Intrepid leadership is characterized by dauntless courage, fortitude, and resilience in forging fulfilling relationships with your team, clients, family and community.
The Academy for Effective Leadership is a 60-day, no-nonsense immersion in the exercise of effectively causing results through others.
Intrepid leadership is characterized by dauntless courage, fortitude, and resilience in forging fulfilling relationships with your team, clients, family and community.
The Academy for Effective Leadership is a 60-day, no-nonsense immersion in the exercise of effectively causing results through others.
You Will Learn

Do whatever it takes to get to where you’ve never been before!
SELF-LEADERSHIP
LEADING OTHERS
GENERATE RESULTS
SELF-LEADERSHIP
LEADING OTHERS
GENERATE RESULTS
The Overview
Why is leadership so difficult? And it must be difficult because there is no other reason why so many organizations around the world are so poorly led. If leadership were easy, anyone could do it and we would have a lot fewer problems in our economy and society.
We live in complex times full of volatility, uncertainty, chaos, and ambiguity. One of the inevitable products of these challenges is the ongoing engagement of seemingly insoluble paradoxical realities.


You cannot lead well without being able to identify paradoxes, and artfully navigate them in ways that strengthen and edify you and the teams you lead. Surprisingly, paradoxes are pretty much a neglected topic in leadership literature, courses and business schools and yet, they’re the a major challenge leaders unwittingly face everyday.
Paradoxes are not puzzles to be solved or opposites that can be reconciled. They simply are. They are the gravity of leadership. Rather than dissecting them, we work with leaders to identify, accept and creatively engage them to their advantage.
An example of a paradoxical reality is easily seen when it comes to stress. Stress has been blamed, and still is blamed, for many workplace problems including poor employee mental and physical health, low productivity and low quality work. Leaders are urged to do all they can to reduce stress, to ‘drive out fear’ believing that stress-free workplaces will be more productive and more efficient. Yet, it has been proven that an element of stress can make people far more productive as well as more efficient, literally keeping them on their toes.
The studies in the book, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership by R. Heifetz, M. Linsky, and A. Grashow, show that eliminating stress altogether, attractive though it may sound, can also eliminate the push factors that lead people to perform and excel.


The stress paradox, sometimes also called the self-absorption paradox, reveals that people need to experience a degree of discomfort in order to perform effectively; what is bad for them is, at the same time, also good for them.
We have found that one of the tasks for a leader is not to eliminate stress but to understand the paradox and work out exactly where the optimal level is, to identify the fine line where stress ceases to be a positive externality and turns into a negative. Leadership scholar Ron Heifetz calls this the ‘zone of productive disequilibrium.’
The Overview

Why is leadership so difficult? And it must be difficult because there is no other reason why so many organizations around the world are so poorly led. If leadership were easy, anyone could do it and we would have a lot fewer problems in our economy and society.
We live in complex times full of volatility, uncertainty, chaos, and ambiguity. One of the inevitable products of these challenges is the ongoing engagement of seemingly insoluble paradoxical realities.

You cannot lead well without being able to identify paradoxes, and artfully navigate them in ways that strengthen and edify you and the teams you lead. Surprisingly, paradoxes are pretty much a neglected topic in leadership literature, courses and business schools and yet, they’re the a major challenge leaders unwittingly face everyday.
Paradoxes are not puzzles to be solved or opposites that can be reconciled. They simply are. They are the gravity of leadership. Rather than dissecting them, we work with leaders to identify, accept and creatively engage them to their advantage.

An example of a paradoxical reality is easily seen when it comes to stress. Stress has been blamed, and still is blamed, for many workplace problems including poor employee mental and physical health, low productivity and low quality work. Leaders are urged to do all they can to reduce stress, to ‘drive out fear’ believing that stress-free workplaces will be more productive and more efficient. Yet, it has been proven that an element of stress can make people far more productive as well as more efficient, literally keeping them on their toes.
The studies in the book, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership by R. Heifetz, M. Linsky, and A. Grashow, show that eliminating stress altogether, attractive though it may sound, can also eliminate the push factors that lead people to perform and excel.

