Ali Malaekeh
Developing Leaders. Building Culture. Elevating Mental Performance
Helping coaches, athletes, teams, and athletic departments maximize their potential and pursue excellence with purpose
For over 4 decades, Ali Malaekeh has worked in sports as a player, a coach at the collegiate and elite youth levels, and a leadership and mental performance coach.
Leadership, simply put, is influence, and it requires integrity, excellence, and intentional action.
I provide individuals, teams, clubs, and athletic departments with a framework to identify where they are, clarify where they want to go, and intentionally pursue their potential.
My mission is to equip and empower people to thrive.
Keynotes - Workshops - Training - Personalized Coaching
VERITAS: Framework for a fulfilled life
Vision - Excellence - Relationships - Integrity - Trust the Process - Awareness - Sacrifice
VERITAS, in Latin, means truth. VERITAS is built around 7 pillars for living intentionally and pursuing your goals. VERITAS is for individuals, teams, and organizations.
The Standard
This team-building experience helps identify team leaders, build team unity, and identify team standards to live by.
Power of Positive Leadership
In this workshop, coaches, team captains, and all who aspire to be impactful leaders will learn the principles and practices to enhance their leadership capability, leave with ideas and strategies to bring out the best in themselves and your team, build a great culture, lead with optimism, develop a connected and committed team, and achieve results.
Power of Positive Team
Designed for coaches and their teams, we will walk you through a process to stimulate meaningful conversations, create alignment, improve communication, transform negativity, build trust, generate clarity, and enhance positive interactions. Your team will activate the POPT model and implement key practices to become a more united, positive, and powerful team.
Energy Bus
Built on Jon Gordon's bestselling book, this session gives a team shared language for handling negativity before it costs them a season. Athletes and coaches work through the ten rules: owning your attitude, setting a clear vision, fueling the ride with positive energy, keeping energy vampires out of the locker room, and leading with enthusiasm that pulls teammates along.
The 7 Commitments of a Great Team
Talent alone doesn't make a team great. Commitment does. Drawing from Jon Gordon's newest book, this session walks a team through the seven commitments that build trust, deepen connection, and carry a group through adversity, so athletes leave clear on what they owe each other, and coaches leave with a way to hold people accountable without losing them.
Mental Performance Training
Regardless of the sport, mental performance is what sets athletes apart. The athlete who has maximized their skill set in their sport AND developed a mental performance strategy to be the best they can gives themselves the best opportunity to truly live out their potential.
Ali Malaekeh Testimonials
Ali serves as a Leadership Coach on our campus to support our Athletics Life Skills Coordinator and Program. His passion, enthusiasm, and dedication to student-athletes is second to none. He is committed to guiding students on their journey towards self-realization, growth, and success. Ali is an unbelievable role model and we are so lucky to have him as a part of our team.
Allyson Kelly: Director for Athletics Academic Services - Cal State University, Fullerton
My experience with Ali has been incredible. He stepped into a thriving culture and took our team and athletes to another level. To any coach or organization who is looking for a spark or re-ignition, I would recommend Ali.
Chris Gould - Men’s and Women’s Soccer Coach - Concordia University
Ali and I met for a coffee to talk about some of the work he was doing and I knew immediately he would positively impact our team on several levels. The relationship grew and we shared many hours of positive discussions with Ali and our squad, which we continue to benefit from.
Scott Juniper - Head Women's Socccer Coach - University of California, Irvine
It is hard to describe the impact Ali had on our program at our pre-season camp. Our staff and players developed a deep sense of trust between each other, creating an extremely powerful bond that carried through the season. The training was life-changing.
Manuel “Pato” Hurtado - Head Men’s Soccer Coach - College of the Desert
As the pandemic took hold of college athletics in the spring of 2020, Denver Athletics took the bold step of providing POPL training for all of our coaches and senior administrators on the Zoom platform. The training proved incredibly valuable as we navigated the challenges of 2020, and Zoom served as an excellence platform to facilitate the training. Our teams excelled in the classroom and in competition this year and I know that our POPL training last spring was a big part of that success. I can't think of a more valuable investment for college athletics coaches and staff than POPL training.
Karlton Creech - Vice Chancellor of Athletics & Recreation - University of Denver
The Power of Positive Leadership is a must for all coaches. It is a great way to bring your team together and understand the dynamics of chemistry and teamwork. These are life skills that will carry on into real life. Trust me, you will be glad you did it!
Russ Davis: Head Women’s Basketball Coach Vanguard University - National Championship Coach
The Power of Positive Leadership helped me redefine what it means to be a leader. It helps distinguish between being a good team and a great team through self-improvement, positive encouragement, and developing relationships.
Lexi - Division 1 Women’s Track & Field Athlete
Going through The Power of Positive Leadership was a really beneficial experience. It was great to be able to refine my own thoughts, intentions, and actions, while learning about how I can best impact my team.
Maddie - Division 1 Women’s Soccer Player
Positive leadership is what separates being the best player ON the team and being a player FOR the team. POPL gave me the most crucial piece of self-improvement and team development.