Led by Arecia Hester, Certified Professional Life Coach and leadership development facilitator, team-building consulting services combine research-backed Team Development Interventions with trauma-informed leadership practices. The result is practical, evidence-based support that improves collaboration, communication, trust, and measurable performance outcomes.
Arecia’s coaching has strengthened, challenged, and refined my leadership and management skills, preparing me for the next stage of my career. Her professional insight and ability to equip leaders for today’s evolving workforce are unmatched. I’m truly grateful that our paths crossed.
Senior Program Manager
Working with my life coach, Ace has been a truly transformative experience. Before beginning coaching, I felt stuck, with goals but no clear path to achieving them. However, through our sessions, I gained clarity, practical tools, and a renewed sense of confidence. What I value most is the supportive and non-judgmental space she creates. This environment allowed me to dive deeper, challenge old habits, and finally make the changes I had been avoiding for years. As a result, I am now more focused, motivated, and aligned with the life I want to build. In conclusion, getting a life coach was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
Fashion Designer and Owner of Lockame Design Co.
Arecia’s leadership and coaching have played a vital role in advancing my career. She brings a high level of professionalism that blends clarity and genuine care, creating a space where growth feels both challenging and supported. Her guidance has helped me become a more confident, intentional and effective leader.
Program Coordinator
Arecia has a rare gift for challenging leaders to achieve authentic growth. Working with her, I learned how to truly communicate, listen effectively, command a room, and navigate difficult spaces with confidence. She doesn't just teach leadership; she models it, and every moment of her wisdom is worth grasping.
Aquatics Director and Comedian
Arecia’s leadership has been truly transformative for me. Her mentorship taught me how to lead my team with confidence, authenticity, and encouragement. Because of her guidance, I now believe in my ability to succeed in any job and in any leadership role.
Professional Fitness Manager
My Mom who many know as Arecia, is the kind of woman whose presence alone brings stability, clarity, and reassurance. Her consistency is unmatched—her word is her bond, and there has never been a single moment where she hasn’t shown up for me. She has supported me through every season of my life, and she has done it with grace, strength, and a deep sense of purpose. Everything I know about confidence, hard work, poise, and integrity, I learned by watching her. She doesn't just teach those values—she lives them. I’ve seen firsthand how she walks into a room and commands it effortlessly, how she holds herself with quiet power, and how people naturally gravitate toward her because she moves with intention and authenticity. She says what she means, she means what she says, and she follows through every single time. She is the type of woman who makes you believe that transformation is possible because she has modeled transformation, resilience, and self-belief throughout her own life.
To any woman blessed enough to work with her, she is a guide, a mentor, and a source of real, practical wisdom. I am so fortunate to have grown up learning from her, and I know that any woman who chooses her as their coach will experience the same empowerment, clarity, and confidence that she has poured into me.
Manager, Artistic Creative, Dancer
Plenty of people refer to themselves as “bosses” meanwhile, Arecia is the real deal. She is a genuine leader in the truest sense of the word. She meets every individual right where they are, and offers a combination of development, accountability and dependability that is so refreshing and effective in workplace productivity.
I loved learning from Arecia and am without question, better from it.
Fitness Professional
Most traditional team-building activities create temporary morale boosts.
This work creates lasting operational change.
Taking First uses a diagnostic-first, data-informed approach to understand your team’s real dynamics before designing any engagement.
This is not performance theater.
This is functional, respectful, aligned teamwork.
At Taking First, team building helps teams:
We focus on how your team operates in real conditions, not just how they feel in a workshop.
Team building services are valuable for organizations that want to improve performance without sacrificing humanity or well-being.
You do not need a crisis to invest in stronger team dynamics...only need a willingness to improve how people relate and work together.
If any of these resonate, a structured team-building intervention can provide clarity and reset momentum.
We explore your team’s goals, structure, and current challenges.
Programs are fully customizable, ranging from:
Teams practice communication, emotional regulation, accountability, and collaborative problem-solving in real work contexts.
