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Professional development opportunities

Investing in people. Investing in success.

CHS offers a number of professional development courses to help leaders continue developing their skills. Our catalog offerings cover a broad spectrum of topics, including advanced financing tools and effective coaching skills.

Like sustainable growth, engaging leaders is an ongoing process 

The unique advantages of the cooperative system lie in the strength of its people. Cooperative Leadership Academy development programs provide important benefits.

Equip leaders
to drive customer growth and profitability
Strengthen
the cooperative brand
Enhance
the cooperative’s ability to attract and retain top talent
Unleash
potential and close employee engagement gaps
Develop
the next generation of leadership

Action Selling

  • Who should attend?
  • Program overview
  • Customized training
Anyone looking to differentiate your company, your products and services and your sales from your competitors.
In today’s competitive environment, it is more important now than ever to build a sales force equipped with the skills and know how to not only close sales, but build relationships and loyalty. Differentiating your sales team through Action Selling training will allow you to differentiate your company, your products and services, and your sales from your competitors. This industry-recognized program offers complete sales process training to assist your sale force in building stronger relationships and truly loyal customers.

We also offer a service to provide a customized training at your cooperative! Connect with us to learn more.

Crucial Conversations

Join the Crucial Conversations waitlist
  • Who should attend?
  • Program overview
The program is geared towards anyone who tackles difficult conversations; from the board room to personal relationships, you will find the tools and learnings from this program highly relevant and easy to apply both professionally and personally.
Based on the book, Crucial Conversations, this program teaches skills for creating alignment and agreement by fostering candid and open dialogue around high-stakes, emotional, or risky topics. By learning how to speak and be heard (and encouraging others to do the same), you’ll surface the best ideas, make the highest-quality decisions, and then act on your decisions with unity and commitment. Whenever you’re not getting the results you want, it’s likely an important conversation either hasn’t happened or hasn’t been handled well. In fact, both individual and organizational success are largely determined by how quickly, directly, and effectively we speak up when it matters most. At the heart of healthy and high-performance organizations are people willing and able to hold Crucial Conversations.
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The most important takeaway from Crucial Conversations was learning how to apply the strategies we were taught to make the most out of each tough interaction.
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Everything DiSC Workplace

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  • Who should attend?
  • Program overview
  • Individuals in any role
  • Leadership teams
  • Functional or cross-functional teams (such as project teams)
  • Other existing teams
Build more effective and productive working relationships based on an understanding of different behavioral styles. In this course, you’ll use a simple profile tool designed to help you understand yourself and other people. This course includes an interactive assessment process, real-world tips and practical strategies that are useful for team building, employee communication, conflict management, motivation, career development and more.

Foundations of Supervision

Join the Foundations of Supervision waitlist
  • Who should attend?
  • Program overview
  • Current managers newer to leadership <3 years
  • Managers wishing to hone their skills
  • Team members on the path to leadership

This program equips new leaders or those with a career desire to lead with the essential skills and tools to get work done with and through other people. The program is designed to help transition successfully from an individual contributor to a leader of others. Effective leaders share some common skills emphasized in this program:

  1. Self-awareness about their individual management and leadership style
  2. Create an engaged workforce committed to success
  3. Effectively lead others through change

High Impact Presentations

Join the High Impact Presentations waitlist
  • Who should attend?
  • Program overview
This program is suited for leaders who need to deliver persuasive messages to internal and/or external audiences. This includes cooperative boards, management teams, leaders as well as individuals moving into new roles where communication is key.
The session begins with a "before" video that serves as a benchmark for assessing an individual's unique speaking style. At the conclusion of the session, an "after" video will tangibly demonstrates each individual's growth during the program.

Leading for Impact

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  • Who should attend?
  • Program overview
  • Experienced managers who supervise others
  • Must have the ability to work with their teams to create team culture and vision statements
  • Ability to create team strategy and goals and hold others accountable for them
  • Opportunity to provide ongoing feedback and coaching to team

The world is changing at an unprecedented pace. Every day leaders are making countless decisions and facing problems they’ve never encountered before. Today’s leaders must be able to:

  1. Think BIG and adapt quickly
  2. Translate strategy into meaningful work for their teams
  3. Coach people to a higher level of performance

Leading for Impact addresses the mindset and behavioral changes needed to achieve results with and through other people. The 4 Essential Roles of Leadership program content, offered in partnership with FranklinCovey, is a practical framework that helps leaders to focus their time and energy where it will have the greatest impact.

Leading for Results

Join the Leading for Results waitlist
  • Who should attend?
  • Program overview
  • Current and future GMs and CEOs
  • Those who aspire to become a GM or CEO in the next one to two years

Leading for Results is an exclusive, high caliber learning experience that was designed by and for cooperative leaders – there’s simply no other program like it.

Taught by respected North Dakota State University (NDSU) instructors, this program will help you achieve positive results through a greater understanding of governance, finance, strategic planning/execution, risk management, and leadership and communication skills. Participants are eligible to receive 8 credits that can be applied toward an MBA at NDSU. Additionally, you’ll network with other cooperative leaders facing similar challenges and opportunities.

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Commodity hedging classes
CHS Hedging programs are geared toward helping businesses and individuals better understand and establish long-term commodity price risk management. Classes are offered at specific times but can be customized and delivered on site upon request.
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Owner events
We offer virtual and in-person events throughout the year to keep owners informed on issues and industry topics and involved in CHS governance.