Building Conscious Leadership Through Paradigm21

True leadership development begins with transformation from within. For nearly two decades, Margie Poon Edmonson, Founder and CEO of Paradigm21 Executive Leadership Coaching Academy, has championed a deeper approach to executive coaching—one that goes beyond skills training to develop conscious leadership, ethical clarity, emotional intelligence, cultural awareness, and meaningful results.

Since founding Paradigm21 in 2006, Margie has built a coaching, leadership development, and coach education business serving professionals and organizations across Hong Kong, Singapore, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Macau, the Greater Bay Area, Shanghai, Malaysia, and other international markets.

Through Paradigm21 Executive Leadership Coaching Academy, the organization provides ICF-accredited coach certification, executive coaching, team coaching, leadership training, mentor coaching, coach supervision, and support for organizations looking to develop their leaders and teams.

As an ICF Master Certified Coach, Margie is the owner and Global Training Director of Paradigm21’s ICF-accredited Level 1 and Level 2 coaching programmes, supporting aspiring and experienced coaches through the ACC and PCC credential pathways. Her programmes are designed not only to help participants earn professional credentials, but also to build the knowledge, confidence, discipline, and presence needed to coach leaders, teams, and organizations through challenging situations and periods of change.

Margie’s work has earned international recognition over the years, including being named among the 101 Top Global Coaching Leaders by the World Coaching Congress, CEO Today Executive Coach 2022, Best Coaching Education Excellence Awards 2023, Hong Kong Woman Leaders 2025, and Most Influential Coaching Leaders Hong Kong 2025. These recognitions reflect her long-standing contribution to executive coaching, leadership education, coach certification, and the wider coaching community.

Beyond Coaching and Leadership Training

A central part of Margie’s work is her role as an author and co-author of the Paradigm21 Leadership Book Series, a collection of practical resources for executives, coaches, HR professionals, trainers, and organizational leaders.

Her work covers topics including Coaching Difficult People, Clean Language Coaching, Limiting Beliefs, and Transformational Team Coaching, along with other Paradigm21 leadership publications. These books and mini-eBooks extend the learning beyond formal training programmes, offering practical tools, reflection exercises, and ideas that readers can apply to coaching conversations, leadership, team development, and workplace challenges.

What also sets Paradigm21 apart is that it is more than a training academy. Alongside developing certified coaches, the organization has built a network of professional executive coaches, leadership coaches, team coaches, mentor coaches, and other specialists.

Through this network, Paradigm21 supports multinational companies, senior executives, HR leaders, learning and development teams, and organizations across industries including aviation, finance, technology, healthcare, retail, hospitality, legal services, education, and professional services.

When Margie founded Paradigm21, executive coaching was still developing across much of Asia. Her approach looked beyond conventional leadership training and brought together emotional intelligence, adaptability, cultural awareness, ethical self-awareness, and coaching practices designed to help people better understand themselves and how they lead others.

She believes that good leaders are not simply those with strong technical knowledge. They are also able to remain grounded under pressure, make decisions based on their values, adapt when circumstances change, and guide their people through uncertainty.

Continuing to Build the Next Generation of Leaders and Coaches

The COVID years tested this approach. While many organizations paused or changed their development plans, Margie continued to train, mentor, and support coaches and leaders around the world. During that period, she mentored and trained more than 500 coaches and leaders.

The experience strengthened her belief that times of disruption are often when people need support and development the most.

Today, Margie continues to focus on an issue she sees across many organizations: while companies invest heavily in systems, technology, and new tools, the people responsible for leading others also need ongoing development.

Through Paradigm21, her work focuses on helping leaders strengthen areas such as emotional resilience, ethical decision-making, adaptability, coaching skills, and cultural awareness.

Over nearly two decades, Margie has built more than a coaching academy. Through education, coaching, professional networks, corporate partnerships, and published work, Paradigm21 has grown into an international platform that continues to support coaches, leaders, and organizations.

Every Paradigm21 graduate, associate coach, certified practitioner, and reader of the Paradigm21 Leadership Book Series carries forward the knowledge and ideas gained through this work into their own careers and organizations.

From Hong Kong to Singapore, the United States, and other international markets, Margie Poon Edmonson and Paradigm21 Executive Leadership Coaching Academy continue to support the development of leaders and professional coaches who are better prepared to guide people, make responsible decisions, and lead through change.

For Margie, leadership development is not simply about teaching people how to perform better in a role. It is also about helping them better understand themselves, the people they lead, and the impact they can have on those around them.

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