You can develop people. Can you prove it?
The Making Others Great Certification Program gives you the method, the evidence, and the credential.
Ten live sessions, supervised coaching practice with real cases, a deep grounding in how adults actually learn, and three signature assessments — so the way you bring out the best in others becomes something you can name, repeat, and stand behind.
These are the sentences we hear before people certify.
“Our best specialist was promoted — and is now a struggling manager.”
“Feedback here is polite, frequent, and changes nothing.”
“I coach on instinct. When it works, I couldn't tell you why.”
“I want something my team is still using in a year.”
This program changes that.
What the program includes
The ACE it!® Method
A practical, people-centered framework that helps leaders, coaches, and teams turn daily work into lasting learning, action, and growth. Built on the world's best innovation methods and learning theories, it consists of three elements.
Uncover the real challenge. Frame it as a powerful question.
Generate fast, collaborative ideas using structured brainstorming.
Move into action, track what works, and scale what delivers.
Into learning, motivation, change, and communication — the disciplines that explain why development actually sticks.
To activate solutions instantly. Over 20 in the toolkit, including the Wheel of Motivation, Best Work, the Arrow of Success, and the Tools.
You learn the theory and the practice — not only the tools.
Most leadership programs hand out techniques. This one also teaches you why they work, where they fail, and what the current evidence says — because that is what lets you adapt in a conversation that does not go to plan.
The theory and practice of adult learning
Very few leaders and teams have ever been taught how grown people actually learn — and it is the single biggest reason development budgets disappear without a trace.
You work through andragogy and self-direction, transfer and spaced practice, deliberate practice, motivation and self-determination research, and the conditions under which behavior actually changes — then apply each of them in your own sessions the same week.
State-of-the-art coaching theory and practice
Contracting, presence, listening, powerful questions, goal and outcome frameworks, the working alliance, supervision and ethics — the full craft, taught from the current evidence base rather than from habit.
We also put the leading voices in the field in front of you — what the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate, Columbia Coaching, IESE and the professional bodies are saying right now, including where they disagree with each other.
You coach. A lot.
In every session you coach real people on real cases, and you are coached in return. Master coaches observe, and the feedback is specific enough to change what you do the next morning.
By the end you have hours of supervised practice behind you and a credential that stands behind it. People often arrive for the method — and leave describing themselves, for the first time, as a coach.
Who this program is for
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Who you will meet.
One of the best parts of this program is the people you sit with. We put every group together with care, so that the room holds as many different worlds as possible — different countries, different work, different lives.
Past groups have brought together board members of international corporations and social workers from Nigeria, owners of family businesses and founders in their first year, headmasters from difficult neighbourhoods in the US, directors of family offices and large investment funds, heads of people at technology companies, teachers, and experienced coaches and mentors.
Over ten sessions they work on each other's real situations, and they get to know each other well. Learning groups often keep meeting long after the program has ended — people make friends for life here. Bringing out the best in people works much the same in a workshop, a classroom, and a boardroom.
What we hear again and again: the best ideas come from someone whose world looks quite different from your own.
And it goes in every direction — the executive learns from the teacher just as much as the teacher learns from the executive.
Get certified
Explore the details of each of our certification options.
Where applicable, EU VAT charges will apply to EU billing addresses. Scholarships available. Groups of 12 or more can book an exclusive private cohort. For your security, all orders are processed on a secured server.
From our certified coaches
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Your facilitators
The program is led by the two people who built and run the method.
Prof. Dr. Dr. Matthias Ehrhardt
Executive coach and advisor for over 20 years to founders, top executives, VC and PE firms, family businesses and global corporations — including several unicorns and founders he coached through their exits.
He trains and supervises other coaches: he teaches in IESE Business School's Executive Coaching program, is a founding fellow of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate, and served as academic paper chair at the Columbia University Coaching Conference. Columbia Coaching Certification (ECI/ACI), CPTD, HOGAN, MBTI, TKI, ATD Master Trainer.
Full profile →
Verena Lauffs
Executive coach, mentor and facilitator for over 10 years across learning, coaching and talent development programs, with startups, NGOs and large corporations worldwide.
She runs the practice work: the supervised sessions where you coach real cases and get feedback specific enough to change what you do next. A teacher's degree in languages, social studies and psychology underpins how she builds each cohort's learning arc.
Full profile →Why the Making Others Great Program works
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Bottom line: you will help your organization and clients develop their talent and fix their workplace problems with engagement, commitment, and fun.