People Skills for Individual Contributors
Functionally brilliant.
Career-stuck.
Your ICs are technically excellent. The ceiling they're hitting isn't technical. It's communication, feedback, collaboration, and influence. The skills nobody teaches and everybody needs.
Jordan Kim
Senior Analyst · Year 3
"Functionally one of our strongest. Not ready for the next level. Needs to work on stakeholder management and cross-functional communication."
— Manager review, Q4
Everyone gets training. Except the 80%.
New managers get onboarding. Senior leaders get executive coaching. But the 70-80% of your workforce who aren’t managers? The engineers who can’t navigate a disagreement. The analysts who get passed over because they don’t speak up. They get nothing.
Typical L&D budget allocation
ICs come to me with things they'd never say to their manager. 'I'm afraid to speak up in meetings because I don't want to sound stupid.' 'I got feedback that I'm not collaborative enough and I don't know what that means.' These aren't small things. They're the things that determine whether someone's career moves forward or stalls.
Merlin — AI Coach From “not ready” to promotion-ready.
Risely is the first program built for IC people skills development. Daily coaching, skill assessments, and measurable growth.
Assess
Merlin identifies the biggest growth opportunity across communication, feedback, collaboration, and influence.
Daily practice
One practical technique per day. Delivered in email, Slack, or Teams. Five minutes. Actionable that day.
Coach through it
When a real situation comes up: a tough conversation, a pushback, team dynamics. Merlin coaches through it live.
Measure growth
Before-and-after assessments track improvement. The IC sees their growth. The organization sees aggregate data.
What changes when you actually invest in people skills.
Passed over for promotion
"Not ready" — no clear path to fix it
Avoids difficult conversations
Peer conflicts simmer for weeks
Invisible in cross-team meetings
Good ideas, nobody hears them
Gets defensive on feedback
Manager stops giving it
Works in isolation
Great output, poor collaboration scores
Clear promotion readiness data
Skill scores show exactly where they stand
Handles disagreements productively
Practiced with Merlin before the real conversation
Speaks up with confidence
Stakeholder communication score +31%
Seeks out feedback
Reframed feedback as growth, not threat
Collaborates across teams
Cross-functional partners notice the change
83 skills. Each one coachable, measurable, buildable.
Not personality types. Not abstract competencies. Specific, practicable skills with dedicated assessments and coaching journeys.
Communication & influence
avg improvement
"I have a great idea but I freeze up in front of senior leadership."
Working with others
avg improvement
"My peer gave me feedback and I got defensive. Now things are awkward."
Career growth
avg improvement
"My manager says I'm not ready for promotion but won't tell me why."
How to get budget for something your organization has never funded.
The hardest part isn’t the program. It’s getting it approved. No precedent. No existing budget line. Here’s how other L&D leaders frame it:
"Business unit leaders keep telling us they need better cross-functional collaboration and communication. We don't have a program for that."
"We're losing high-potential ICs because they can't see a growth path. They have the technical skill but not the people skills to advance. Investing in their development keeps them."
"We spend $3,000-5,000 per manager on development but nothing on ICs. That's 80% of our workforce with zero growth investment. At $59 per person, we can cover everyone."
Need to pitch this to your CFO? Generate a custom business case with ROI projections and shareable one-pagers.
Build Your Business Case
73%
high engagement with daily nudges
26%
avg skill improvement in 12 weeks
82%+
still engaging at day 30
$59
per user/month
Trusted by teams at
"I have had 1-1 coaching before, and Risely was so much different. I could pace the guidance as per my preference and customize the challenges I face. The practical advice during my workday helps me easily navigate challenging situations."
Garima Mathur
Director, Strategic Marketing, Micron Technology
"I have been on a trial of Risely and I am very impressed. As someone who designs and delivers leadership development programs, Risely was on point with its journey maps and coaching content. It was responsive and reinforced concepts in a variety of ways."
Janis Cooper
Head of Leadership and Staff Development, Best Friends Animal Society
Frequently asked questions
What people skills does Risely coach on?
Is this just for tech companies?
How is this different from a communication skills workshop?
Do ICs need to be told they need people skills coaching?
How do I justify the budget for IC development?
Why not just use ChatGPT for people skills coaching?
Pick a people skill. See where you stand. Five minutes.
Every quarter without a people skills program is another quarter your ICs are figuring it out alone. The promotion they didn't get. The peer relationship that deteriorated. The collaboration problem nobody named.