Great leaders are not defined solely by their strategies or the results they achieve but by the connections they foster and the cultures they create. In industries where growth hinges on human potential, the role of a leader extends beyond decision-making; it involves inspiring, coaching, and shaping the individuals who drive progress.
Tim Hagen, President of Progress Coaching, exemplifies this transformative approach. A visionary in the field of coaching and talent development, Tim has revolutionized the way organizations cultivate their workforce. His dedication to fostering trust, delivering candid feedback, and building meaningful relationships has established him as one of the most visionary business leaders to watch in 2025.
Inspiration behind Progress Coaching
Tim began his journey in the technology training industry, teaching individuals how to use computers. During these early years, he observed a critical flaw in traditional training methods: workshops and one-time events often failed to deliver lasting value. Attendees would leave with knowledge, but the impact rarely extended beyond the initial sessions.
This realization deepened when Tim transitioned to Progress Coaching. He noticed a similar pattern in leadership, sales, and customer service training. Workshops, often conducted for large groups, provided information but lacked the follow-through needed to translate learning into lasting change. Tim observed that leaders frequently assumed that employees should inherently know how to apply the training they received.
According to him, “Training has never been the problem; the missing link has always been training reinforcement.” He emphasizes that effective reinforcement involves more than repetition—it requires intentional, practice-driven application of skills in real-world scenarios. For instance, when leaders attend conflict management training, they need opportunities to practice those difficult conversations in their teams. Tim believes that training departments and leaders must collaborate to ensure that the lessons taught are applied, refined through practice, and reinforced with positive feedback.
Progress Coaching’s Edge
For nearly three decades, Tim has been at the forefront of teaching leaders how to coach—an approach that was almost unheard of when he began. Even five years ago, before the pandemic, coaching was still a rarity in many organizations. Tim observed a critical flaw: without reinforcement, up to 80% of training is forgotten within two weeks if not actively applied or practiced.
What sets Progress Coaching apart is its holistic and practical approach. Beyond offering a coaching program, it provides a robust framework and over 300 specialized courses designed to turn training into actionable results. Tim likens the framework to a programming language that enables leaders to embed coaching into their leadership style, ensuring training isn’t just theoretical but applied. Progress Coaching further distinguishes itself by tailoring its solutions to align with an organization’s unique business objectives, such as sales strategies, customer service models, or corporate values.
Leading with Honesty and Connection
Tim believes impactful leadership is rooted in genuine connection and unwavering honesty. While strategies and numbers are important, he emphasizes that people are the driving force behind them. Leaders, through every interaction, coach their teams—intentionally or not—shaping whether employees feel supported or alienated. Neglecting this responsibility, he warns, silently signals a lack of care, often pushing employees to leave.
Honesty, Tim asserts, is equally vital. Despite organizational politics or sensitivities, integrity must never be compromised. Reflecting on 32 years at Progress Coaching, he is proud that no client has ever doubted the trustworthiness of his team, even when disagreements arose. Trust, he notes, is built on consistent transparency.
Drawing from decades of coaching boys’ volleyball, Tim explains that feedback, while often difficult to hear, is a reflection of perception, not intention. Leaders must embrace honest communication and candid feedback to foster trust, inspire growth, and drive meaningful connections.
Navigating Industry Challenges
Tim highlights the significant challenges faced in the coaching industry, particularly since the pandemic. The perception of coaching in the marketplace has grown exponentially, leading to a 53% increase in practitioners entering the field. This surge has made coaching more mainstream but has also resulted in a saturated market, where many companies now train leaders in coaching—an area Progress Coaching has pioneered for over 30 years.
Another layer of complexity comes with the rapid integration of artificial intelligence. While it poses challenges, Tim sees it as an opportunity to innovate. Progress Coaching is currently developing over 15 AI-powered tools designed to add a distinctive edge. A standout among these tools is Luna, a career coaching avatar. Luna initiates conversations to uncover participants’ career aspirations and integrates assessments seamlessly into the dialogue. For instance, when the opportunity arises, Luna asks participants if they’d like to take an assessment. Once agreed upon, the assessment is conducted conversationally. The results of these assessments are not only provided to the individual but also shared with their manager, accompanied by an interpretation guide.
Cultivating a Positive Culture
Tim embodies the principles he teaches. With a fully virtual team, he views remote work not as a challenge but as an opportunity to foster a culture of positivity and reinforcement. Using tools like Slack, the team maintains a constant stream of constructive communication, emphasizing daily strength-based feedback and encouragement.
This approach extends to Progress Coaching’s methodology through a program called CADENCE Coaching. CADENCE creates a structured system for asynchronous coaching, enabling continuous dialogue filled with ideas, feedback, and solutions. By streamlining the coaching process, it saves 40–60% of the time typically required for traditional coaching, while maintaining its effectiveness.
