What We’re Up To

At Cohd, we don’t just develop leaders.

We help build teams of Elevaters.

An Elevater isn’t a title. It’s a way of showing up.

It’s someone who can pause instead of react. Someone who can step into hard conversations with clarity and care. Someone who takes responsibility for their impact and keeps practicing how to do better. Someone who has the tools to not only continuously elevate themselves, but also the people around them.

When you have one or two people like this on a team, things get easier.

When you have a whole team operating this way, everything changes.

Teams move faster. Conversations get more honest. Trust gets stronger. Politics quiet down. People take more ownership. The work gets better and the humans doing it are healthier.

That’s what we’re here to build: teams of people who share a common language, a practical toolkit, and a real commitment to growing themselves and each other.

How Change Actually Happens

Human development happens through practice, reps, feedback, and support, in real conditions, over time.

Most leadership training doesn’t fail because the ideas are bad. It fails because there’s no space to actually use them. No room to try, reflect, adjust, and try again.

Our Elevate Program is designed to change that.

Leaders don’t just learn tools. They bring their real challenges. They practice in real time with peers. They get coached. They reflect. Over time, they build the muscle of noticing their patterns and choosing better ones.

That’s how behavior actually changes. And when enough people on a team are doing that work together, culture starts to shift in ways that last.

Meet Haley

Founder, Cohd

I’ve spent nearly a decade working with the Cohd toolkit, facilitating this work inside organizations, and I still don’t get tired of seeing what happens when people really lean in.

As a collegiate athlete, sports shaped how I think about growth. You get better by practicing. You show up, you do the reps, you get feedback, and you keep going. Team practice is a low-stakes environment that’s both safe and challenging. That approach is at the heart of Cohd.

What energizes me most is watching people become more thoughtful, more present, and more intentional in how they show up. Not just as leaders, but as teammates and humans. Seeing someone pause instead of reacting. Have a braver conversation. Take more ownership. Support someone else’s growth. Those moments never get old.

Cohd exists to create more of those moments, inside real teams doing real work.

Meet Our Coaches

Sara Hugo

Q: What’s your favorite Cohd tool to use or train?
A: Effective reflection! It is my growth edge, my core strength and the connective tissue that binds what we do here at Cohd. Most people think reflection is defined by looking back... but it's actually how you move forward on purpose.
Q: What’s one belief you have about growth, leadership, or people that shapes how you coach?
A: I believe people rise to the level of belief others have in them. As a coach it is my job to hold that belief even before they can hold it for themselves. That's why I lead with curiosity, care and clarity: it signals to people that I see them, I am invested in them, and I trust where they are going.
Q: What has become clearer for you as you’ve grown?
A: Ironically, what has become clearer as I have grown is that being a beginner can either feel wildly uncomfortable or wildly magical... the difference is entirely internal. To grow is to build the ability to choose magic over and over again.
Erin Van Galder

Q: What’s your favorite Cohd tool to use or train?
A: I find it impossible to separate our tools since they all build on one another. I love training attention management and active listening as the foundation for coaching; You really have to master your time and your presence to hear what a person is actually saying.
Q: What’s one belief you have about growth, leadership, or people that shapes how you coach?
A: My coaching is shaped by the belief that you cannot effectively lead someone you haven't truly heard. Growth is a collaborative process that only begins once a foundation of deep, active listening and mutual trust has been established.
Q: What's something that's really important to you right now?
A: Right now, I am deeply focused on the practice of mindfulness and intentionality. In a world full of digital distractions and with teenagers, I believe giving someone your undivided attention is one of the most valuable gifts you can offer, both in coaching and in life.
Javier Gonzalez

Q: What’s your favorite Cohd tool to use or train?
A: I really love teaching and using Practical Mindfulness because it allows us to cultivate presence and ground ourselves in the moment. Creating that mental clarity about ourselves and the world around us is essential for applying the other Cohd tools. It empowers us to become more aware, resilient, and effective people.
Q: What’s one belief you have about growth, leadership, or people that shapes how you coach?
A: Upon discovering some new tidbit of information, my grandmother would inevitably marvel: Would you look at that! You learn something new every day. Her sense of wonder inspires my commitment to lifelong learning. I’m constantly balancing being a humble teacher and an ardent student of life. An ever-expanding library of books, a queue of saved YouTube videos, countless open tabs on my browser - these are just some of the ways I fill curiosity gaps and expand my world.
Q: What is your superpower?
A: I’m able to manage stress, change and unforeseen challenges with cool poise. Agonizing over circumstances beyond my control prevents me from accessing my fullest capabilities so I focus on solutions, leveraging the resources at my disposal and recognizing my limitations. I’m also fortunate to have a personal “board of directors,” a group of trusted loved ones who I can lean on for help, encouragement, perspective and the occasional reality check.
Jackie Lesser

Q: What’s your favorite Cohd tool to use or train?
A: I’m most drawn to the Fixed vs. Growth Mindset work because it builds real self-awareness in leaders.
When leaders see how their assumptions and reactions shape the culture around them, everything shifts.
Q: What’s one belief you have about growth, leadership, or people that shapes how you coach?
A: Relatedness is the number one competency for leaders and it starts within.
If you can’t understand and manage yourself, you can’t effectively lead others.
The system will only evolve as far as the leader does.
Q: What is your superpower?
A: I see patterns quickly, in people, teams, and systems, and get to the essence of what really matters.