Leadership Development
For Organizations

Chief People Officers, Heads of Talent and CEOs bring Didier in when the organization needs leadership capability it does not yet have, and needs it to outlast the engagement.

He owns the full arc from inside the organization: capability gap analysis, program design, facilitation, coaching, measurement, and the quarterly readout to the People team.

What He Builds

Four shapes. Most engagements combine two or three of them.

Leadership and manager development

Blended, cohort-based programs for distributed and hybrid workforces: live sessions, peer practice groups, assessments, and work applied on the job between sessions. Cohorts of 8 to 15 leaders over 6 to 12 weeks.

The infrastructure underneath

Leadership capability models, manager foundations curricula, learning pathways, facilitator guides and manager toolkits. Built so the programs run without the person who designed them in the room.

Executive coaching and team effectiveness

One to one and in groups, Director through C-suite, using the Leadership Circle Profile 360 and Immunity to Change. Intact senior teams coached through three to six session arcs on alignment, decision rights, trust and repair, and operating rhythm.

Executive offsites and senior team labs

Multi-day sessions on priorities, decision rights and repair after conflict, scoped from stakeholder interviews and pre-work. Including retreats run with the Esalen Institute.

In The Room

The four shapes above, as they actually run.

Didier Sylvain teaching a leadership session, a slide reading You Don’t Have to Be THE Leader of a Team to Impact Your Team projected behind him
Teaching influence without authority.
Didier Sylvain facilitating a leadership cohort standing in a circle in a corporate training room
A leadership cohort, mid session.
Didier Sylvain teaching a stakeholder and values diagnostic to a seated group, the framework projected behind him
Working a stakeholder and values diagnostic with a management group.
Didier Sylvain leaning over a table working with a group of five in a panelled meeting room
A working session with a leadership team.
Didier Sylvain with a standing group beside cards reading Systems Awareness during a team lab
A senior team lab, mapping systems awareness.

Selected Programs

Built for one organization, then written up so they could run again.

Leadership Accelerator, Director to VP

A blended cohort journey built around a 360 assessment, live sessions, peer practice groups and an applied business challenge, documented as a repeatable pathway with facilitator guides so it could run in more than one region.

Manager Foundations

Core curriculum for new and experienced managers covering coaching, feedback, delegation and psychological safety, designed for a distributed workforce, then handed to trained facilitators to deliver.

AI-Forward Leadership Labs

Working sessions on putting AI into real workflows, decisions and communication. Built so leaders leave using it rather than briefed on it.

How An Engagement Runs

The same five stages whether the work is one cohort or a multi-year build.

01

Capability gap analysis

Stakeholder interviews and a read of what the organization already has, against what it needs.

02

Design

The program, the curriculum and the materials, built for these leaders rather than adapted from a shelf.

03

Delivery

Facilitation and coaching, by Didier or by facilitators he has trained against a written methodology.

04

Measurement

Evaluation that tracks whether behavior changed, not whether the session was enjoyed.

05

Readout

A quarterly brief to Talent and People leaders on what is moving and what is not.

At Scale

Fifteen years, and the delivery capacity to match.

35+leadership programs built and run
3,000+leaders developed a year
5,400+hours of executive coaching, Director to C-suite
12coaches and facilitators hired and trained

Delivery across the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, South Asia, Africa and Australia. The facilitation team was trained through a year-long practitioner program against a written methodology, so quality held as volume grew.

Who He Works With

Selected clients.

Technology

Pinterest, Workday, Carta, Yahoo

Global brands and enterprise

Honda, Verizon, Target, Puma, Humana

Media and entertainment

The New York Times, Lionsgate, WME, Endeavor, Blavity

Mission-driven and academic

NBA Foundation, James Beard Foundation, GLAAD, National Center for Family Philanthropy, Bertha Foundation, University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business

“Didier was exceptional at holding space for our challenges as a group as well as showing up for us individually. Over our time together there was a good balance of deep thinking and practical tools.”

Sandra Whipman, Co-Director, Doc Society

Start A Conversation

Every engagement starts with a conversation, not a proposal. A few lines is enough to know whether there is something here.

  • The organization, and your role in it.
  • Who the work is for: a leadership tier, a function, or the whole leadership layer.
  • What has changed, and what you need to be different.
  • Timing, and whether there is a date you are working towards.
hello@didiersylvain.com

Based in Los Angeles, delivering globally.