Caroline is a Co-Active and Culture Mastery Coach. Co-Active changed her interaction in conversations and how she listens to others. Watch the video to see what part of the training made the biggest impact on Caroline.

Read the interview with Caroline Lippers

“I’m Caroline Lippers and since a couple of years I have a certification of Co-Active. I am working as a coach and in combination with the Co-Active work I also developed as a Culture Mastery coach. Building bridges between people and cultures, trying to support people working in an international environment with how they communicate, how they operate and how they perform to have a better work life. My background is Swedish, I’ve worked many years in the corporate world in several different countries. At the moment I am living in Italy, together with my family.”

How do you apply Co-Active in your daily life?

“Of course in my coaching practice, it’s the foundation I stand on where it comes to supporting my clients of finding that balance between a very active doing and maybe stopping a bit more. Being a bit more. But also in my private life, I realized Co-Active is all over the place. With my partner, my friends, my family, as a parent. It helped to become more of an open curious space instead of, what I’ve learned through the years, judging and problem solving. Co-Active has had a huge impact on where I am as a person.”

What within this training made the biggest impact?

“I think what I realized and really gave me a value is the strong believe that Co-Active really has, that the person has all the resources they need. That they are healthy, they are whole. And that my role as a coach is more in supporting them in finding back their dreams or looking at what is the different perspectives or choices in life or what hinders me, either emotionally or in other ways to reach my goals. So I think that was really important for me. There is another part that I really appreciate. There is such a big need of being listened to. People seldom get the chance to speak without being judged or getting another point of view, but really, really just being heard. That is for me a very strong benefit of being able to give that to others.”

Which part of the training appealed to you the most?

“For me as a person who likes learning by doing, by practicing, I think the Co-Active Coach training gives you really good methods and tools. At the same time a lot of attention is given on demo coaching; on looking how it is done in reality. Plus a lot of practicing yourself in small or in bigger groups. That gives you not only a lot of experience, it also gives you that kind believe in yourself: Maybe I can do this. It’s okay. Even I will be able to coach and give that value to someone else!”

Would you recommend this training?

“I did the training when I was working as a manager within this corporate organization. And I realized very early on, that wow, my way of looking at coaching was quite different and gave me such a big value. Again the methods, but also just the way of what is coaching all about.

I would really recommend it to people who work in any kind of leadership role. And of course if you have the dream or the wish to become a coach or to develop your coaching skills. This coach training gives you a really great foundation, but also a lot of valuable experiences to offer to your clients.

I am really happy that Co-Active training courses come to Sweden. {red: Caroline is Swedish}. I did my training in Amsterdam. I had to travel to do this training and I am really satisfied that it’s coming now to a country that is really open and curious to coaching. That’s a huge benefit that even this strong Co-Active model gets a chance to offer that too.”

What do you see as the added value of the ICF accreditation of this training?

“My experience with ICF is that they really take a stand for securing the profession of coaching. It gives understanding about the quality. It’s about the ethics, about the key of core competences. By doing that the ICF protects the profession of coaching. The benefit that I have seen as a coach is you have them in your back. It’s a way of making a statement of quality of your work. It has really helped me when it comes to meeting customers or securing that I feel like, “Hey I bring quality, I know what I am doing.”

Plus the ICF has a lot of other benefits for example training & development, a big network and support whenever you need it. Definitely it’s worth to have that accreditation that Co-Active has with the ICF.”

What it the added value of the network for you?

“I still have contact with several of my course mates if I can say so. We regularly connect and we support each other when we discuss a case, of course in a confidential way. Or exchange ideas, help each other or go back to the theory.

That’s a strong value because if you work as a coach you can be a bit lonely. It’s nice to have kind of colleagues in that sense. The network itself is of course much bigger and there is also a lot of support you can come back to all the theory if you want. Or you can connect if you need support in something challenging or if you stuck to yourself as a coach. The Co-Active network gives you that.”

Caroline Lippers