SAVVY BUSINESS
Developing Trust and Respect

Leadership Partners, Inc. is a firm dedicated to seeing people maximize their potential.

By Niki Sepsas
Tory Herring is among the very fortunate (and very few!) who have heard their employer say, “What are you going to do when you take over the operation of this company?”

"My reaction was one of stunned silence,” Herring recalls. “I knew I wanted to continue the tradition of excellence that had been established here, but I also knew that I wanted to do some things differently, to set us apart from other firms doing similar work. I had no idea that the man I was working for was thinking of me to eventually run this company.”

Hindsight proves that Jim Tanner, PhD, had exceptional vision in noticing something in Herring that Herring did not fully see in himself. In the early 1970s, Tanner launched a human resource consulting firm that was groundbreaking for its time. Rather than a business consultancy with a side interest in people development, his was truly a firm dedicated to seeing people maximize their potential.

For his capacity to develop skills for professionals and the businesses they ran, Tanner was very highly regarded by the premier firms in Birmingham and throughout the southeast.

Herring joined the firm in 1986 as an associate and immersed himself in the “Grid” concept that became the cornerstone of a successful, cutting-edge consulting practice.

“Jim Tanner’s executive assessment process built on the work of psychologists who had assessed the personality and skills of soldiers entering World War II to determine the perfect job fit for these men,” Herring explains. “The foundation of his approach to team and organization effectiveness was the result of psychotherapy sessions with combat veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, where it was discovered that people learn best from others with common experiences and goals. This collaborative/team approach to development was used to design a Grid model that has been very successful in meeting our clients’ needs.”

Herring’s Grid model is built around what he calls the 3 R’s — individual resources (R1), team relationships (R2) and the results (R3) companies achieve. Most companies, Herring notes, focus primarily on R1 (assessing people to make sure they have the characteristics to meet critical challenges). While understanding that the individual’s personal talents (R1) are critical to performance and results, Tory feels that an emphasis on R2, how effectively they work together, is even more important and that it is only through maximizing R2 that the company’s success, or R3, can be maximized.

Assuming the senior managing partner position with the firm, now known as Leadership Partners, Inc., in 1995, Herring began searching for the most comprehensive assessment of potential or how people would respond to varying situations and levels of responsibility.

That search led him to bring Lucean Headen of Cardiff, Wales, onboard the organization. Headen, an extraordinary thinker and analyst, brought to the firm 20 years of involvement with the concepts related to team and executive performance and potential first perfected at Cambridge University.

Doug McQueen, former director of training and organization development in two Fortune 100 companies, joined the firm in 2000 adding significantly to the team’s capacity to effect organization culture change. The firm was later joined by Lillian Watts-Ray, an HR specialist, Rick Babcock, a strategist and economist, and Cheryl Chapman, a public relations specialist who also co-wrote several Grid texts. Sandy McIver, a Rhodes Scholar, with a PhD in leadership and 20 years experience in government and industry, has recently joined the firm.

Headquartered in Birmingham at the Mountain Brook Center, Leadership Partners maintains offices in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom from which their teams provide Grid solutions to companies seeking to maximize their potential for corporate growth as well as the personal development of their employees.

In addition, Leadership Partners can draw from a vast network of Grid partners around the world when required by specific client needs. American Electric Power, Balfour- Beatty, Caterpillar, Lockheed Martin, Dow Chemical, NASA, State Farm, TGIF’s and a host of corporations ranging from the largest Fortune 50 multi-nationals to successful regional businesses have turned to Leadership Partners for their wide array of services. Locally, Thompson Tractor, Tricon Metals, First American Bank, ProAssurance and Protective Life Corporation represent a sampling of the firms that have engaged the services of Herring and his team.

The firm’s reports and seminars are now available in 26 languages in 33 countries around the world. More than two million people have benefited from Leadership Partners’ proven formulas for personal development.

“We have been most effective in creating a company culture of trust and respect for our clients,” Herring notes. “With the insights and perspectives we develop of our clients’ operations, we are able to predict and describe the likely impact and success, under various circumstances, of different people and to offer recommendations on how to structure teams and organizations so that they can operate to better maximize their success.

” We have a proven track record of assisting in the selection and development of internal talent and integrating external talent that translates into success for our clients. In short, we have the best available core approaches to leadership and executive and organization development, while possessing the differences necessary to create varied approaches to the unique demands of our clients. We work closely with each client to craft the best possible approach and with their input develop innovative and custom-designed solutions that best fit the client’s needs.”

The clear understanding that Herring has gleaned of the challenges that his clients face stems in part from a clear, albeit delayed, understanding of the challenges he himself faced. Admitting to a stubborn and rebellious nature, the Auburn native had walked away from a scholarship to play football at Georgia Tech in the 1960s. Not the best time to be out of school, Herring soon found himself flying helicopters in Vietnam. That sobering reality led him to return to Auburn University and the Florida Institute of Technology, where he earned two doctorates. His combination of life experiences and academic training has served him well in his role with Leadership Partners.

“I was almost 37 years old before I truly realized what I wanted to do,” Herring says, smiling. “At Leadership Partners, we encourage people. Our team approach helps them open up as to who they are and what they want with respect to their careers. By providing our wide range of services, including leadership and organization development, executive and management assessment and development, change management, and designing learning programs and materials, we provide them the competitive edge they need in business. Maybe 1 percent of companies today are truly interested in maximizing their business potential. The remaining 99 percent are content to carry on with business as usual, choosing not to truly challenge themselves and therefore never reaching their full potential. The truth is that most organizations have far more potential than they realize but simply don’t know how to develop it. Understanding the full potential of people and organizations and how to develop it has been the key to our success. The fact that so many of the most recognized names in corporate America today have called on us to provide these services is the most sincere form of flattery and an indication that we are filling a critical need.”

 
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