Thomas Leonard - A Masterful Synthesizer Who Popularized Coaching
When you think of the International Coach Federation, Coach U, the International Association of Coaches, and CoachVille who’s name comes to mind? The visionary behind all of these was Thomas Leonard. Generous and competitive, Thomas was a synthesizer of ideas.
I remember hearing about his Attraction Program in 1997 and signing up knowing that it would be co-created by Thomas with the attendees. His R&D (research and development) team was where anyone could get in on the ground floor in creating something new.
The coaching field lost a pioneer when Thomas died unexpectedly on February 11, 2003 with many projects and ideas left unfinished. Unbelievably, this was exactly 5 years ago today. You can view more about Thomas at his website at www.thomasleonard.com which says, “It looks like God wants some coaching and he’s called for the best. We’ll miss you, Thomas.”
Popularity: 25% [?]
Comment by Maria Marsala on 14 June 2008:
A brilliant mind. I had the honor of working for him for 4 years and it still amazes me how ahead of his time he was.
He is missed…
Boy…can you get a better photo of him? The on on this site is just awful!
Comment by Elizabeth Crouch on 14 June 2008:
Hi Maria,
You are in the company of many others who frequently say Thomas was a ‘brilliant mind, ahead of his time’, etc. Indeed, Thomas was unique!
Since there are are so very few of us who actually got to work with Thomas, it’s quite remarkable that you worked for him for four years. Perhaps you’d be willing to share some of your experiences linked to working with ‘T’ (as some called him). What was so compelling about this person?
Who else out there can say they worked for Thomas? People who are newer to coaching might enjoy your observations, perspectives, stories about Thomas’ place in more recent coaching history.
And, we’re always looking for the most representative pictures and original photos. Who can help us find one of Thomas that is of Leibowitz or Stieglitz quality?
Cheers!
Elizabeth
Comment by Maria Marsala on 14 June 2008:
Yes, many worked for him for very short spurts of time. I was often asked how could I work for him for as long as I did (I was asked after I worked for him for 6 months:)
He was “on” all the time. I worked for him until he died and then continued at Coachville for a little while afterwards, although on a much more limited capacity.
From him I learned not to take things as seriously and intensely as I do that there are things more important than what I thought perfection was. Now people will tell you that I am still serious and intense, but they should have known me back then
When I say that I learned, ‘t’ could be rather unthoughtful and blunt. He was task oriented to a fault. That’s no secret.
When at Coach U, ‘t’ (he always wrote it as a small ‘t’) churned out things so quickly between with the R & D Team or by holding teleseminars on new topics he’d thought of. But if you were there, you know that the curriculum, assessments, materials, etc., although excellent in content, really sucked when it came to format, spelling, etc. (Pretty much like I write, too)
And when he sold Coach U and started Coachville, he seemed to want to raise the bar. That’s when I was hired and he had started delegating other tasks, like accounting, payroll, etc.
I think it was in 1998 that I first asked him if he knew of any work I could do to keep my coaching business afloat.
then in 1999 he sent me a note saying something like “I have a project, I’ll pay you ‘x’ “, this is the end result I want, and it has to be completed by ___. Is it a done deal?”
Now really, could I turn him down?? I was a new coach, in awe of working for him and I just wanted to see how the heck he created all the programs.
I would get emails from him at all hours of the day or night wanting ’something’ done yesterday. You know how he would ask the R & D team for suggestions? Well, often that meant a few hundred coaches emailed him. I’d be sent all the emails and create a compilation of them in a text document. He’d turn the text document into a webpage. I was so grateful when Outlook came out with an export feature as it cut the work in half.
Other times I did research on something he was considering (did it already exist - spend 2 hours looking for it, and if so, give me a list of 10 companies you think best offer it). Other times he asked me what I thought of something or did I have resources for ‘x’. OR contact ‘x’ and see about ‘x’.
Just like what happens when you work with someone over time, I’d see something and send him a link to something interesting. And the projects became more varied, more about thinking and less about the clericalness of it.
And I’m serious about wanting something ‘yesterday’. I hired 3 VA’s to work with me so that I could accomplish it ‘all’ when he wanted a project completed and I had other work to do.
One thing he never asked me to do was proofread or write. Because like him, ideas are my thing, not writing. I have a proofreader who proofs much of my work, although not my posting to forums.
Once I told him ‘no’. He emailed me asking if I’d work for him ‘full time’ and give up coaching for a year or so. He wanted me to manage all the email lists, some of the projects he was working on, and do more complex coding on the website — all of which I was capable of doing. But I didn’t want to give up what I was passionate about — my business. That was a very hard ‘no’ to say. And he understood that it was.
On Feb 9, 2003 he gave me a project to complete for the next day. I mailed it to him on the 10th. He always let me know that he’d gotten what I sent him, but I never heard back. On the 11th, I emailed him, heard nothing back. I knew that something was very wrong, perhaps he was in the hospital. I never would have guessed that he was dead and was in shock when I heard that he’d died of a heart attack. Not that he didn’t live on adrenaline (ergo: adrenaline addiction assessment) just that many months before he decided to loose weight (he really had gained way to much) and wanted to be around for a long time.
But true to t, when he decided to loose weight, get a trainer, etc. he also started talking about making sure that Coachville would go on when he wasn’t here. He sent out some sort of note to the R & D team or maybe he mentioned something on a phone call, I don’t remember which. He had started doing what most business owners don’t think of — started creating an exit strategy — getting all the legal stuff in place. I am sure that he never figured it would have been such an important thing to do at age 45. But it sure was.
True to t, he was a futurist and at least gave Coachville a chance at a future.
Comment by Vikki Brock on 14 June 2008:
What a wonderful share, thanks Maria. I know there are others out there who also worked closely with “t”. Please share your stories as candidly as Maria has done.
Also, who has a better photo they could share? This one is from 1996 when he was on stage doing a coaching workshop in Houston. I snapped it from the audience.
Vikki G. Brock