade. Oftentimes what comes with growth is not always just sunshine and rainbows. There’s new people, stepping into new roles with new responsibilities. Along with the new roles, companies require a more sophisticated way of operating that suits the increase of scale.

When we first met Dave Anderson and Bret Williams in 2020, they like many were new to their respective roles. Dave and Bret saw the strength of Mead, but also recognized the opportunities. Mead was starting to feel the pressure of a growing organization. As Dave put it “we were very good at the technical training and on the job training… but we weren’t doing anything from a leadership development standpoint”. In addition to leadership development needs, Dave and Bret felt like they needed a better way to operate the company. Mead needed an operating system that promoted systemization, clear communication and accountability.

The solution? Mead partnered with Leadership Resources to implement a full pronged integrated approach. At LR, the integrated approach is utilizing not one, but all 3 of our proven solutions: strategic planning and leadership development supplemented by data insights. To do this, we implemented the Accelerate Operating System (AOS) at the executive level, and the Accelerate Leadership Program (ALP) for high-potential leaders. The combination leads to alignment of your organizational goals and your leaders development plans, or to put it simply everyone is rowing in the same direction.

A growing company typically means a lot of employees stepping into leadership roles for the first time. Those new leadership roles require a different set of skills than the prior role. Oftentimes the same skills that got an employee a promotion to leadership, are the ones holding them back from succeeding in their new role.

Mead was experiencing that and more. In the transition from the old guard to the new guard not only were individuals stepping into new roles, they needed to be prepped for future roles. Mead needed to take their existing managers and create the next generation of directors and C-Suite executives.

The company’s rapid growth revealed a need for stronger succession planning and a more defined leadership pipeline. Throughout the partnership Mead has continued to grow, and the executive team felt the need to prepare for this level of growth. There was a lack of depth in their leadership bench, and they realized that simply training people in technical skills wasn’t enough. They needed leaders who could think strategically, communicate effectively, and manage teams in a way that aligned with the company’s expanding goals.

Mead was feeling the pains of growth at the executive team level as well. They needed to shift from being reactive to proactive. Additionally, the team felt a need to define the company culture and create a common language and way of operating to be used across the organization. Without this, there would be lack of alignment that could prevent future growth.