Nicole O'Neill Ash · ACC
N°01·About
· MORE ABOUT NICOLE
A lifetime of leadership.
A lifetime of asking different questions.
For more than three decades, I served in national security, leading
people and organizations through moments of extraordinary
complexity and change. I coached senior executives, developed
leaders, and helped teams navigate uncertainty, high-stakes
decisions, and transformation.
And throughout all of it, one question stayed with me.
"
Why do some leaders seem to know, in their bones, exactly why they lead — while others, despite everything they have achieved, still aren't sure?
I didn't find the answer to that question in another leadership model. I found it through an unexpected teacher. That teacher was my genealogical research.
Genealogy wasn't my subject.
It was my teacher.
The path, in brief
As a teenager
Began researching my family history — believing I was simply learning about my ancestors.
Three decades
Led people and organizations through complexity in national security; coached senior executives.
Over the years
Realized genealogy and leadership asked the same discipline: seek context, trace patterns, understand people through their history.
Today
That way of seeing people became the foundation of Rooted Leader.
Today, Rooted Leader is built on a simple belief: lasting leadership begins with understanding identity. When we understand who we come from, we gain a deeper understanding of who we are. From that foundation, we can lead with greater intention and build legacies that sustain people, organizations, and communities long after we're gone.
I began researching my family history as a teenager, believing I was simply learning about my ancestors. Over decades, I realized I was learning something much deeper.
Genealogy taught me to observe before judging. To seek context
before drawing conclusions. To understand that every person is shaped by relationships, history, purpose, and service — and to show my ancestors grace when contemplating their lived experiences, offering that same grace to myself and to others as we all seek to understand who we are, who we come from, and how we will carry those stories forward.
What I didn't realize until much later was that the same discipline genealogy demands — seeking context, tracing patterns, understanding people through their history — was exactly how I had been working and developing leaders all along. Without realizing it, I was developing a way of seeing people that would later become the foundation of my coaching.
N° 02
Where Rooted Leader Was Born
The Record
Founder, Rooted LeaderLLC™
—
Co-Founder, The Ashville Preservation Foundation
Nonprofit
Executive Coach
ICF Associate Certifed Coach (ACC)
Retired Senior National Security Executive
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Board Advisor
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Speaker
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Genealogist
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Facilitator
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The titles below trace a career. What matters more is what that
career taught me about people — and what I now help other
leaders find in themselves.
Titles tell you what I've done.
Rooted Leader is about helping you discover who you are becoming.
N° 04
Beyond the Résumé