The stress paradox, sometimes also called the self-absorption paradox, reveals that people need to experience a degree of discomfort in order to perform effectively; what is bad for them is, at the same time, also good for them.
We have found that one of the tasks for a leader is not to eliminate stress but to understand the paradox and work out exactly where the optimal level is, to identify the fine line where stress ceases to be a positive externality and turns into a negative. Leadership scholar Ron Heifetz calls this the ‘zone of productive disequilibrium.’
Why An Academy?
Because people are diverse, there is no formula for leading. It takes a dauntless inquiry into what you think you already know, to open new possibilities for action. Our unique form of inquiry becomes a compass, guiding you to the root of what is wanted and needed to get to where you’ve never been before.
The Academy is a challenging environment, like a gym, where leaders can exercise the disciplines needed to lead and coach their clients or team to breakthrough results.
Why An Academy?
Because people are diverse, there is no formula for leading. It takes a dauntless inquiry into what you think you already know, to open new possibilities for action. Our unique form of inquiry becomes a compass, guiding you to the root of what is wanted and needed to get to where you’ve never been before.
The Academy is a challenging environment, like a gym, where leaders can exercise the disciplines needed to lead and coach their clients or team to breakthrough results.
What Benefits Will I Get?
How to have a difficult conversations that produce change
How to get team members to bring solutions to the table instead of problems
How to know if your clients or team members are making the best use of their time
How to identify problems before they become a crisis and waste time and money
How to transform resistance into opportunity
How to surface the unspoken issues that block meaning and productivity
How to make sure your client or team hears what you are actually saying
Executive Coaching Certification through Take New Ground
How Does It Work?
One of the key disciplines of effective leadership is preparation. To set you up to maximize your time in the Academy for Effective Leadership, we have list of assignments you will receive once we have completed your application, interview and been accepted into the academy.
Your Instructors

DAN TOCCHINI
Partner
Dan Tocchini is a business and social entrepreneur, a published author, a master trainer, executive coach, leadership whisperer and culture development specialist. He is a cofounder of Take New Ground a subsidiary of Human Performance Unlimited, LLC, where he champions founders & executives to order the chaos of circumstance and breakthrough to unprecedented levels of leadership. After 30 years of leading individuals, teams, and organizations through the crisis of change, Dan’s passion for leaders makes no conversation too difficult in delivering meaningful long-term results.
Currently completing a contract as Chief of Staff at Virgin Hyperloop. Dan has worked with Disney, ESPN, Microsoft, Interstate Batteries, Nike, Virgin Hyperloop-One, Seigel & Gale, The Oprah Winfrey Network, Gavin de Becker, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, Smarty Pants Vitamins, World Vision, Homeboy Industries, Defy Ventures and many others.
After 41 years of marriage, Dan and his wife Aileen live in Horseshoe Bend, Idaho near their two adult children and five grandchildren.
ADRIAN KOEHLER
Partner
Adrian Koehler is a leadership engagement expert and co-founder of Take New Ground, a consultancy that serves founders in scaling their businesses while building unstoppable leadership teams. He engages and educates executives and entrepreneurs in the art and science of leadership for themselves, their teams, and clients to create new, unprecedented results and experience rich fulfillment through their work.
Generating vitality in unexpected places is his forté. Drawing on his background in philanthropy, ministry, activism, and medicine, Adrian thrives in the extreme environments and finds comfort in difficult conversations—in fact, his passion for human performance has taken him around the globe, serving people in times of personal crisis and cultural tragedy. Over the last decade, Adrian has trained and developed leaders at NIKE, Virgin Hyperloop One, Herschel Supply Co., Oprah Winfrey Network, Gavin DeBecker & Associates, Siegel & Gale, Smarty Pants, UCLA and many more.
Adrian resides in Los Angeles with his fiancé Alli and their four children, Grant, Kit, Scout and Charli.


AILEEN TOCCHINI
VP of Client Development & Coaching Services
Aileen’s experience over the last 4 decades is a wide range, from running businesses and non-profits to developing and creating leadership and coaching curriculum, strategic planning, developing systems, managing staff, resolving problems, managing accounting records, producing financial reports, developing and monitoring business performance metrics, and coaching executive teams. Through all the her business experience, what second nature for her was coaching from her ability to listen and ask questions that would move individuals to take action in their lives where they didn’t see the possibilities.
With a proven track record, Aileen has created and delivered coaching products for executive teams for Fortune 500 companies, which include Interstate Batteries, Tokyo Electron, Microsoft and Utilities Inc., and SmartyPants. She also led an organization which delivered trainings in over 100 different locations worldwide.
Aileen is committed to partnering with clients to:
- Breaking Through to the Unprecedented – When unspoken issues are put on the table for discussion and current reality is addressed
head-on, possibilities for unprecedented action open up. - Act Outside of the Box – By issuing the challenge to Stop, Look and Choose, Aileen shifts what clients listen for which causes them to shift off automatic, fully engaging them, so their entire focus and energy is directed towards producing declared results.
- Leverage Resources – Clients create maximum value and return on investment when they act from a candid relationship with current reality.
Aileen pays attention to language in such a way that people become purposeful about what matters to them the most. She is courageous in delivering feedback and in her questioning and exploration of clients that gives people altitude about how the world occurs to them and the conversations that open or close possibility.
Married for 41 years, she is the mother of 2 adult children and 5 grandchildren. Her family is most important to her; she loves making a meal and creating a space for everyone to feel special and at home, and listening to their stories makes her heart leap with gratefulness.
Your Instructors

