Toronto-based personality psychologist Maja Djikic has been named to the 2026 Coaches50 list, a global selection of fifty executive coaches recognized for their contributions to leadership, management and organizational development. The biennial list, supported by Coaching.com and organized by Thinkers50, highlights professionals whose work is influencing how leaders learn, make decisions and operate within increasingly complex institutions. Djikic’s inclusion places psychological research on adult development and self-transformation at the center of a field traditionally associated with performance improvement, leadership strategy and workplace behavior.
Djikic is an associate professor of organizational behaviour and human resource management at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, where she also serves as executive director of the Self-Development Lab. Her work examines how adults can develop greater psychological flexibility, interpersonal awareness and capacity for change. These questions are particularly relevant to executive coaching, a discipline that uses structured conversations, behavioral feedback and reflective practices to help individuals alter patterns that affect their leadership and collaboration. Rather than treating professional performance as a fixed expression of personality, this approach considers identity and behavior as systems that can be examined, tested and gradually modified.
The Self-Development Lab provides feedback-based learning activities designed to strengthen the communicative, interactive and interpersonal abilities required in modern organizations. In high-value collaborative work, technical expertise alone is rarely sufficient. Employees and leaders must interpret ambiguous information, communicate across professional and cultural boundaries, regulate emotional responses and make decisions with incomplete data. The lab’s educational model focuses on these underlying capabilities, using feedback as a form of behavioral evidence. When learners compare their self-perceptions with observations from others, they can identify gaps between intention and impact—one of the central mechanisms through which coaching can produce meaningful development.
This process connects closely with research in personality psychology and adult development. Personality traits are often described as relatively stable patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving, but stability does not mean immutability. People can change the way they express traits when circumstances, goals and social roles change. A person who is naturally cautious, for example, may learn to communicate more decisively in situations requiring leadership, while someone who tends toward assertiveness may develop stronger listening and reflection skills. Effective development does not necessarily require replacing a person’s underlying temperament. Instead, it can involve expanding the range of behaviors available to them and improving their ability to select responses appropriate to different contexts.
Djikic’s work also addresses the concept of the possible self, the set of identities a person imagines they could become in the future. These mental representations can influence motivation because they connect present behavior with a meaningful direction. When individuals can envision a credible future version of themselves, they may be more willing to tolerate uncertainty, seek feedback and practice unfamiliar behaviors. However, imagined futures can also create pressure when they are unrealistic or disconnected from a person’s values. The developmental challenge is therefore not simply to pursue an idealized identity, but to construct a possible self that is psychologically meaningful, behaviorally attainable and supported by evidence from lived experience.
That framework is especially important in executive coaching, where clients may be asked to change deeply established habits while continuing to perform under intense pressure. Leadership behaviors are shaped by repeated reinforcement: a communication style that succeeds in one environment may become ineffective after promotion, organizational restructuring or international expansion. Coaching can help reveal these context-dependent patterns through interviews, observation, assessments and guided reflection. The resulting information is most useful when translated into specific experiments, such as changing how a leader conducts meetings, responds to disagreement or delegates responsibility. Outcomes can then be evaluated through subsequent feedback rather than relying only on subjective impressions.
At Rotman, Djikic teaches in executive education programs and serves as academic director of the Rotman Executive Coaching Certificate program. The program reflects the growing demand for coaches who understand both organizational systems and the scientific study of human behavior. Executive coaching operates at the intersection of psychology, management and education, requiring practitioners to distinguish between temporary performance problems, interpersonal conflicts, structural pressures and more enduring behavioral patterns. A scientifically informed coach must also recognize the limits of assessment tools and avoid presenting personality measures as definitive explanations of complex human conduct.
Djikic’s research has received international media attention, appearing in more than fifty outlets across fifteen countries, including The New York Times, Salon, Slate and Scientific American Mind. In 2024, she was named to the Thinkers50 Radar class, which identifies thirty emerging thinkers whose ideas may influence future management thought. Her first book, The Possible Self, was published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers and received the Gold Award in Psychology from the Independent Book Publishers Association in May 2025. The book extends her interest in how people use imagination, self-knowledge and behavioral change to navigate personal and professional development.
The Coaches50 recognition arrives as organizations increasingly seek methods for developing leaders who can work through uncertainty rather than merely apply established procedures. Rapid technological change, distributed teams and complex social expectations have made interpersonal judgment a measurable organizational capability, even when it is difficult to quantify. Djikic’s selection underscores the expanding role of psychological science in leadership development: not as a promise of instant transformation, but as a framework for understanding how feedback, identity, motivation and repeated practice can alter the way people function at work. Her research and teaching place adult development at the heart of that effort, presenting leadership growth as an evidence-based process of learning how to become more capable across changing environments.
Subject of Research: Adult development, personality psychology, executive coaching, leadership development and feedback-based interpersonal learning.
Web References: Thinkers50 Coaches50: https://thinkers50.com/coaches50/; Thinkers50 announcement: https://thinkers50.com/blog/thinkers50-announces-new-coaches50/; Rotman Executive Coaching Certificate: https://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/programs/professional-development-programs/executive-programs/programs-for-individuals/executive-coaching-certificate/; The Possible Self: https://www.majadjikic.com/book; Rotman Insights Hub: http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/insightshub
References: University of Toronto Rotman School of Management; Thinkers50; Coaching.com; Maja Djikic, The Possible Self, Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Image Credits: Maja Djikic.
Keywords: Maja Djikic, University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management, Thinkers50, Coaches50, executive coaching, personality psychology, adult development, leadership development, organizational behaviour, human resource management, self-development, behavioral feedback, possible self.
