Bill Sommers, PhD, didn’t just grow up on the “other side of the tracks;” he grew up right next to them. Neither of his parents graduated high school. His dad’s formal education ended after elementary school. It was a hardscrabble existence. Fortunately, Bill proved to be a good athlete, particularly in football and wrestling. Sports enabled him to acquire the education his parents never had.
Now 74, Bill looks back on his career as a schoolteacher, principal, coach, consultant and author. Working with school principals and other administrators, Bill developed a reputation as someone who can help turn around troubled schools. Think of him as the Red Adair of education. Bill has already unretired five times. The bottom line: if a school is in trouble and needs his help, he says he still has the commitment to contribute.
For the first 38 years of his life, Bill, a math and physics geek, never read a book that wasn’t some kind of technical manual or treatise. He’s been making up for lost time ever since. On his website, Learning Omnivores, you can find some summaries of books he’s read. He calls them Sommeries. He now has read over 1200 books. “I’m still trying to catch up,” he says.
One of those books led him to Stakeholder Centered Coaching. It was What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith. “I felt the concepts in this book would apply in the education field. He is grateful to Frank Wagner, his first experience with the SCC training for having a major impact on his knowledge and skills.
Bill believes Goldsmith’s emphasis on courage, humility and discipline is exactly what’s needed in a field “where there’s way too much arrogance.” He quotes a Chris Coffey-ism, “Too much ego, Amigo.”
“Too many goals from too many people is another thing keeping education for advancing,” Bill says. “We now have taken over many social issues e.g. drug/alcohol, obesity, testing as evaluation rather than feedback, a battle ground for multiple community issues.” Bill thinks schools should be the place for these issues but laments the fact that schools were never designed nor funded to address all of society’s ills.
Bill became SCC-certified in 2015 and has been using the method ever since. When he discusses coaching leaders, he often hears the excuse, “I’m so busy I don’t have the time for coaching.” Bill’s response, “You don’t not have the time.” He asks leaders how much time and aggravation they would save, and what results they’d achieve, if their leadership improved. He makes a compelling case for executive coaching ROI (return on investment).
Bill credits Chris Coffey with curing him of a bad coaching habit. “I used to charge by the hour,” he says. “Chris thought that was nuts. He said, ‘How do you know you won’t have a more powerful positive impact in five minutes than in a full hour?’” Bill has used a fixed fee approach ever since. His favorite question to get things started: “What’s the most useful way for us to spend this time together?”
Bill likes to think of himself as a pollinator helping spread useful ideas and approaches from principal to principal, teacher to teacher. He encourages his clients to shift their thinking from what they don’t like or don’t want to what they do like and do want. “Instead of being mired in the problem, put your effort into the solution.” Bill calls his test of coachability “CHaD” – Courage, Humility and Discipline. If the leader has CHaD, much good can be accomplished. If not, coaching’s probably a waste of time. Bill is an enthusiastic participant in the Stakeholder Centered Coaching Pro Bono Project for Nonprofit Leaders. At age 74, he doesn’t know how much more time he’ll have on this planet. “I don’t buy green bananas,” Bill says. However, he’s determined that while he’s here, he’ll do his best to have a positive impact on educational leaders and organizations. He often quotes Angeles Arrien, “If your job is waking up the dead, GET UP, TODAY IS A WORKDAY.”
