Future-Proof Your Career
Master Uniquely Human Leadership Skills
Cooper Margolin is a boutique leadership coaching team specialized in the development of Human Centered Leadership. We are located in the tech and startup hub of Los Angeles known as Silicon Beach to conveniently serve Culver City, Santa Monica, Venice Beach, Marina del Rey, Playa Vista and El Segundo in person or virtually.
As AI rapidly takes over technical execution, data analysis, and remote administrative tasks, the market value of uniquely human skills like empathy, ethical judgement, complex communication, and intellectual creativity is skyrocketing!
Who We Work With
We work with highly motivated individuals from early career to senior executives who are ready to develop their understanding and application of the Uniquely Human Skills that will make them better teammates and leaders. While technical skills (hard skills) often get you through the door, Human Skills will provide the ceiling for how high you can go.
How We Help
Our work focuses on the Human Skills that AI will never replicate, such as:
Radical Empathy: Learning to listen to what isn’t being said, not just what is being said.
Psychological Safety: Building trust through honesty, not just through “perfect performance”.
Adaptive Intelligence: Using AI as a tool to free up your time for deep creative work that increases your intelligence as well as the intelligence of all those around you.
Soft Power of Influence: Understanding the motivations, fears, and goals of your colleagues to build coalitions of allies.
About Cooper Margolin
Where Human Insight Meets Leadership
Melissa W. Cooper
Gary Margolin
For over 25 years, Gary has served as a Human Centered Leadership Coach to individuals and businesses ranging in size from start up to multi-billion dollar private and publicly traded enterprises. After beginning his career as a corporate finance attorney, he served as a senior executive with a Fortune 250 media and entertainment company for a decade. He believes that the adoption of Human Centered principles is the “secret sauce” for both individual and enterprise success.
Melissa is a licensed Psychotherapist in California and seasoned Human Centered Leadership Coach. Before changing careers and becoming a therapist, she gained extensive experience as an entrepreneur and executive and uses her experiences as well as training in relational and behavioral dynamics to help clients make their careers and lives better. Melissa specializes in help women negotiate the unique challenges they encounter in the workplace.
Their partnership was born from a shared belief that the most effective leaders aren’t those with the best strategy but rather those with the highest capacity for human connection.
Working closely with clients across many industries we’ve learned that the most important shifts in leadership come from How Leaders Think. That is the Focus of our Work
People who master Human Center Principles are significantly more likely to be rated as high performing which impacts promotion decisions.
What the Research Shows About Mastering Uniquely Human Skills
— Gallup ResearchPeople who demonstrate empathy, inclusion, and strong interpersonal skills are up to 2 to 3x more likely to be seen as effective.
— McKinsey ResearchPeople who build trust and psychological safety are more likely to be identified as high potential and considered for promotion.
— Harvard Business Review-
A Human Centered approach prioritizes people’s needs, growth, well-being, and contributions, not just performance. It emphasizes empathy, emotional intelligence, well-being, and authentic relationships, rather than purely results or metrics. Organizations that apply a Human Centered approach have been shown to out perform those that don’t.
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Human Centered Coaching shifts the focus from purely functional outcomes (like a sales target or learning a specific skill) to the internal landscape and holistic well-being of individual we are coaching. We facilitate our client’s own discovery while focusing on self-awareness, resilience, values, emotions and identity so you can lead tasks or what to do, we teach you lead and inspire others.
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No, applying human centered principles is a meaningful advantage at any stage of your career. Research shows that people who consistently practice human centered principles are:
Significantly more likely to be rated as high performing and high potential.
More likely to be seen as leadership ready.
More likely to receive a promotion.
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Whether the leader or just team member, people who practice human centered principles:
Improve team performance and retention.
Build trust and collaboration.
Reduce conflict and burnout.
Align individuals with team and organizational goals.
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Together we explore your strengths, life experiences that have shaped you, ways you get in your own way, what motivates you in your work and life, what gives you joy, and what are the values in life you are committed to. By doing so, we will surface patterns that are difficult to see alone, challenge assumptions that may no longer be useful, and work through complexity without oversimplifying.
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Being an effective Human Centered Coach is more than an academic pursuit. Both Melissa and Gary have done the personal work necissary to help others apply Human Centered practices in their work and life. It is why we offer a free consultation without limiting the length so we have sufficient time to know each other and determine if we are a good fit to work together.
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We offer many different ways for our clients to work with us. Our goal is to help our clients succeed, so we offer flexible pricing based on the goals and individual situation of the client. After our initial consultation we’ll provide a transparent quote with no hidden costs.
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No, we know that uniquely human skills are gained by a client in their own time and way. Our job is to facilitate their process so we design each engagement to meet their individual goals.
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Yes, many of our clients start coaching and take breaks, coming back for further coaching when they want. Human centered coaching is a personal experience that is best when tailored to an individual’s current goals.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are You Ready to Lead the Future ?
The future of work isn’t Human vs. AI. It’s Human Powered Leadership supported by AI.
Don’t just manage systems. Learn to lead people and reclaim the skills that make you irreplaceable.
Let’s discuss how to elevate your Human Impact in a digital world!