I’m Steve.

I'm an executive and leadership coach, retired Navy leader, husband and dad, and vintage racer. I've spent much of my life around leadership, first doing it, then studying it, and now working alongside other leaders as they figure out what it means for them.

And that story didn't exactly follow a straight line.

When Knowing the Answer Wasn't My Job Anymore

Early in my Navy career, I was good at the technical side of the work. I operated nuclear propulsion plants and had a knack for finding and diagnosing problems. When something wasn't right, I was often one of the people called to figure it out.

Leadership came early too. I was given responsibility for small teams while I was still developing as a technician. For a long time, those two parts of my career grew together. I could lead the team and still be the person who understood the equipment and could get into the problem with them.

Eventually, I left nuclear propulsion and became a senior enlisted leader in an F-18 fighter jet command. The organization was more than five times larger, and I wasn't the technical expert anymore.

I had to learn the organization differently. I needed to understand the mission, how the departments and divisions worked together, and what it meant to lead an organization operating across two shifts. More importantly, I needed to understand the people.

I spent time learning who they were, what they needed, and what they wanted for themselves. I worked to get them what they needed to do their jobs well so they could focus on accomplishing our mission.

My value as a leader was not to know their jobs better than they did. My job was to make sure they had what they needed, develop the people around me, and keep us focused on the mission.

We changed the culture. We accomplished the mission.

I Thought I Already Knew How to Coach.

As I was preparing to leave the Navy after 30 years, coaching came up while I was networking and exploring what might come next.

My first thought was pretty simple: I coach people all day. I know how to do that.

So I enrolled in coaching school.

I was wrong.

What I thought of as coaching was heavily influenced by years of leading, mentoring, developing people, and helping them solve problems. I was accustomed to having some responsibility for the outcome and helping people get where they needed to go.

Coaching showed me something different. I didn't always need to provide guidance. Sometimes the most useful thing I could do was listen, reflect what I was hearing, and give someone room to discover what was really going on and what they wanted to do with it.

The person doing a lot of the learning was me too.

I discovered how much I processed and analyzed everything around me. That served me well as a leader, but I also realized how little of my personal side I showed unless someone knew me really well. Coaching asked me to bring more of myself into the conversation, including the emotions, uncertainty, and fears I was much more accustomed to processing internally.

I didn't need to become someone different. I needed to let more of myself show up.

That experience changed me. I began to understand the difference between giving someone my answer and creating the conversation where they could discover theirs.

I knew I'd found what I wanted to do next.

The Moment I Never Get Tired Of

There's a moment in coaching I never get tired of.

It's when someone realizes they are the solution.

That doesn't mean they're the problem or that everything around them is within their control. It means they see what is theirs. A choice they can make. A conversation they can have. Something they can stop doing. Something they can start.

And then they own what comes next.

Then There's the Race Car.

If you spend much time around me, eventually the conversation will probably get around to racing.

I race a 1968 Volvo 122S in vintage road racing, and I love pretty much everything that comes with it. Building the car. Learning. Repairing what breaks. Preparing for the next event. Driving at the limit. And competing.

I enjoy driving laps, but racing is better when there's someone to race. I want the competition.

Then there's the community. The track brings together people from all kinds of professions and backgrounds, but titles and backgrounds don't seem to matter much once we're there. We're there because we love the cars and racing, and we're usually willing to jump in when someone needs a hand.

For me, racing isn't just the time behind the wheel. I love everything it takes to get there.

Education & Credentials

Professional Certified Coach, International Coaching Federation
Certified Professional Coach, iPEC
Master of Arts, Organizational Leadership
Bachelor of Business Administration
EQi 2.0 and EQ 360 Certified
Everything DiSC Authorized Partner
Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner
Certified Physical Intelligence Coach

So, What Are You Working Through?

What is it you want or have a challenge with?