Frank Beamer

Ever wish you could have seen Lee Iacocca lead a Chrysler team meeting or Jack Welch run a boardroom at General Electric?

The closest many of us will ever come, according to Charles Lattimer at the Cooperative Leadership Institute in Blacksburg, may be to watch Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer in action on Thursdays and Saturdays each fall.

That's why Lattimer and CLI, which was launched five years ago at Virginia Tech, are sponsoring Legendary Teams, a $595-per-person leadership development program at the university on Sept. 5 -- the eve of the Hokies' home opener against Furman.

"Rarely do we get to see a leader in action, especially in a business aspect," said Lattimer, CLI's president. "When you watch a football game, you see leadership in action. It's really powerful."

Legendary Teams is a six-hour program featuring two Virginia Tech leaders known to thousands of students and alums alike -- Beamer and management professor Chris Neck.

With CLI at the helm, Neck and Beamer will deliver what organizers say is a "winning game plan" for management and leadership when participants get back to the office on Monday morning. There's even their Personal Success Playbook, handed out at the conclusion.

For Lattimer, the program is a chance for his company, which became private in 2006, to increase its presence and impact in Southwest Virginia. Most of CLI's clients and work have been in Washington, D.C., and Hampton Roads.

"Who is a leader in your region that everyone looks up to? Coach Beamer is at the top of that list," Lattimer said. "He's comfortable sharing his success and failures as a way to help others grow."

The program by Neck, named by Business Week as one of the nation's top business professors in 2007, will cover the pros and cons of the five dominant leadership styles. It will continue with Beamer discussing leadership, followed by lunch, a wrap-up and a discussion of CLI. Takeaways include the playbook and a two-hour online learning program.

"Business leaders will get leadership lessons derived from both academic research on leadership as well as lessons derived from 'on the field' leadership from the coaching arena," Neck said. The Louisiana State University graduate also said you don't have to be a Hokie fan to learn from the event. "This is not just a 'rah-rah' session where people will get a lot of cheering and pumping up yet.

"Yes, I do hope people will get fired up during our session. But our ultimate goal is for them to not only get fired up, but to learn leadership skills to help fire themselves up and to fire up their employees as well."

Neck is no stranger to using sports and entertainment examples to illustrate management principles.

"Sporting examples in many cases replicate life," he said. "For instance, much of what we do in our lives involves working in a team whether it's a team of a family or a team building a car. So an example about a leader of a football team can help trainees to better understand [or] grasp material."

CLI moved in July to a new office on South Main Street in Blacksburg from the Corporate Research Center. Lattimer said the company will sponsor six of the programs in the coming year. This is the only one planned for the fall, as Beamer is busy coaching the Hokies.

By partnering with the Virginia Tech Alumni Association and ISP Sports, the Hokies' media network, organizers plan to get the word out to Virginia Tech graduates.

"Coach Beamer, myself, and the Cooperative Leadership has spent many hours putting together what I consider one of the most unique leadership programs in the country," said Neck, who said he plans to reach an "enthusiastic audience composed of what I think will be composed of many die-hard Virginia Tech fans."