Case Study No. 5: Simon Lever

With over 70 years in the advisory and accounting business, Simon Lever has a rich and long history. The firm of business advisors and CPAs provides financial guidance for many family owned and privately held businesses. The company's mission is to maximize the success of those they partner with--their people (employees), clients, and community. They achieve this by delivering expert financial advice that they tailor to the needs and vision of their clients.?

Sara Bruton is the COO and a partner at Simon Lever. Part of her role is looking at the internal processes in the firm and managing the leadership development initiatives for the partners and staff. Sara and Simon Lever reached out to Work Wisdom about three years ago. Through leadership development sessions and evidence based assessments, Work Wisdom provided their team of leaders tools for professional and collective growth and continues to work with Simon Lever as their organization evolves.?

Work Wisdom: What brought you to Work Wisdom??

Sara Bruton: We were looking to partner with a firm that could help us grow and develop leaders to successfully navigate challenges and opportunities. I participated in Leadership Lancaster, where Kedren and Sarah taught a session which is where I was first introduced to Work Wisdom.? We went through an interview process with a bunch of different organizations. At the end of our interview process, we chose Work Wisdom as our partner for leadership development.

WW: What made you choose Work Wisdom instead of those other organizations?

?SB: As we talked with the team through the interview process, we liked their approach to growth and development. Kedren will help discuss our growing edges, but she does it positively. It's not that we're not addressing [an issue], but we're handling it while building up our people. That's been helpful. We knew we wanted to make this a long-term relationship, and we have been working with Work Wisdom for the last three years.?

Every year looks different based on where our leaders are, what we need, and what's going on internally and externally. COVID was a big wrenching thing, and having Work Wisdom come along and partner with us and help navigate the hurdles was incredibly helpful.

WW: What initial service(s) did you receive??

SB: They threw the book at us! (Laughs). We attended ten workshops with our partner and director group. And we also had our partners and directors do three different assessments, the EQ, Enneagram, and TKI. We also did individual coaching sessions, and I appreciated the intentionality around the personal side of growth, self-awareness, and self-development. They also focused on the collective side of growth, how we work and relate to one another as a group. Since then, we've continued to offer executive coaching to those who want it, and many of our leaders continue to maintain that and do our group sessions.?

WW: Some executive-level leaders might feel less inclined to assess some of their growing edges. What advice would you give to other COOs and executive leaders who are reluctant to reach out to Work Wisdom for help?

SB: Everyone's already aware of your growing edges (probably more than you are)! You can choose not to look at them, but as I've looked at my own, they have less power when I bring them into the light. Because now, I'm aware of them and can decide how I will behave versus letting them control outcomes in my life.?

Several years ago, I received this advice: "Be patient and persistent." It has been helpful career advice. You have to hold patience for yourself because you're not going to correct all your mistakes overnight. And you need to be patient with others because others might be having a bad day or going through something of which you're unaware. And you also have to hold persistence. You can't just wait around forever and hope something happens; you have to drive things forward. Sometimes those feel like very opposite things, and how can you hold both together simultaneously? But that's the reality of leadership. You often hold up values that feel like opposites: confidence and humility, excellence and grace.?

?WW: What changes have you seen in your organization due to your engagement with Work Wisdom??

?SB: We have grown significantly as an organization. Work Wisdom poured into us as leaders. They used language that encourages collaboration and growth, like, "let's experiment with this," versus "this is your weakness in this area ." I've heard more positive language in our culture and how we're communicating with each other.?

The team at Work Wisdom continues to develop creative ways to facilitate our quarterly three-hour leadership development sessions. It sounds long, but it goes by in what feels like seconds. We hear and listen to each other and then learn from Kedren and Sarah. The time in those sessions has been precious to us. When we started partnering with Work Wisdom in 2019, we had no idea COVID was coming in 2020, but the strategic and emotional support from Work Wisdom has helped us navigate those difficult times.

WW:? What are you most excited about looking forward to in 2023?

SB: The exciting part for 2023 is that we're now starting to do sessions with our supervisors and managers. So I'm excited for them to participate in some of these training sessions with Work Wisdom! They've gotten to hear us talk about it. And now they get to join in on it, having their sessions and learning firsthand the content that's been incredibly helpful to our team.

To learn more about the ways we are revolutionizing achievement to help you, your team, and your organization flourish, visit our?website. If you have worked with us in the past and want to be featured in our next case study,?contact us?so we can share your story!