Greater Washington, D.C. Area
Co-Founder and CEO
Catherine is passionately dedicated to helping leaders and organizations lean into the power of developing people to drive business success and meaningful social contribution.
Catherine brings over 25 years of experience working as an organizational and people skills development practitioner and executive coach working with business, government, and non-profit leaders to address strategic, systems and people challenges and opportunities. Catherine’s coaching practice focuses on helping executive leaders and teams OWN + MODEL + DRIVE business and people development in their companies. She is known for being a trusted and strategic thought partner who listens well and creates a safe space for her clients to explore the heart of issues, what is possible, what is needed from their leadership and what is holding them back.
As AO’s CEO, her focus is on guiding her team to build the full suite of capabilities to help leaders re-imagine and create the culture, structure, systems, and incentives that make investing in conscious people development a more integrated and holistic way to foster the capabilities people and business need to grow and thrive today and tomorrow.
Catherine is co-author of a book with Ed Offterdinger titled, Conscious, Capable, and Ready to Contribute: A Fable-How Employee Development Can Become the Highest Form of Social Contribution.
“Everything is perfect, and we get to figure out why”. Over the years, this phrase has served me well by reminding me to look at everyone and everything as a teacher – a source of learning and growth. This way of thinking has made all the difference in how I navigate every aspect of my personal and professional life. Hang around me long enough and invariably life will dish up an opportunity for me to ask, “what might be perfect about this situation?”
Encountering a very angry elephant while doing wildlife management research in Zimbabwe and living to talk about it.
Embrace the opportunity to grow your brand and reputation as a company that truly invests in helping employees grow their capabilities – even and especially during an employee off boarding experience. When viewed through the development lens, this is a valuable opportunity for employers to learn and improve organizational and people development practices, build brand ambassadors, and enable departing employees to reflect on gains in skills and capabilities.
“Build it so they will want to come, flourish, and stay, knowing that someday they may leave.
Thus, it is imperative to define what you want them to say about their growth experience with your organization and what you want the outside world to say about how you invest in and contribute capable people to society.”
-Ed Offterdinger & Catherine Allen
Conscious, Capable, and Ready to Contribute. (p. 173)
Integrate practices, principles, and tools to better evaluate a candidate’s orientation to continuous learning and development as a factor in their overall fit for a position. This provides:
