Co-Active Leadership: Five Ways to Lead

Top-down, one-dimensional leadership models are hopelessly outmoded in today's rapidly changing world, and they waste the leadership ability that is present throughout an organization. In this visionary book, Karen and Henry Kimsey-House provide a model that harnesses the possibility of many rather than relying on the power of one. Their revolutionary five-dimensional approach recognizes that leadership has to be fluid and flexible and that the roles leaders and followers play must shift to suit the situation. Co-Active Leadership invites all of us to share our expertise and allows collaborative solutions to emerge that would never have been possible otherwise.

About the Authors

For most of their adult lives, Henry and Karen Kimsey-House have been fascinated with people. Their work, both separately and together, has been an interwoven quest to bring people to a greater sense of wholeness, integrity, and fulfillment.

Through their background and training in classical theater, their pioneering work in coaching, and their practical experience leading hundreds of leadership programs, they have inspired thousands of people to generate full self-expression, a deep sense of interconnectedness, and an ability to be responsible for their world.

Entering the theater at an early age, Karen and Henry honed their insights into human ontology through classical theatrical training and years of stage, television, and film experience. Henry was a New York actor for 12 years. Karen received her MFA from Temple University in 1983.

In 1992, Henry and Karen met and co-founded the Coaches Training Institute (CTI) along with their partner, Laura Whitworth. In 1995, Karen and Henry fell in love and were married in a three-day celebration in Northern California. The wedding was considered a miracle by both families because everyone had believed that neither Karen nor Henry would be able to find a partner fierce enough to meet their intensity, creativity, and heart. Fortunately, both families were incorrect.

Today, CTI is a global coaching and leadership development organization offering programs in 18 different countries around the world. More than 50,000 students have taken a CTI program, and more than 6,500 are certified Co-Active Coaches. CTI is fortunate to have hundreds of loyal organizational clients in diverse industry sectors that span the globe, and CTI's faculty of 175-plus members represents a spectrum of different nationalities, cultures, and backgrounds.

Coauthors of the industry best seller Co-Active Coaching: Changing Business, Transforming Lives, Henry and Karen are considered pioneers in the coaching profession. Now in its third edition, Co-Active Coaching has been translated into 15 languages. Co-Active Coaching is considered a seminal text for the coaching profession and is required reading for coach training programs at colleges and universities around the world.

In 1997, Henry and Karen created the Co-Active Leadership Program, a yearlong transformative journey designed to teach people how to be a Co-Active Leader in all areas of their lives. More than 4,000 people have completed the Co-Active Leadership Program and are bringing Co-Active Leadership principles to organizations, governmental agencies, educational settings, nonprofits, coaching clients, and families around the world. The Co-Active Leadership Program has been delivered in the United States, Spain, Japan, China, Israel, Turkey, and Mexico, in English, Japanese, and Spanish.

Today Karen and Henry continue to design CTI's leadership and coaching programs, using their creative insights, bold energy, and instinctual understanding of people to construct unique and powerful learning experiences for CTI's customers and clients.