Abstract: Disclosed herein are embodiments of chiral and achiral macrocyclic polydentate ligands and methods of preparing the same. Disclosed herein are also embodiments of metal coordination complexes derived from these macrocyclic polydentate ligands and methods of preparing the same. The metal coordination complexes described herein, can be used for a variety of catalytic reactions, including hydrogenation and transfer hydrogenation of unsaturated organic compounds, dehydrogenation of alcohols and boranes, an asymmetric Michael-type addition reaction, or an aerobic oxidative kinetic resolution of an organic compound, dehydrogenative couplings and other catalytic transformations.