Bill Treasurer, 1985 CPASS grad, writes popular leadership books that often draw on lessons he learned as the co-captain of the WVU Swimming and Diving Team (’82, 83, 84). “As a student athlete, you learn valuable lessons about discipline, perseverance and good sportsmanship. You also learn about juggling multiple responsibilities, setting clear goals, dealing with egos, yours and others, and staying healthy and fit. All of those lessons translate well into the workplace,” said Treasurer.
After graduating from WVU, Treasurer went on to become a member of the U.S. High Diving Team and traveled throughout the world performing dives from heights that scaled to more than 100-feet, diving into pools that were often only 10-feet-deep. As the captain of the team, he learned valuable leadership lessons. “The most important lesson I learned, early on,” he said, “was that I sucked at leading. I had no idea who I was as a leader, but I knew that my team didn’t like being led by me. They told me so!”
Treasurer says that it was discovering that he didn’t know how to lead that set him on a journey to learn about guidance. He started reading books on leadership, paying attention to trailblazers he admired, and entered graduate school to study leadership. Along the way, he says, he got better at managing. “The experience taught me that leadership is a skill that can be learned, and that meant it could also be taught,” he explained.
In 2003 Treasurer wrote his first book, Right Risk, which draws on his experience as a professional high diver, as well as what he learned as an executive with Accenture, one of the world’s largest management consulting companies. Just as his book was being released, Treasurer founded his own company, Giant Leap Consulting, with a mission of helping people and organizations be more courageous. Treasurer calls himself the company’s “chief encouragement officer.”
Since founding his company, Treasurer has worked with thousands of leaders across the country and in far off places like London, Hong Kong, Zurich, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney and Abu Dhabi. “Everywhere I go, leaders teach me something new about leadership. I take those lessons and turn them into shareable lessons in my books” Treasurer added.
Treasurer’s other books include Courage Goes to Work (2008), Leaders Open Doors (2013), and his latest, which came out in 2017, A Leadership Kick in the Ass. “The new book benefits from the client work I’ve done with unionized construction companies in Chicago. They have no tolerance for leadership fru fru. This book shares the nitty-gritty, brass tacks things that leaders need to know to be effective. And the biggest lesson of all is that humility is central to getting people to follow you. As Clint Hurdle, coach of the Pittsburgh Pirates writes in the book’s foreword, ‘There are two kinds of leaders; those who have been humbled, and those who are about to be,’ ” Treasurer concluded.