Through surveys, interviews, and observation, we gather data on communication patterns, cultural dynamics, trust levels, and operational friction.
Sessions include:
Follow-up assessments measure impact and identify continued growth opportunities.
This ensures the work does not end when the session ends.
We explore your team’s goals, structure, and current challenges.
Through surveys, interviews, and observation, we gather data on communication patterns, cultural dynamics, trust levels, and operational friction.
Programs are fully customizable, ranging from:
Sessions include:
Teams practice communication, emotional regulation, accountability, and collaborative problem-solving in real work contexts.
Follow-up assessments measure impact and identify continued growth opportunities.
This ensures the work does not end when the session ends.
For many BIWOC women, professional development often includes additional layers:
Ideal for:
Los Angeles Team Building
In-person facilitation in Los Angeles provides focused time for recalibration in fast-paced, high-pressure environments.
Designed for organizations operating across multiple offices or time zones.
Taking First facilitates team development through a culturally aware, trauma-informed lens.
No one is asked to overexplain their identity.
No one is forced into vulnerability.
Psychological safety, consent, and respect remain central.
This approach allows teams to build trust and alignment without reinforcing harm.
Many traditional team-building programs focus on entertainment or temporary morale boosts. At Taking First, the approach is different. These sessions are not built around trust falls, games, or forced icebreakers. Instead, the work focuses on real workplace dynamics such as communication patterns, leadership behaviors, and psychological safety.
Teams participate in structured, skill-based sessions that provide practical tools they can immediately apply in their daily work environments. The goal is not just to create a positive experience for the day, but to help teams develop sustainable communication habits that strengthen collaboration over time.
Team-building programs are fully customizable to meet the organization's needs. Some teams benefit from a focused one-day session designed to address a specific challenge or communication issue. Other organizations choose multi-session engagements that allow deeper integration of leadership and collaboration skills over time.
During the initial consultation, the scope of the engagement is discussed so the structure aligns with the team’s goals, size, and existing workplace dynamics. Organizations that want to combine leadership growth with team development sometimes integrate Professional Development Coaching for managers or leadership teams.
Yes. In many organizations, conflict is not the problem—poor communication around conflict is. Structured team facilitation creates a supportive environment in which teams can address tension productively rather than avoid it.
Through guided discussion and skill-building exercises, teams learn how to communicate more clearly, listen more effectively, and navigate disagreement without damaging trust or collaboration. Leaders who want to strengthen their communication and conflict navigation skills individually often pair team programs with Personal Development Coaching.
Not at all. Small teams, startups, leadership groups, nonprofits, and growing organizations often see some of the most powerful results from team development work. In smaller teams, communication patterns tend to be closely interconnected, which means improving one area of collaboration can positively influence the entire group.
For organizations that are scaling quickly, structured team development can also help establish healthy communication norms early. Leadership teams interested in strengthening their executive presence or communication style sometimes combine teamwork with services like Image Consulting.
Yes. The approach used at Taking First is trauma-informed, which means psychological safety, consent, and pacing are prioritized throughout the process. No one is forced to share personal information or participate beyond their comfort level.
This approach recognizes that people bring lived experiences into the workplace, and those experiences influence how individuals communicate, collaborate, and respond to stress. Trauma-informed facilitation fosters trust and respects personal boundaries. This philosophy reflects the broader leadership approach developed by Arecia Hester.
Yes. Team development interventions are supported by extensive research in organizational psychology and leadership science. When structured well, these programs can significantly improve communication, trust, and overall team performance.
Arecia’s facilitation approach integrates evidence-based team science, trauma-informed leadership practices, and structured skill-building designed to support long-term behavioral change. Rather than focusing on short-term motivation, the work is designed to create measurable improvements in how teams communicate and collaborate long after the sessions end.
Organizations interested in exploring whether team development is the right fit can start the conversation through the Contact page.
