What is Coaching and more specifically, Co-Active Coaching, with Michelle Kempton

WAYS TO GROW

In this episode of Ways to Grow, Michelle Kempton talks about what Coaching really is and more specifically, she explain the Co-Active model. Apart from this, we also talk about corporate coaching, stress and burnout.

Here the highlights:

[coaching] When it first started, it really was a program. It is a model. It is a way of being in the world. It was originally a model to train professional coaches. And then it evolved into a model really for leadership and for just interacting with people. I think the best way to explain it is that, ‘co’ is kind of the being and ‘active’ is the doing. And the philosophy of co active coaching is that, I mean first of all, it is for really tapping into human potential. And we believe that the doing should flow from the being. So very often and especially now, we get busy in life. And we just want to get the job done, right? And we get to a point where it becomes very superficial. It is almost like we become human doings instead of human beings. And co-active puts the ‘being’ back in the human being. So, it is like everything you do, ideally is infused with being. It comes from a place of honoring values or being connected to a sense of purpose with what you are doing. And it is about consciously choosing what you do rather than being on autopilot in life, which is just what happens, right? Or the hamster wheel, you just replace… you are ticking boxes and getting the job done but it is almost like, you have lost your soul or you have lost your heart.

We have probably trained 65,000 to 70,000 people in the world, probably in 30 different countries. And it is probably one of the most highly respected in-person coach trainings in the world, because of the integrity and the quality around how we train people.

you are present, I am present, and there is this kind of third entity or magic that enters into the space, when there is I think intense focus and presence. Suddenly, it is like where attention goes, energy flows, and we magically discover and find answers, and there is improvement and creativity that brings kind of an unexpected process of discovery in service of your growth and your evolution, and it is hard to explain. But it is like, in this bubble, magic happens. And it has to do with you and me, our connection, presence, and the focus on doing whatever it takes for your growth, your learning and your evolution. So to me, I am fascinated by this kind of third thing that happens between the two of us; that feels like magic.

You step into this bubble. And you have like the kind of the luxury of attention and focus on your life. You know, who you are, who you want to be, what is working, what is not working…

One of the beauties of this kind of coaching is the improvising in the moment based on what is needed. And the greater range a coach has creativity, the more exciting and different things can happen. So, you have your very basic conversation where you and I are sitting in a chair, we are talking. And then you have things like what you just mentioned where you might close your eyes and visualize something, we might put music on in the background to impact your emotional state, we might use props, you know, sometimes I use Playmobil figures, and I might put a Playmobil figure right up to the camera on zoom, and say, “Mireia, this is you, what advice do you have for this?”

I think powerful coaching is not talking about something, it is experiencing something. And it is like, the bigger or the greater range the coach has and the sort of bigger toolbox, the more you can come up with creative ways to take a person into an experience, where transformation can happen. It is not intellectual, it is experiential.

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