History, Mission and the C3 Approach

History

Strata Leadership, LLC was founded following a series of conversations in the fall of 2008 between Dr. Nathan Mellor and the President of the Ark Group, Inc., Mr. Frank Smith.  The two desired to create a resource for leaders seeking to improve the effectiveness of their organizations.  They believed they could accomplish this they expressed by providing dispute resolution services, world class leadership development programs and consultation.  After sharing the concept with Mr. Mike Bosley, the president of Beams Industries (also owned by the Ark Group, Inc.) and others connected through the Ark Group, Inc. it was decided to launch Strata Leadership, LLC in the early spring of 2009.

As the idea grew from concept to reality, the economy in the United States took a historic decline.  Few (if any) companies and institutions were able to ride out the stock market collapse and the recession unscathed.  One sector that was deeply impacted was in professional development programs.

The volitality of the economy pushed Strata to modify its original approach.  Instead of providing training and dispute resolution services as Strata's primary product, the focus changed to match the skillset of the Strata leadership with the immediate needs in the marketplace.  The most pressing need that emerged was the desire to secure professional management and consultation services.  In retrospect, this unantincipated change in priorities provided Strata opportunities beyond what would have been imagined otherwise.  Instead of building a company focused on building a broad client base, Strata focused its efforts on working with a small group of clients that needed management assistance.  

In the first year, Strata was given the opportunity to serve two non-profit organizations.  The first was a non-profit seeking to serve community leaders (SALLT) and the second was an internationally recognized non-profit that provided character training to an audience in excess of 400,000 people throughout America and abroad.

SALLT

Beginning in the summer of 2009, Strata was contracted by Wes Lane, the president of the Burbridge Foundation and Salt and Light Leadership Training (SALLT), Inc, to provide management and curriculum development services for the SALLT program. Through this effort, we have the opportunity to assist in helping the SALLT executive committee realize their vision of providing leaders a place where they can learn how to build "spiritual capital" in communities. As a result of the SALLT program, leaders have a forum where they can assist one another in building stronger communities through service. 

Character First

In December of 2009, Strata was contracted by the Board of Directors of Character First to provide the daily management for this life-changing organization. Founded in 1992 by Tom Hill, Character First provides character recognition and training services for over 350,000 employees, student and families throughout the United States and over 27 countries throughout the world. Character First is a popular tool for leaders and managers seeking to provide their organizations a cost-effective, positive and user friendly approach to cultivating a culture of character.

In addition to providing management services for Character First, Strata also provides content for Character First training programs. Through this relationships, Strata materials has been used by companies and organizations such as: American Airlines, City of El Paso Environmental Services, City of Owasso, City of El Paso Juvenile Division, CoorsTek, Devon Energy, Duncan Bros. Salon, Edward Jones, Job Corps of Guthrie, Job Corps of Tucson, Miramont Lifestyle Fitness, Lone Star Title, the University of El Paso Football Program, the United States Food and Drug Administration, SandRidge Energy, Oklahoma City Police Department, the Virginia Department of Social Services and more.

Mission

Our mission is toThrough Strata, leaders are provided affordable assistance in building stronger teams, more effective employees and a culture of character and competence.

C3 - Character, Competence, ConsistencyTM

At the core of the programs offered by Strata Leadership, LLC is the C3 approach to leadership development.  The C3 tool was developed by Dr. Mellor in 2011.  The C3 system provides a balanced approach to team building and training that focuses on three areas of organizational life: 1) Character 2) Competence and 3) Consistency.  Dr. Mellor recognized that many leadership efforts focused too much on increasing the competence of an individual or an organization without considering the role of character development.  Consequently, he felt that many organizations struggled to consistently perform at the highest levels because of an imbalance between the development of their character in comparison to their investment in competence based training.  As a result, he developed the C3 approach that creates a framework through which curriculum can be developed that addresses both character and competence.  In the Strata Leadership, LLC training materials, participants explore the role of character in their success, the importance of having the necessary skill set (competence) and the necessity of consistency to build longterm relationships.  
 

Copyright © 2009 Strata Leadership, L.L.C. All rights reserved.