About Us
History of Kahler Leadership Group
Why We Exist
Kahler Leadership Group exists because of two complementary stories that have shaped our beliefs and our mission.
Bobbi’s first challenge was overcoming catastrophic speech problems as a child after a speech pathologist diagnosed that she would suffer a life-long disability. Bobbi found that personal determination along with leadership and support from her mother, school teachekey individuals enabled her to surmount obstacles no one else believed would be possible.
Her fascination with development and performance of people arose when as a manager, she consistently drew out top performance from people who had been labeled as “lazy,” “low performers,” or “troublemakers.” When she studied the science of human development and performance, she understood not only why she has been successful but also how to help leaders and managers get more of the best from the people in the organization.
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When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is; when we treat him as if he already were what he potentially could be, we make him what he should be. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German Playwright and Poet |
Rick was driven to achieve with perfection in school, soccer, running, skiing, Ultimate Frisbee, engineering and other endeavors. As a team leader for large technology projects, Rick was a process improvement advocate, leading the team by day and devising ways to improve speed and quality of the teamwork at night. Despite his commitment to improvement, Rick hit a wall. The challenge of getting new ideas and processes adopted in a cross-functional, multi-office organization was beyond what he knew as a young team leader.
After a short sabbatical, he started a small consulting and training business with Bobbi so they could support their own learning about development, innovation, and transformation. Meeting with hundreds of entrepreneurs created a period of learning and reflection about what drives people to adopt new ideas and make dramatic changes. These experiences led him to become a facilitator of desired transformations in people, groups, and organizations. Rick helps leaders see when a strategic change requires that they look beyond and beneath the technical and analytical changes to see the changes in minds and adaptations of people needed to make a new strategy succeed.
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We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It’s one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it’s another to think that yours is the only path. Paulo Coelho, author |
These two stories reveal a creative tension between the role of the individual advancing her own cause and the role of the leader influencing the environment to realize the best strengths and greatest potential of the individuals and the organization. We believe this creative tension provides a holistic view for leaders to realize the highest aspirations for a great organization.
Core Beliefs
The culmination of these stories is the foundation for the beliefs we hold at Kahler Leadership Group.
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Everyone has greatness inside.
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Great leaders develop the voices of others.
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Leaders are grown, not born.
History of Kahler Leadership Group
Kahler Leadership Group began in 2001 in Portland, Oregon, providing training and coaching programs in sales, customer service, and leadership skills. Bobbi Kahler and Rick Fowler have been the principals since its inception and continue to manage the company while drawing on an extensive network of professional consultants, trainers and coaches to provide the most effective solutions and services for clients who want to raise the performance of individuals, groups, and teams.
In 2003, Kahler Leadership Group suffered a cataclysmic shock when Bobbi nearly died from complications of chronic exhaustion. Although Bobbi cut her schedule dramatically, she continued working sporadically, while Rick determined a strategy that would allow the firm to succeed without demanding heavy effort from Bobbi. Throughout 2004 and 2005, Bobbi continued to recover her health, and the firm focused on speaking programs at regional and national conferences for sales and customer service organizations in credit unions, insurance, financial services, health care, telecommunications, technology, and hospitality.
By late in 2005, Bobbi’s health, while improved, was not nearly what she had as a vibrant, healthy athlete in the 1990s. To be closer to family and to pursue educational aspirations, Bobbi and Rick moved back to Chicago, where they had met in 1999. From 2006 to 2010, Bobbi completed her master’s degree in Positive Organizational Development & Change at Case Western Reserve University, and Rick completed his M.B.A. at the University of Chicago. During this time, Bobbi served a few clients and in 2008, developed a partnership with Aslan Training & Development to provide her expertise in coaching and adult learning in Aslan’s High-Performance Coaching program for managers. While finishing her studies, Bobbi also completed her recent book, Travels of the Heart: Developing Your Inner Leader, published by Six Seconds Press, and she experienced a full recovery of her health. After completing their degrees in March of 2010, Bobbi and Rick moved to Vail, Colorado, where Kahler Leadership Group thrives today.
