Powerful Leadership Development
Practical competency building programs for business leaders
by Annie McCubbin and David McCubbin
We are
Over 20 years in professional people development with major Australian and international companies;
an award-winning, utterly unique, boutique professional development firm
founded by Annie and David McCubbin.
Annie McCubbin
Founder, Actor, Director, Author
Annie is committed to elevating the quality of critical thinking in business and life, focusing on helping women avoid being conned by new-age nonsense and self-help platitudes.
After appearing in major theatre productions and Australian TV dramas, Annie founded COUP with David.
Having trained and coached thousands of women leaders, it became blindingly apparent to Annie that understanding cognitive flaws and unconscious biases can protect our lives from unwelcome drama and ruin.
She became deeply irritated that the benefits of critical thinking are overlooked while New-Age nonsense and pseudoscientific health offerings are widely consumed. She wrote 'Why Smart Women Make Bad Decisions" in 2020 and has just followed this up with "Why Smart Women Buy the Lies.'
David McCubbin
Founder, actor, Managing Director
As Founder and Managing Director, David has pioneered the adoption of skills and disciplines from dramatic art as effective learning and development mechanisms in dozens of blue-chip corporations across banking, professional services, retail, pharma, telecoms, tertiary education, social housing and government. He has designed and delivered countless development programs for senior leaders and provided executive coaching to C-suite execs, CEO's and senior academics. He founded COUP with Annie in 2001. Since then they have delivered programs across Australasia and abroad.
What we can do for you
Our main development modalities
We train
Building your power and ability across the competencies described below; skills that bring career and personal satisfaction. We deliver face-to-face and via online video and utilise a 10:20:70 approach.
We Coach
Helping you get your thoughts straight; clarity about your business context and goals; your purpose, your personal strategies and tactics, and encouragement to back yourself.
We Conference
We offer Keynotes, Team-building and Large Group Facilitation and Skills Transfer; Session design and agile media production.
The Core Competencies
The powers and abilities that underpin effective leadership and help you win at work
Composure
The power and ability to be calm and connected when things get challenging
Communication
The power and ability to create awareness, understanding and belief
Collaboration
The power and ability to build and lead high performing, high-achieving teams
Cognition
The power and ability to see clearly, apply critical thinking and make good decisions
Book a meeting
If you want to increase your impact and influence book us for a complimentary consultation. We’ll help you:-
- Clarify your personal and professional goals
- Gain expert insight and guidance on what it takes to achieve them
- Learn about your development options and opportunities.
Our experience
Over the last two decades, we've worked with many great companies
What experienced leaders Say
"Watching Annie and David work is a joy. Illustrating behaviour, with superb acting skill, ensures the leadership insights and wisdom come to life and truly land with participants - often with humour, always with impact."
Kathleen Bailey-Lord FAICD
Independent Non-Executive Director
"Their approach is innovative, creative and tailored to the specific needs of the organisations they work with. It has proven to be highly successful with participants who take away practical strategies they can use immediately to be more effective leaders.
David and Annie’s experience training leadership teams in Australia and Asia allows them to work effectively and productively across all sectors and industries."
Dagmar Schmidmaeir AM
Educator, Mentor & Book Adviser to Business Leaders
"I worked with David and Annie from COUP for 4 years from 2017 to 2020 delivering the CEW Leaders Program.
Their programs are competency based and their delivery style is creative, thought provoking, fun and most importantly different to other leadership programs.
I can’t recommend David and Annie highly enough."
Amanda Mostyn
HR Advisor, Non Executive Director, CEW Member, Former Group Executive Human Resources, ASX.
What most interests you?
Building Strength in your Leadership Pipeline
Building Your Core Leadership Strengths