Louisville, Ky.—Louisville Tile Distributors recently hosted a two-day leadership summit as part of its Louisville Tile University (LTU) training program. The event introduced the company’s new 5Cs of Leadership program, designed to strengthen employee development across departments.
The program focuses on five leadership principles: character, competence, communication, collaboration and commitment. Eleven internal leaders helped develop the initiative, which encourages employees to build leadership skills regardless of their positions.
“I believe the 5Cs of Leadership Program is one way we help our employees grow,” said Nicholis McLaughlin, director of learning and development at Louisville Tile. “We have so many talented people at Louisville Tile, so it made sense to build this program in-house. It gives us the chance to learn from each other’s unique experiences and share ideas and tools our team can then use in their roles.”
Program combines training and hands-on learning
The 5Cs program follows LTU’s “Show me, teach me, let me try” training model. It incorporates three learning components:
- Learn: On-demand leadership courses, including Foundations of Character and Empathetic Leadership.
- Listen: The 5C Leadership Podcast, which features leadership perspectives from employees across the company.
- Lead: Small-group workshops that allow participants to practice leadership skills through real-world scenarios.
The recent summit brought together 12 employees from departments including sales, marketing and finance. Participants explored situational leadership, active listening and conflict mediation. Each attendee also developed personal leadership commitments.
According to the company, one customer service representative applied lessons from the summit shortly after attending. The employee used a conflict styles assessment to help colleagues at a local branch navigate different communication approaches.
Louisville Tile plans to expand leadership training
Louisville Tile plans to develop the 5Cs program into a structured learning path. Future modules will address servant leadership and de-escalation techniques.
The company aims to provide consistent training for emerging leaders while offering continued development opportunities for existing employees.