Dr. Jeannine Sandstrom and Dr. Lee Smith
Legacy Leadership™ is the wisdom of the ages structured and packaged for today’s – and tomorrow’s – leaders. Its truths and Best Practices are timeless, proven keys to sustained significance – and form the foundation for real-time legacy in today’s business environment. Legacy Leadership ™ is a complete program – a philosophy, a process and a model. Legacy Leadership ™ is not a leadership style – it is a life system and a way of “being” not just “doing.”
This vital and highly adaptable model was developed as the result of over 40 years of the combined experiences of the CoachWorks® principals in individual, corporate and organizational leadership development. The founders of CoachWorks® International have refined reliable time-honored principles into an intentional, powerful system for leadership success – today and tomorrow – and for self as well as others.
Legacy, in this model, is not about building things, but building people. It is about investing in individual leaders who then share what they have learned with others. Legacy is realized in this perpetuating cycle of leadership development by enabling your personal and organization plan to come alive and thrive. Your best self is offered to others in order to develop their best selves and so on, leaving a multi-generational imprint – a living legacy.
What are the Underpinnings of the Model of Legacy Leadership™
Drs. Jeannine Sandstrom and Lee Smith developed the Legacy Leadership™ program as a result of their work with business leaders in all sectors. When they observed the most common behaviors of successful leaders, they identified the Best Practices that set outstanding leaders apart from their peers. When they listened to the deepest issues that were on leaders’ minds, they were matters of legacy. This legacy program was developed as a map for ensuring excellence in leadership practices that would enable leaders to leave the legacy they intend.
Basic Assumptions of Legacy Leadership™:
- Legacy is created by leaders, who develop leaders, who develop leaders for a multi-level maximization of leadership abilities and characteristics. The legacy resides in others rather than the leader.
- Leaders have a need for a comprehensive systemic model to follow that meet the needs of all leadership abilities throughout their careers. This is found in our 5-Practice Model with 50 Critical Success Skills.
- Leaders serve others first, then themselves.
- Legacy Leaders are holders of vision and values, are creators of trust so that innovation and creativity can occur, are influencers of inspiration and leadership, are advocates for differences and community, and finally, they are calibrators of responsibility and accountability. These practices embody a simple, yet sophisticated and elegant approach to leadership.
Foundations and Theories on Which the Model is Based
Current leader books and articles cover various aspects and techniques of leadership, but do not deliver a comprehensive model. We hear stories every day about the lack of strong leadership talent, and associated lack of practices that leaders can utilize. Legacy Leadership™ includes competencies and practices with immediate applicability to most every possibility and challenge leaders face today. These practices embrace both vision and accountability for results, as well as methods for creating an environment for team success, strong and dependable relationships and maximizing the talents of diverse perspectives and strengths.
Some organizations have a set of competencies with which to measure their leader performance; others do not. In either case, Legacy Leadership™ provides a sound structure for such competencies to reside. With the structural map of the 5 Best Practices, you get a full and complete picture of the designation your leader development program will go, for you personally, and for those you lead.
| Legacy Leaders® become students of leadership while focusing on building other leaders who build leaders, who build leaders. |
The LL model is based on solid theoretical suppositions. Within the model you will find glimpses of the following ideations and theories. For example:
- The relationships between the leader and others is based on openness and trust so that a fairness and equality in leading their subordinates.
- The mindset and intention of a Legacy Leader is to serve others before self.
- The approach is to create an environment in which people are motivated because they know they are capable and that the expectation in the work environment is to develop both success and satisfaction.
- Leaders learn to have a transformational influence in which their people are highly motivated.
- The model itself is a complete system in which each practice interfaces with other facets of the model. Using the cliché of “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts”, it is a very dynamic model when taken together.
Knowledge Based Background and Theories
As we developed the model, we gathered theoretical approaches that matched our value system and wisdom of what it takes to be a Legacy Leader. The model was founded on the following theories from professional development sciences.
Leader Member Exchange Theory (Graen and Cashman – 1975)
This theory focuses on the relationship between leader and subordinate (the centerpiece of the theory) and the leader’s need to show trust, respect, openness, autonomy and discretion. In so doing, “leadership-making” is more likely to occur. Such leadership making suggests that leaders can create networks of partnerships through the organization, which will benefit the organization’s goals and the leader’s own career progress. It warns leaders to avoid letting their biases influence their relationships and for leaders to be fair and equal in how they approach each of their subordinates.
Servant Leadership (Greenleaf – early 1970s)
This theory emphasizes that leaders are attentive to the concerns of their followers. A servant leader focuses on the needs of followers and helps them to become more knowledgeable, more free, more autonomous, more accountable and more like servants themselves. Followers become the best they can be through the motivation of Servant Leaders, who enrich others by their presence. A Servant Leader uses less power and control while shifting authority to those who are being led.
