Dan Brown
Leadership Coach
“Beware of the stories you tell yourself, for you will surely be lived by them.” – Shakespeare
The above quote captures the essence of Dan’s coaching philosophy. Clients who partner with him soon discover outworn personal narratives they need to rewrite to become more effective leaders. At the heart of his approach, Dan is challenging beliefs that limit effectiveness, mining untapped gifts, and working to deepen self-awareness while becoming more sensitive to how others experience the client as a leader.
Dan is well-versed in the full spectrum of leadership issues, coaching clients to improve in the areas of delegating, conflict management, and communication, to name a few of the familiar challenges. What especially excites him is collaborating with leaders struggling to champion change efforts as their organizations face adapting to today’s volatile, unpredictable, and ambiguous world. What uniquely equips Dan to serve these leaders and others is his deep interest in and knowledge about adult-development theory. Able to offer so-called “vertical development coaching” to his clients, he is passionate about assisting them in making sense of themselves and the world at increasingly more complex and expanded levels of perspective. This is his specialty and passion.
Clients often tell him how much they appreciate the personally transformative result of their coaching, not only the skills they built along the way. Dan has been likened to a “stick of dynamite” and a “warm, soft blanket” and gladly accepts those paradoxical compliments from clients. Dan has partnered with almost 600 clients, and leaders in a vast array of organizational settings – federal agencies, hospitals, military bases, construction companies, banks, big-data software vendors, and more.
Experience
- 28 years as an equity partner in an international publishing and data information company. As the firm grew, reaching 1,500 employees worldwide, Dan served in many leadership roles — editorial and marketing team supervisor, division president, and member of the board of directors.
- Partner in large corporation in charge of HR/OD and led the design and delivery of internal leadership-development programs for the firm’s 150 managers and senior executives.
- Co-founder and executive director of the non-profit organization, Coaching for Justice. Its mission is to equip leadership coaches with the personal awareness, knowledge, skill, and courage necessary to engage with their clients in the work of responding to and eradicating systemic racism, gender bias, and all other forms of oppression and discrimination where it manifests in organizational life.
Education, Training and Certifications
- B.S. degree in Agriculture from the University of Maryland, College Park
- Executive Certificate in Leadership Coaching (Georgetown University)
- International Coaching Federation, Master Certified Coach (MCC)
- Immunity to Change certified coach through Minds at Work, having studied under Harvard psychologists Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey
- Accredited Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team Facilitator
- Assessment certifications: MBTI, the Hogan Suite, the Emotional Social Competency Inventory, EQ-I 2.0, The Leadership Circle Profile 360, and CCL Benchmarks 360, Global Leadership Profile
Personal
- Dan lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife. He has two adult daughters.
- His favorite pastime is tending to his family’s backyard apple tree.
- Long hikes in nature, especially along ocean coastal paths, bring Dan peace and joy.
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