Your First Leadership Job: How Catalyst Leaders Bring Out the Best in Others

About the Author

Tacy M. Byham, PhD

Tacy was named CEO of Development Dimensions International, Inc. (DDI) in 2014. She began her career there in the early 1980s as an intern in the video productions department and computer/technology groups. After graduate school she worked as a trainer in Europe and an assessor for tech clients in the United States. She helped develop innovations and eventually used her experiences to build DDI's fast-growing executive development business.

An expert in creative, custom solutions to address talent management challenges, Tacy's clients include Kuerig Green Mountain, ADP, BNY Mellon, and Texas Children's Hospital. Her writing has been featured in The Conference Board Review, CLO magazine, People Matters (India), and The ASTD Leadership Handbooks (2010 and 2014). She is also a frequent presenter for the Conference Board and ATD (formerly ASTD), where she speaks on topics ranging from innovation, to women and leadership, to mid-level leadership.

Tacy grew up in the home of a thought leader and entrepreneur. Her father, Bill Byham, founded DDI in 1970, and Tacy's own perspective on leadership was developed over a lifetime of dinner conversations with her family about what makes people better stewards of the things that matter to them. She was immersed in the science of human possibility from day one as well as the importance of community service (her mother is a retired politician and community volunteer). We traveled the world as DDI grew,