AceUp and The Institute of Coaching (IOC) Launch Research Consortium on Human-Centered Leadership

AceUp, the leading provider of human-centered leadership development coaching solutions, announced today a 5 year commitment with The Institute of Coaching (IOC) at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate, to launch a research consortium focusing on human-centered leadership. With AceUp as its founding benefactor, the human-centered leadership consortium will bring some of the most prominent thought-leaders together to examine the impacts and outcomes of leadership behaviors across organizations and defining a science and data-backed blueprint for leadership excellence in a new world of work. 

“AceUp is honored to take a leading role in this important journey to help further define, exhibit and expand the immense benefits of human-centered leadership,” said Will Foussier, CEO, AceUp. “Partnering with the IOC is a natural fit as our organizations have worked together and are aligned on this important work. The findings of this multi-year study will be beneficial as the way we work and live continues to evolve rapidly. We need more human-centered leaders who can help foster compassion, curiosity and innovation and this study will help further prove the benefits of this approach.” 

AceUp is the founding consortium member and benefactor, who has made a significant financial contribution to support the project. The research program will be divided into two phases

  1. The first phase will last a year and will be spent working to determine a scientific definition of human-centered leadership as well as determining how coaching can unleash human-centered leadership.
  2. Phase two will span two to four years and will analyze the impacts of human-centered leadership at several levels including individual, dyad, team and organization.

“The goal of this study is to help improve the changing work environment for all and to provide people leaders with the skills and mindset needed to set their teams up for success and avoid employee burnout,” said Carol Kauffman, PhD, IOC founder and co-chair. “We are extremely grateful to the team at AceUp for signing on to support on this journey and our hope is other likeminded organizations will join the consortium to help move this necessary project forward.”


AceUp is the human skills operating system for organizations, leading provider globally in human-centered leadership development. We deploy leadership coaching at scale in a hyper-personalized way to upskill and reskill talents at all levels on key human capabilities needed to thrive in the new world of work. We leverage behavioral sciences, generative AI, and performance analytics, along with a network of hundreds of highly curated experts, to accelerate human skill development and connect it to specific people and business outcomes, backed by data. AceUp is a benefactor of the Institute of Coaching, a Harvard Medical School Affiliate, the most prestigious research institution on the science of coaching, where we support our in-network coaches with the latest, most rigorously reviewed research in the industry. AceUp was named as one of the fastest growing private companies by Inc. Magazine as featured on the Inc. 5000 list for 2022. 

To learn more, visit www.aceup.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

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