EXECUTIVE COACHING - LEADERSHIP ACADEMY’S - EQ-I 2.0. - STRENGTHS
We help leaders master the inside game — emotional intelligence, vulnerability and the everyday practice of being human — and turn it into the most powerful business advantage they have.
Leadership without armour.
A 30-minute conversation with Paul. No pitch. Just a map of where you are and where you could go.
TRUSTED BY LEADERS AT
“IGNITE didn’t just train our team. They rewired how we engage.”
Sean Duca, APJC CX CTO - CISCO Asia Pacific
THE INVITATION
The leadership you were trained for isn't the leadership your team needs.
For centuries, leaders were taught to wear armour. Project infallibility. Hoard the answers. Lead by command, control, and a face that doesn't crack under pressure.
That armour was built for a slower world. Today, it's the very thing weighing leaders down. Trust thins. A-players quietly walk into a competitor's lobby. Change initiatives die in the middle. The technically brilliant leader stalls - not because they lack intelligence, but because no one taught them to lead the human inside themselves, let alone the humans around them.
There is another way. We call it Unarmoured. It is measurable. It is teachable. And for the leaders willing to do the work, it is the single most reliable predictor of sustained performance in the decade ahead.
“Vulnerability is the highest form of professional courage.”
— Paul S. McLean, The Unarmoured Leader
OUR METHODOLOGY
How real behaviour change happens.
Most leadership programs are events. Ours is an ecosystem — a 12-month architecture built around how the human brain actually learns, forgets, and rebuilds habit. We call it - Prepare → Learn → Perform.
01
PREPARE
Know who you are before you ask others to follow.
We start with EQ-i 2.0 — the world's most validated emotional intelligence inventory — and or CliftonStrengths. A precise, data-rich map of your strengths, your patterns, and the four leadership dimensions where you'll grow.
02
LEARN
Practice the work in the room, with people who'll tell you the truth.
Immersive cohort workshops, facilitated by certified executive coaches. Peer-to-peer learning that turns abstract skills — empathy, inquiry, strategic vulnerability — into the way you show up on Monday morning.
03
PERFORM
Embed the habit so the learning outlives the workshop.
A dedicated AI-enabled micro-learning app, 1:1 executive coaching, and 12 months of reinforcement — because a two-day workshop cannot rewire a thirty-year habit. Spaced, contextual practice can.
See the full approach →
PROGRAMS
Three doorways. One transformation.
Where you start depends on where you are. Each Academy is a different doorway into the same Unarmoured leadership practice — calibrated to your stage, your team, and your business.
FOR EMERGING LEADERS
ASPIRE Leadership Academy
Transition from ME to WE. Ten sessions that turn high-potential individual contributors into the leaders your business needs next.
Explore ASPIRE →
FOR STABLISHED LEADERS
E.I. Academy + 1:1 Coaching
Twelve months. EQ-i 2.0. Five live workshops. Four 1:1 coaching sessions. The full Unarmoured Edge journey for senior leaders.
Explore E.I. Academy →
FOR SALES LEADERS
SPEND Sales Mastery
Storytelling. Presenting. Engagement. Negotiation. Discovery The human side of sales — taught with the same EI rigour as the leadership academies.
Explore SPEND →
“Technical skills will keep you in the game. Emotional Intelligence will win the championship.”
— Paul S. McLean
Some leaders need a cohort. Some need a quiet room and a coach who'll tell them the truth.
1:1 executive coaching with Paul S. McLean is for the leader who wants the work in private. A monthly cadence. EQ-i 2.0, EQ 360 & STRENGTHS assessments. The full Unarmoured Edge methodology, calibrated entirely to your context, your team, your decisions this quarter. Confidential. Selective. The most direct path from where you are to where you're trying to lead from.
ONE - TO - ONE
Stories from leaders who did the work.
STORIES
ASPIRE - THE TRADE DESK
"Before ASPIRE, our team was good — but we lacked data-driven insights into our individual strengths and how to leverage them. Post-Academy, we've ten-folded our outcomes. ASPIRE broke down barriers, helping us understand each other better, naturalising our teamwork."
Yenny Wong
Senior Director, Talent Acquisition APAC, The Trade Desk
SPEND - CISCO ASIA PACIFIC
“Before the Academy, our team exhibited inconsistent executive engagement. Storytelling lacked structure. Empathy was a concept, not a skill. Post-Academy, our team is more confident, curious, and consultative. IGNITE didn't just train our team — they rewired how we engage."
Sean Duca
APJC CX CTO, CISCO Asia Pacific
Read all the stories →
Start with the philosophy. Or start with the science.
RESOURCES
THE BOOK
The Unarmoured Leader
Paul's manuscript — 5 principles, 10 chapters, 50 numbered quotes on how to lead with vulnerability, empathy, and the courage to be human.
THE WHITEPAPER
The Unarmoured Edge
Executive Edition 2026. The strategic field guide. EQ-i 2.0 framework, the four leadership lenses, the $8.8T case for EI, and the full 12-month program explained. Free to read.
ABOUT
I'm Paul.
I've spent fifteen years inside boardrooms and leadership teams across the globe — and the same pattern emerges every time. Technically brilliant leaders stall, not because they lack intelligence, but because they have never been given the language, the framework, or the practice for the human work of leading.
I wrote The Unarmoured Leader because I got tired of watching good people quietly leave good companies because their managers were never taught how to listen. I built the three IGNITE academies because a two-day workshop cannot rewire a thirty-year habit. And I coach 1:1 because some leaders need a quiet room and someone willing to tell them the truth.
If you're ready to do this work — let's talk.
— Paul S. McLean, Founder & CEO, IGNITE Performance FZCO
Read Paul's full story →
OUR "YOU LEARN — THEY LEARN" COMMITMENT
When you learn, they learn.
A portion of every Academy, coaching engagement, and book sale goes to Dreams For Life — the non-profit Paul founded that has built 24 community schools across Indonesia, providing free Montessori education to 1,300+ children and training 82 community teachers. Leadership development that lifts both ends of the lever.
Ready to lead without armour?
Book a free 30-minute conversation with Paul. No pitch. No commitment. Just a map of where you are and where you could go.