Defining Success
Tim defines success through a straightforward yet impactful lens. At Progress Coaching, success revolves around two primary objectives. The first is empowering leaders to coach with fluency and adaptability, regardless of the situation. This approach emphasizes leveraging individuals’ strengths to elevate them to the next level.
The second objective is cultivating a mindset of coachability among employees and leaders being coached. Tim believes that fostering vulnerability and active participation in the coaching process is equally critical. At Progress Coaching, the organization not only trains leaders to coach effectively but also supports them with consistent practice and repetition. Simultaneously, the team ensures that individuals on the receiving end of coaching are prepared to embrace feedback and engage constructively.
Adapting to Evolving Workplace Dynamics
Tim emphasizes that while workplace settings—whether remote, hybrid, or in-office—may influence the format of conversations, the foundational skills of coaching remain constant. Whether through Zoom, phone calls, or face-to-face interactions, effective coaching adapts seamlessly to the medium while retaining its core principles.
To address the unique challenges of modern workplaces, Progress Coaching employs a methodology called QALMS.
- Questions: Focus on developing self-awareness, a critical area as research suggests 85% of individuals significantly lack self-awareness.
- Activities: Drive positive change by encouraging action, addressing the fact that few individuals proactively embrace improvement without structured initiatives.
- Learning Projects: Foster accountability and ownership by proactively engaging individuals in projects that facilitate growth, as opposed to reactive measures like post-event feedback.
- Motivators: Highlight career development, addressing the statistic that 42% of employees actively seek other roles due to a lack of growth opportunities and coaching.
- Supplemental Coaching: Provide prescriptive strategies that require minimal time commitment from leaders, addressing the common challenge of time constraints while ensuring coaching remains impactful.
Driving Innovation Through Technology
Tim highlights the pivotal role of innovation and technology in modernizing coaching practices. Recognizing the transformative potential of artificial intelligence, Progress Coaching is actively developing AI-driven tools designed to initiate conversations and empower leaders to seamlessly step into coaching roles.
Among these innovations are tools built using platforms like ChatGPT, tailored to address specific workplace challenges. For instance, a career development AI tool enables employees to explore their professional aspirations while generating assessment results that guide leaders in fostering meaningful growth. Similarly, a motivation-focused AI tool engages employees in discussions about their drive and provides actionable insights to their leaders. These tools not only facilitate coaching but also equip leaders with a deeper understanding of their teams’ needs.
Success with the Milwaukee Brewers
Tim shared a remarkable success story involving the Milwaukee Brewers’ sales and customer service teams, with whom Progress Coaching has worked for some time. Despite being the smallest market team in Major League Baseball, the Brewers consistently rank among the top ten in ticket sales—a notable achievement given the challenges of operating at a disadvantage compared to larger teams.
Progress Coaching embedded a leadership coaching program and a peer-to-peer feedback strategy within the organization. From day one, every new team member is taught how to provide coaching and feedback to one another. The coaching doesn’t stop at onboarding; it continues weekly through internal leaders.
Recently, during their annual training, one leader turned to another and commented, “I’ve never seen anything like this. Everybody is practicing, working, and nobody is complaining or rolling their eyes.” This positive response is especially noteworthy in sales and customer service teams, where such events often see resistance. The ongoing coaching has proven to be a key factor in maintaining high performance within this dynamic team.
Passion for Coaching
Tim shares that staying motivated and inspired to lead is easy for him, thanks to the rewarding nature of the work at Progress Coaching. The company thrives on helping others, particularly those in human resources, training, and executive roles. Tim believes that people inherently want to help others, and by fostering thoughtful relationships, these connections often grow into genuine friendships.
He also jokingly referred to himself as possessing what he calls a “coaching gene”—a trait that drives his constant desire to inspire and motivate. Even when out for dinner, he finds himself observing and praising others to encourage their growth. Despite stepping away from coaching boys’ volleyball two years ago, the urge to coach remains strong, and the energy he invests in his work is apparent. Tim feels fortunate to be in a field where the pressure is less intense compared to industries like healthcare, where the stakes can be much higher. Ultimately, he finds motivation in the impact of helping people and the meaningful relationships formed along the way.
Vision for the Future
Tim outlined a twofold vision for Progress Coaching over the next five years. The first element focuses on the integration of artificial intelligence into their practices, recognizing the growing demand within the industry for this technology. However, Tim emphasized that the second part of the vision is equally crucial—AI will require leaders to engage in more meaningful conversations with their employees.
He believes that as technology advances, the need for empathy, support, and communication will only increase. This was evident during the pandemic when many organizations transitioned to remote work, using tools like Citrix and Zoom. The rapid shift forced leaders to have conversations they hadn’t anticipated. Organizations that had embedded coaching into their leadership practices managed the transition smoothly, while those that hadn’t struggled.
