About Bill Shirley

Bill Shirley is an Executive Leadership Coach working with Business Owners, CEO’s and Professionals in closely held enterprises.  His clients include a wide range of manufacturing, service, and professional organizations.  His company, In Search of Eagles, Inc., focuses on the selection, leadership development and retention of key employees in our 21st Century Global Economy; an economy where talented people have unlimited mobility and only the most productive businesses will survive.  Bill makes Succession Planning an integral part of Leadership Development; key employees are carefully selected, consciously developed, and intentionally retained.

Bill Shirley’s Resonant Leadership Model is the synthesis of his life’s experience in working with businesses that choose to emphasize building an expanding base of loyal customers and creating a “sustainable flow of value”, rather than on short-term profits.  He discovered early in his career that expanding customer loyalty happens only in company cultures where the employees are both loyal and enthusiastically engaged in their work. High productivity and prosperity follow, not precede, this alignment.

Bill began developing the Resonant Leadership Model in the late 1950’s when he entered the chemical and food processing industry after completing his degree in Chemical Engineering and his military service obligation.  He soon became a specialist in the turnaround of unprofitable operations. In the late 1970’s, he moved from manufacturing to the service industries.

It was those early experiences that informed Bill’s unique definition of Organizational Culture.  Bill defines Organizational Culture as “the employee’s most successful way of thinking, feeling, and behaving.”  It is the employee’s response to the working environment management creates. With this in mind, Bill advises management on how to create working environments that produce the desired Organizational Culture.  The Organizational Culture, more than any other single factor, determines the profitability and sustainability of a business.  Every organization has a “Brand” and the Culture defines that Brand! His Resonant Leadership Model is the outgrowth of this career focus to see that every client creates a valued brand.

Early in his career, Bill developed a reputation for revitalizing unprofitable operations by emphasizing the manager's role as a coach. His techniques involved the frontline employees in problem-solving, and he used operating guidelines (rather than rigid operating procedures) long before such practices were widely accepted.

Over his career, Bill has hired hundreds of employees.  He has either made, or participated in making, every possible mistake in selecting, developing, and retaining key people.  Bill has evolved a systematic approach to hiring the right employee for the job. He brings this seasoned wisdom to businesses in the Global Economy where collaboration through Resonant Relationships is the key to sustained profitability.

In 2004, the International Coach Federation (ICF) awarded Bill the credential of Professional Certified Coach, one of nominally a 1000 coaches in the world that met the ICF standard for the PCC or MCC (Master Certified Coach) at that time.

He has walked in the shoes of those who lead closely held businesses and professional service companies. He understands the leaders' isolation, overwhelm and frustration, and their difficulty in creating a low-stress, fulfilling life adventure of their own design. Thus, he lists "BT" after his name; he has "Been There."

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