Theresa Steele
Business Owner | Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®) Implementer | Visionary | Christian
Theresa has been coaching businesses since 2012. Initially, she developed her own system and toolbox, which comprised of the experience, knowledge and education she had gleaned throughout her professional career and she used that to help her clients improve their business operations.
In 2016, Theresa discovered the book Traction by Gino Wickman, creator of the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®) and co-founder of EOS® Worldwide. After reading Traction, Theresa experienced an aha moment in how she could work with clients more effectively.
Having a continuous improvement mindset, Theresa is always searching for ways to improve processes. However being a fact finder, Theresa also takes her time to thoroughly educate herself before making decisions. So she took her time researching and verifying the effectiveness of EOS® and other coaching programs before deciding to fully embrace EOS® and use it with her clients.
There were many factors that contributed to that decision. As part of her research, she read the other books in the Traction® library and books of the other coaching programs, reached out to both EOS® Implementers and the other coaches around the world as well as the business owners that were listed in the testimonials of those books.
Ultimately, EOS® was the winner for Theresa. Understanding that businesses need a comprehensive system in addition to maintaining the day-to-day operations, she was attracted to the holistic, yet simplified approach of EOS®. It is a proven system with over 40,000 full day sessions and over 4,500 leadership teams using the system and she appreciated the drive to implement the system purely by all the EOS® Implementers.
Professional History and Education:
Theresa owned and operated her first business at age 21 while studying Business with a concentration in Accounting at Indiana University-Purdue University of Fort Wayne.
After a few years of operating her business, Theresa completed a career assessment, which revealed aptitude in the engineering disciplines. Upon further research, she decided to pursue the engineering career track. She ended up working for small businesses and the government before being recruited to a global manufacturer.
The experience with the global manufacturer provided Theresa the opportunity to facilitate bootcamp-style training to product design engineers, application engineers, sales engineers and customers; develop standards and consensus of design for the aerospace department; streamline departmental processes; author procedures and work instructions; work with R&D to develop product failure analysis best practices; create proposals for commercial and military customers; and perform customer visits with sales engineers.
Other opportunities included winning a departmental 5S (lean manufacturing) award; being a member of the winning Americas team in an internal marketing competition and gaining global awareness; attending innovation training and piloting a knowledge base program.
While gaining professional experience, Theresa continued pursuing her education. She studied both Engineering and Land Surveying programs at both Indiana University-Purdue University of Fort Wayne (on campus) and Purdue University Calumet (online). Ultimately, Theresa returned to studying business and obtained her Bachelor of Science in Business Management through Western Governors University (WGU).
Theresa’s experience, education and passion came together because of her love for continuous improvement and lean methodology. In each position she held, a common thread of creating systems, streamlining processes and setting up standards became evident.
The exposure to the operations of a global corporation led to Theresa’s desire to help small businesses operate in the same capacity on a smaller scale. Understanding that small businesses provide half the jobs in America, yet face alarmingly high rates of failure culminated in her decision to start working with small businesses in 2012.
Theresa believes that continual professional development is essential. She serves as the VP Public Relations for the local Summit City Toastmasters club, as the Internet Liaison for ASQ (American Society for Quality) Northeastern Indiana Section 0905 and co-leads a CEO Roundtable for Greater Fort Wayne.
Personal Background:
Theresa is a Hoosier native and spent her early years in Steuben County (the northeastern most county in Indiana). She grew up in an entrepreneurial family with both parents owning and operating their own businesses. A couple of her siblings have also owned and operated their own businesses, one still operates a construction company.
She moved to Allen County in 1998 and has resided there to this present day. Theresa has two beautiful, intelligent daughters. Her older daughter is studying theater performance and her younger daughter currently attends middle school in Northwest Allen County.
Giving back to the community and growing in her faith is important to Theresa. She has taught Sunday school for elementary age children and hosted a women’s Bible study in her home, facilitating the study of The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. Currently, she serves in the Connections Community helping church attendees connect to various resources.
She has been a Junior Achievement (JA) volunteer since 2011 and has volunteered in each elementary grade level (K-5) at least once. Most recently, she has joined the JA Entrepreneurship Committee to promote and develop the entrepreneurship program for students in Northern Indiana.
Fun Facts:
Theresa is intrigued with profile assessments.
Here are some of her results:
Cultural Index
Hybrid of the Architect and the Trailblazer
Constructs: Visionary=6, Social=5, Reactiveness=1, Conformity=5, Energy Units=39, Logic=9, Ingenuity=6
Gallup StrengthsFinders Top Five Talents in Leadership:
(1)Learner, (2)Strategic, (3)Analytical, (4)Futuristic and (5)Ideation (all in Strategic Domain)
Gallup StrengthsFinders Top Four Talents in Entrepreneurship:
(1)Risk, (2)Delegator, (3)Knowledge and (4)Independence with the Expert Role
Kolbe
A Index: Fact Finder=8 (Strategize), Follow Thru=7 (Systematize), Quick Start=2 (Stabilize), Implementor=4 (Restore)
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®):
INTP (Energy=Introvert, Information=iNtuition, Decisions=Thinker, Orientation=Perceiving)
The Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment™ (PI):
(A)Dominance, situational: Let me collaborate & Let me drive
(B)Extraversion, moderately: Let me think it through
(C)Patience, moderately: Give me variety
(D)Formality, moderately: Give me structure
DiSC:
High D, Intermediate I-C, Low S