Dan Tocchini is a business and social entrepreneur, a published author, a master trainer, executive coach, leadership whisperer and culture development specialist. He is a cofounder of Take New Ground a subsidiary of Human Performance Unlimited, LLC, where he champions founders & executives to order the chaos of circumstance and breakthrough to unprecedented levels of leadership. After 30 years of leading individuals, teams, and organizations through the crisis of change, Dan’s passion for leaders makes no conversation too difficult in delivering meaningful long-term results.
Currently completing a contract as Chief of Staff at Virgin Hyperloop. Dan has worked with Disney, ESPN, Microsoft, Interstate Batteries, Nike, Virgin Hyperloop-One, Seigel & Gale, The Oprah Winfrey Network, Gavin de Becker, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, Smarty Pants Vitamins, World Vision, Homeboy Industries, Defy Ventures and many others.
After 41 years of marriage, Dan and his wife Aileen live in Horseshoe Bend, Idaho near their two adult children and five grandchildren.

Adrian Koehler is a leadership engagement expert and co-founder of Take New Ground, a consultancy that serves founders in scaling their businesses while building unstoppable leadership teams. He engages and educates executives and entrepreneurs in the art and science of leadership for themselves, their teams, and clients to create new, unprecedented results and experience rich fulfillment through their work.
Generating vitality in unexpected places is his forté. Drawing on his background in philanthropy, ministry, activism, and medicine, Adrian thrives in the extreme environments and finds comfort in difficult conversations—in fact, his passion for human performance has taken him around the globe, serving people in times of personal crisis and cultural tragedy. Over the last decade, Adrian has trained and developed leaders at NIKE, Virgin Hyperloop One, Herschel Supply Co., Oprah Winfrey Network, Gavin DeBecker & Associates, Siegel & Gale, Smarty Pants, UCLA and many more.
Adrian resides in Los Angeles with his fiancé Alli and their four children, Grant, Kit, Scout and Charli.

Aileen’s experience over the last 4 decades is a wide range, from running businesses and non-profits to developing and creating leadership and coaching curriculum, strategic planning, developing systems, managing staff, resolving problems, managing accounting records, producing financial reports, developing and monitoring business performance metrics, and coaching executive teams. Through all the her business experience, what second nature for her was coaching from her ability to listen and ask questions that would move individuals to take action in their lives where they didn’t see the possibilities.
With a proven track record, Aileen has created and delivered coaching products for executive teams for Fortune 500 companies, which include Interstate Batteries, Tokyo Electron, Microsoft and Utilities Inc. She also led an organization which delivered trainings in over 100 different locations worldwide.
Aileen is committed to partnering with clients to:
- Breaking Through to the Unprecedented – When unspoken issues are put on the table for discussion and current reality is addressed
head-on, possibilities for unprecedented action open up. - Act Outside of the Box – By issuing the challenge to Stop, Look and Choose, Aileen shifts what clients listen for which causes them to shift off automatic, fully engaging them, so their entire focus and energy is directed towards producing declared results.
- Leverage Resources – Clients create maximum value and return on investment when they act from a candid relationship with current reality.
Aileen pays attention to language in such a way that people become purposeful about what matters to them the most. She is courageous in delivering feedback and in her questioning and exploration of clients that gives people altitude about how the world occurs to them and the conversations that open or close possibility.
Married for 41 years, she is the mother of 2 adult children and 5 grandchildren. Her family is most important to her; she loves making a meal and creating a space for everyone to feel special and at home, and listening to their stories makes her heart leap with gratefulness.
Testimonials
Dane Sanders
CEO, Tell Me Your Dreams
@danesanders
Chad Brown
Founder, Chad L. Brown Coaching
@chad.l.brown
Julia Woods
Founder, Beautiful Outcome
@heyjuliawoods