Starting from the ground up, Keaton Turner is the man behind the rapid growth of Turner Mining Group. He began his career in the family business, which provided contracting services, before venturing to begin his own endeavours.
In 2017, Turner Mining Group was born and, in just six or so years, the business has developed to employ more than 500 personnel to deliver contract mining services to a number of larger mining clients.
Turner takes great pride in his boots on the ground experience. In fact, if it wasn’t for his thirst for commercial excellence, this man would find himself back in the place where he loves to work—on site.
This experience is the driving force of his leadership approach with personnel. A miner at heart, he understans their needs, the environment they work in, and the things that keep morale high and work interesting.
It’s safe to say that he just loves people, which can be seen in the way he interacts with them both internally and externally.
Like any great leader, Turner understands his weaknesses as well as his strengths. In his approach to understand a new era way of working—ie., a more meaningful approach to management and a clearer understanding of human resources management—he sees himself bringing in team members, both in senior leadership and on the ground, to enrich the mining experience for any who walk through the company’s doors.
Turner recognises that, if he were to handle much of the business himself, his goals would not be met. As such, the team around him is vital to sustaining his vision for the business.
“One of my founding principles when we started, and it's actually one of our core values now, is a heart for people. I wanted everyone that we bring on the team to have a heart for people,” says Turner.
“It's our first core value and I'm a big believer. It's what we talk about with our leadership team. I believe that if people on my team really do have a heart for people and care even about the lowest level employee, we win.”
Those that inspire Turner most are the people around him. Unable to attribute his biggest inspirations to one person, he truly believes in the circle he builds, which widens daily as he puts employee wellbeing on a pedestal as the foundation to achieving great things.
“I'm a big fan of teams. I'm a big fan of rallying around people that have certain strengths,” says Turner.
“They may have some weaknesses, but they've got certain strengths and they can play to somebody else's weaknesses. The people that inspire me, or the people that are relentless in improving themselves, improve others.”
To achieve this there are lots of factors that come into play; the most critical one for Turner is safety.
With a great understanding of the mining environment and the stresses placed on hardworking individuals in the field, Turner is working closely with his colleagues and partners to understand how to integrate better procedures and more advanced technologies to protect his workforce.
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