Path-Goal Theory (Evans, Mitchell and Dessler – 1970s)
The goal of this theory is to enhance employee performance and satisfaction by focusing on employee motivation. It is derived from expectancy theory, which suggests that subordinates will be motivated if they think they are capable of performing their work, believe their efforts will result in a certain outcome, and believe that the payoffs for doing their work are worthwhile and rewarding. Leaders help subordinates along the path to their goals by selecting specific behaviors that are best suited to needs and the situation in which they are working. Consequentially, within the organization there are expectations for success and satisfaction. Leaders need to be able to flex their leadership style to fit the needs of their employees and the work they are doing.
Transformational Leadership (Burns – 1978)
Transformational Leadership is a process that changes and transforms people. It is concerned with emotions, values, ethics, and standards as well as long-terms goals. It involves an exceptional form of influence that moves employees to accomplish more than what is usually expected of them. It is a process that often incorporates charismatic and visionary leadership. Such leaders are capable of motivating others because of their strong role-modeling.
Systems Theory (Bertalanffy 1920s to Senge 1995)
The idea of systems describes the interrelatedness of people, ideas, structure of organizations and industries, to name a few. Each action affects other actions. Change in one area causes change in another. Like the “butterfly effect”, seemingly unrelated occurrences can cause a ripple effect, either positive or negative. Building on this very complex theory, our model includes practices that rely on each other to become a complete system of leadership, with allowances for feedback loops. Our 360 Assessment relies on the client’s organizational “system” for feedback to get a true picture of behavior.
Applications of Legacy Leadership™
We often are asked: “Are you living your legacy? “Legacy” is commonly thought to be something you leave behind when you’re gone. What if you were living your legacy now? What if your vision for the future was evident in everything you do, every day? With this model, you can be that Legacy leader.
We have isolated, defined, and made transferable the practices common to leaders who are able to achieve and sustain success – with people, product and revenue. These common traits, taken together, formulate our 5 Best Practices. We found that these practices are common in all great leaders, whether it be the ancients whose successes leap from the worn pages of history, or the Fortune 500 leaders of today – and will continue to be observed in the leaders of tomorrow.
The practices apply to every aspect of leadership –
- From the vision and values to developing direction and commitment.
- From creating an environment of trust to having collaborative working relationships.
- From influencing others with great presence to connecting with the heart of individuals.
- From advocating differences to being committed to communities.
- From calibrating for results to strong execution and performance.
| Legacy Leadership™ is a philosophy, a model and a proven process for bringing out individual best, developing other leaders in the organization, establishing organizational leadership culture, and positively impacting the bottom line. |
And, Finally…..Growing Tomorrow’s Leaders Today
Now, like no other time in history, there is a need to develop strong leadership abilities. Using a model with proven success for both the best of times and worst of times, Legacy Leadership™ embodies a compelling and comprehensive set of competencies and skills. Legacy Leaders® lead the way for others to follow to the edge of current development and beyond.
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Dr. Sandstrom is a highly experienced executive coach who facilitates sustainable results in the areas of critical and current concern for her top level clients. After years of industry experience, CoachWorks® International has a proven record in leadership development and helping clients realize solutions to the top issues concerning executives today.
As an Executive Leader Coach Sandstrom partners with executives to optimize leadership performance. Jeannine’s passion and success are focused in working with leaders who want to accelerate their effectiveness and sustain organizational vitality. This work is delivered via individual leader coaching at the Board, officer and leadership team level; facilitating leader team learning and planning sessions; and delivering Legacy Leadership® Institutes designed by CoachWorks® for emerging and seasoned leaders.
Dr. Sandstrom is the founder and CEO of CoachWorks® International, Inc. a leader in the arena of executive development and leadership coaching. She is also a founding board member of Corporate Coach U, an international corporate and executive coach training firm with graduates worldwide, delivering valued executive and corporate coaching based on curriculum, models and codified experience. Jeannine co-authored these extensive training courses for CCU.
She has participated in Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) presentations, and has had featured articles in the Professional Mentor and Coach Journal, as well as The Wall Street Journal and Fortune Magazine. Jeannine holds certifications as Master Certified Coach (with the International Coach Federation – ICF), Corporate Business Coach, and Professional in Human Resources. Her doctorate is in Human Resource Development, with masters degrees in Business Administration and Adult Learning. She co-convened an Executive Coach Summit for the International Coach Federation to distinguish the profession of Executive Coaching, and has served on the (Dallas, TX) Mayor’s Task Force for International Development
Dr. Lee Smith is a pioneer in the executive coaching profession and is passionate about optimizing executive education, leadership development and performance in the individual leader as well as his or her team. Lee uses the innovative Break Through Consulting Coaching process developed specifically to assist professionals, business leaders, CEOs, Boards of Directors and their organizations to achieve breakthrough results.
With Lee as an agent of change, hundreds of leaders have broken through personal and professional roadblocks to grow to the next level of performance and have discovered new energy and enthusiasm to more creatively address the issues they face in our rapidly changing world.
Prior to joining Break Through Consulting, Lee served many years with Sun Oil Company as Director of Professional Development. During her tenure she developed and led some of the first processes for successor/mentor relationships for professional and leadership development. With a PhD in Organizational Behavior from the University of Texas at Denton, and a BS in Business, Dr. Smith holds one of the first international certifications as Master Certified Coach with the International Coach Federation and has served on various Boards of universities and coach training organizations.