Lee Smith: Yes. Well as Jeannine and I started working together and formed Coach Works, we compared how we work and we compared the types of questions we ask and our approaches to things and we decided that forming Coach Works would be very good for both of us and that we could work together on things. As we went along, we decided that we needed a leadership model. Let me tell you why. We were often asked to come in and work with one – with a leader on one particular strength area or weakness area or one particular dimension and just working in one area didn’t fit with our model, one of the main things that we focus on which is a systems approach. So, we knew that that just wasn’t serving the client or us as well because we were uncomfortable leaving lots of things undone although one area might have been strengthened.
We started looking for a model. As Jeannine earlier said, we weren’t looking to develop one, but we couldn’t find one that really worked. We had bits and pieces. We had techniques. We looked and searched for a long time until we finally put our own together and to meet our needs and one was that systems focus. Another focus was really to match our own values and principles which is to focus on others rather than ourselves and being that servant leader.
Then we found that. We said: “Well what does this yield,” and we realized that what we were putting together was the legacy piece, that living a legacy versus leaving one, that having systems rather than just techniques, that focusing on others rather than self was leaving a legacy but it was also living it with every day. So we liked that we can have a three generational impact on individuals as leaders that we work with and over a period of time we tested and stepped back and researched and watched how leaders responded to this wonderful model that we ultimately came – came together for us.
Then we also addressed the “being” part of the leader. We’re really into as much being or who we be we’ve often said as much as what we do because we know that in the being part of us comes the attitude and that speaks for success and confidence more than anything else. We also came up with a mission in all of this which I hope will resonate with all leaders. Our mission is to have at least one legacy leader in every organization worldwide. We just need one in each organization who can pass it along to someone else who will pass it along and then along again in a three generational thumbprint.
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