Coaches Rising

What are we really doing as coaches? What is the key beyond the tools that creates transformation in our clients? In this conversation with conscious leadership coach Jim Dethmer we dive into the topic of presence and leadership coaching, the root causes of avoiding presence, creating sustainable transformation and key presence practices for coaches. Jim Dethmer is a coach, speaker, author, and founding partner at The Conscious Leadership Group. He has personally worked with over 150 CEOs and their teams to integrate conscious leadership into their organizations. Jim also leads monthly Forums for select leaders in Chicago and New York and trains coaches through The Conscious Leadership Group. He has spoken at Conscious Capitalism, Wisdom 2.0, Mindful Leadership Summit, Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management and USC School of Medicine Greenville. He is co-author of High Performing Investment Teams and The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership.

Coaching is so much more than employing the skillset we’re taught in training. If we bring all of who we are to our coaching, then necessarily our own relationship with life in all its facets will inform how deep we can go with our clients. In this conversation with life coach Marita Bolles we explore the ontological approach of her coaching, some common pitfalls for coaches, how we relate to possibility, inquiring into faith, depth in the coaching industry and the future of coaching. Marita Bolles is a professional life coach who has trained coaches and leaders within an International Coach Federation (ICF) accredited training program and works with leaders, teams, coaches and individuals on their professional and personal development. Marita’s philosophy of coaching is wholistic, and her methodology is both ontological and facilitative. She is also a practicing artist and a scholar, with an MA and PhD in music, and an MFA in visual art, with specialties in applied ontology, cybernetics, conceptual art and music composition.

In a time that is rife with divisiveness in the exterior, how do we consciously integrate polarities within ourselves? In this conversation with mindfulness teacher Thomas McConkie we dive into the foundations of Integral Polarity Practice, its origins and applications, ascending versus descending streams, the value of voice dialogue, the deeper workings of polarity and the pitfalls of the construct-aware stage. Thomas McConkie is the founder of Lower Lights School of Wisdom and has a passion for the world's Wisdom traditions. He is trained as a developmental researcher, facilitator, and mindfulness teacher. He hosts the Lower Lights Sangha in Salt Lake City, Utah with the intention of creating a generative environment where seekers of diverse faith orientations can discover new depths and heights in their evolving personhood. Thomas is the host of the Mindfulness+ podcast and the author of the book, Navigating Mormon Faith Crisis.

We are living in times when we urgently need to start thinking in terms of systems rather than isolated parts. In this conversation with leadership consultant Paul Zonneveld we dive into the foundations of the systemic approach to working with organisations, locating the blockages, the role of sensing and intuition, presencing unwanted parts and working with the soul of the organisation. Paul Zonneveld is an internationally experienced leadership consultant who guides leaders, professionals and organizations in growth, change and transformation processes. Paul is a Mobius Executive Leadership senior faculty for top team interventions with over twenty-five years of international business experience in various roles. He has unique expertise in understanding systems, enabling him to offer insight into how to manage change and transformation for leaders of large companies, those who find themselves in complex situations or those going through M&A.

The way we ascribe meaning informs every aspect of our lived experience; it may be the single most impactful place to look when we want to create change. In this conversation with executive leadership coach Darren Gold we explore the impact of meaning-making on leadership behaviour, locating leadership blockages, how adult development impacts meaning-making and wiring beliefs into the body. Darren Gold is the CEO of The Trium Group where he is one of the world’s leading executive coaches and advisors to CEOs and leadership teams of many of the most well-known organizations. He combines leadership development, executive coaching, and management consulting to help organizations turn leadership into their greatest competitive advantage. Darren trained as a lawyer, worked at McKinsey & Co., was a partner at two San Francisco investment firms, and served as the CEO of two companies.

The impact of our relating is becoming ever more recognised as a crucial piece of the puzzle in our ability to thrive. In this conversation with psychologist and consultant Debra Pearce-McCall we dive into interpersonal neurobiology, the emergent property of mind and how to harness it in coaching, emotional contagion and its implications, the dance of emergence and structure and relationality in the workplace. Debra Pearce-McCall, PhD, is a psychologist, consultant and mind coach, who brings the latest understandings of our relating minds and brains into everything she does. She works with leaders, healthcare professionals, coaches, educators, and other folks who want to bring mindful, compassionate presence and applied neuroscience into their lives and their mentoring work with people. Debra has been active in the cutting-edge field of interpersonal neurobiology for over a decade and integrates its meta-framework with state of the art tools, including mind-body methods that help strengthen the nervous system and brain, and powerful skill builders, like Conversational Intelligence®.

Learning how to motivate ourselves and our clients is key to creating the changes we want. Simply knowing what’s good for us isn’t enough for us to change our behaviour, so what role does desire play in the physiology of habit formation? In this conversation with desire coach Kiosh Iselin we explore the mechanics of desire, the role of desire in habit creation, hacking the dopaminergic reward system and working with self-blaming and procrastination. Kiosh Iselin is the founder of The Desire Clinic, whose mission is to reconnect desire, pleasure and health. The Desire Clinic was born out of a passion to further understand how motivation functions in habit formation after Kiosh discovered that the desire system (known as the dopaminergic reward system) has a significant impact on behaviour. He is a Mayo Clinic Trained Wellness Coach, has a Masters of Science in Physical Therapy and a Masters of Arts in Political Science.

We are facing the shifting of an age. Humanity can and must radically transform - what individual and collective actions are constructive to facilitate this process? In this conversation with entrepreneur Thomas Björkman we take a meta view of the current times of social and political upheaval and explore lessons from deep history to deep psychology, considerations in transforming complex systems, the fragility and transformation of social constructs and the individual shifts we can make. Tomas Björkman is a social entrepreneur, thinker, writer, and philanthropist. Formerly a serial entrepreneur in banking, real estate, media and IT, Tomas has since shifted his efforts toward catalyzing a human culture of consciousness development that can drive societal change. He is the co-founder of the Ekskäret Foundation in Stockholm, which aims to catalyze higher levels of individual and societal consciousness by supporting social entrepreneurs and operating arenas that bring change agents together. He is also the author of The Market Myth, The Nordic Secret and The World We Create.

As coaches, we understand the need to meet our clients where they’re at and instinctively tune into their nervous systems. Polyvagal theory helps us refine this capacity and provides a framework to help our clients understand their nervous systems better. In this conversation with consultant Dab Dana we explore the three organising principles of polyvagal theory, coregulation, methods of self-regulation, how to adapt to your client’s nervous system and how to approach trauma. Deb Dana, LCSW, is a clinician, consultant, author and speaker specializing in complex trauma. Her work is focused on using the lens of Polyvagal Theory to understand and resolve the impact of trauma in our lives. She is well known for translating Polyvagal Theory into a language and application that is both understandable and accessible - for clinicians and curious people alike. Deb is a consultant to the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium in the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University and the author of several books, including the upcoming book, “Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory”.

The way we engage with the world is largely rooted in learned habits that are deeply embodied. How can neuroscience and embodied coaching inform how we help our clients change? In this conversation with leadership coach Amanda Blake we dive into the neuroscience of change, ways of knowing, how to work with embodied habits and the deep philosophical waters of transformation. Amanda Blake is a Leadership Coach, creator of the popular Body = BrainⓇ course on the neurobiology of experiential learning and author of the forthcoming book Your Body Is Your Brain. In addition to teaching about the art and science of embodiment, she works with leaders worldwide to help them become their best self, enjoy life more, and make a bigger contribution. She is a Master Somatic Leadership Coach and holds a degree in Human Biology from Stanford University.