Stepping In: Recent Episodes
New Ventures West
Apple PodcastsAmazon MusicYouTubeSpotify In this episode of Stepping In, Adam speaks with Christy McClendon, a New Ventures West graduate and President/CEO of New Pathways for Youth (NPFY), an organization serving youth living in extreme adversity. NPFY programs aim to break through self-destructive thinking and develop essential skills, empowering youth to achieve their desired future.
In our conversation, Christy explains how NPFY’s youth, mentors, and staff engage in ongoing self-development, which is, in many ways, at the root of the organization’s impact. This fascinating exploration of the intersection of service and skillful means provides a powerful glimpse into how Integrative Coaching can support this essential work.
Here are some of the topics covered in the Stepping In podcast episode Supporting High-Risk Youth with Integral Coaching:
- How to New Pathways for Youth provides one-to-one mentoring and creates communities of mentors and youth for support.
- The ways coaching helps mentors focus on vertical growth and holds an aspirational space for youth.
- The importance of achieving milestones like passing classes, graduating high school, and having a post-secondary plan to break the cycle of poverty.
- How to break the cycle of poverty by achieving external goals, fostering internal growth and resilience.
- How to create a sense of belonging or acceptance, so New Pathways aims to provide this essential sense of connection and belonging.
- Addressing emotional challenges like anxiety and depression is crucial to academic and career development.
- Building resilience, enabling youths to face challenges without derailing their progress.
The overall goal is to help all individuals, whether as coaches or parents, cultivate awareness, empathy, and effective strategies for nurturing growth and well-being in others.
About Christy McClendon
A former CEO, Christy McClendon, now provides executive coaching and consulting to leaders focusing on personal development and self-discovery.
She holds a deep central belief that each and every individual has potential and capability that can be unleashed through thoughtful reflection, observation, and practice.
Leveraging over three decades of executive experience managing high-performing teams and leading for impact, Christy now helps leaders of corporate and nonprofit teams to navigate strategic, challenging, and high-stakes initiatives with grace, wisdom, and compassion.
About Adam Klein
Adam is dedicated to creating a more just, sustainable, creative, and loving world. Before joining New Ventures West, he helped create a first-in-class business solution to combat global slavery and relaunch a San Francisco Bay Area center for integral spiritual formation.
Adam has a Master’s degree in Engineering from Santa Clara University. Some time ago he entered the world of Ironman triathlons and ultra-running as a means to further understand the importance of the body and the deep, integral nature of being human.
Adam focuses on integrating NVW’s purpose and bringing it to fruition. He oversees strategy, tech, and the flow of various internal work streams, as well as supporting graduates and ensuring ICF compliance.
He regularly leads the Professional Coaching Course, hosts our orientation events in San Francisco, is the creator and host of the NVW podcast Stepping In, and has his own business coaching leaders and individuals.
About the Stepping In
Stepping In is a podcast of bold inquiry into life’s biggest challenges with one of the world’s oldest and most distinguished coaching schools, New Ventures West.
In a spirit of curiosity, compassion, and honesty, we delve into how Integral Coaching can address some of the most pressing issues we face as individuals, communities, and stewards of our planet.
In the Stepping In Podcast, we explore what it takes to develop the sensitivity and capacity required to live and thrive in an increasingly complex world.
About New Ventures West
From its humble beginnings to one of the top accredited coaching schools in the world, New Ventures West pioneered one of the deepest, most transformative forms of human development available for coaches, leaders, and anyone looking to bring people alive in possibility.
Further Exploration
New Ventures West: https://www.newventureswest.com/
Getting Started with Integral Coaching: https://www.newventureswest.com/get-s…
Free and paid Integral Coaching events: https://www.newventureswest.com/class..
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction and overview
02:29 Impact and success
03:27 Mentorship program
05:20 Mentor growth and development
08:24 Creating an aspirational space
11:18 Youth program structure:
12:29 Program evaluation and improvement
14:47 Witness, rival, and hero distinctions
16:28 Challenges of poverty and adversity
18:51 Health implications of adversity
25:00 Integral Coaching and mentoring
29:09 Horizontal development goals
30:10 Breaking poverty cycles
31:19 Vertical development goals
32:24 Emotional well-being
33:22 Building resilience
38:37 Future generations
40:39 Whole self-approach
42:12 Fostering a culture of growth.
47:19 Partnership with New Ventures West
49:58 Open invitation for community support
Walk on the Wild Side by Lou Reed used with permissionLicense 1504673862 Date 4/30/24©EMI Blackwood Music Inc OBO Oakfield Music LTD
It’s difficult for me to throw away pictures of people. People I love are the hardest, not really surprising at all. But a close second are the people pictured on packaging, especially if their faces are meant to evoke the workforce that brought the product to me.
Of these, one of the most difficult is the man pictured on the back of the Equal Exchange 72% Cacao chocolate bar wrapper. His shoulder shrugged slightly, his head tipped to one side, and his smile a beam of innocent joy. Another is the Sari-wrapped woman on the Tulsi Raspberry-Peach tea box. (You and I know that this is a tisane, not tea. Tea comes from the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, white, green, oolong, or black. All those other things are infused herbs, flowers, spices, etc. Tulsi, Ocimum sanctum, a.k.a. holy basil, is a medicinal herb and it is indeed holy, because when caffeine’s had the better of me and I want something warm, this is what I have.)
None of this explains how these people’s images have become pasted to my heart, like decoupage. Perhaps it’s the gratitude I feel for having received the products from some far off equatorial land. I imagine the labor of picking leaves or cacao berries, the drying process, all those hands and souls touching these Earth-given items – the whole of all it took for me to find them on the other side of the continent or world.
Perhaps it’s that I believe these images contain fragments of people’s souls. If I save one and put it on my vision board, it might spare all the other little images covering the planet in far flung landfills or recycling bins. Then maybe on my vision board I can wish for them all the deep abiding richness I’ve found in life. A richness and prosperity that comes from having found profound love and belonging. Yes, that’s what I want for them. Yes, I really do.
Jan coaches high-performing individuals and leaders seeking a deeper sense of integration. She serves on NVW’s faculty as a Mentor Coach.
Photo by Riza Rifshandya on Unsplash
This time Adam speaks with Christy McClendon, a NVW graduate and President/CEO of New Pathways for Youth, an organization serving youth living in extreme adversity. NPFY’s programs aim to break through self-destructive thinking and develop essential skills to empower youth to achieve the future they desire. In this conversation, Christy explains how NPFY’s youth, mentors […]
The post Episode 21: Supporting High-Risk Youth with Integral Coaching appeared first on New Ventures West.
How does Integral Coaching, a method that works at such a deep developmental level, translate to working with leaders and corporations? This is a common question, and illusive territory for potential coaches. To help shed some light on the topic, Adam had a conversation with Andrea Garfield, founder and CEO of the Awesome Institute, a […]
The post Episode 20: What Works When Working With Leaders appeared first on New Ventures West.
In this episode Adam talks with Bill Burnett, Executive Director of the Design Program at Stanford and co-author of the #1 New York Times best-selling book Designing Your Life. Bill helps us see how applying design concepts to decisions, our life becomes one of emergent reality, oriented more to possibilities than limitations. When it comes […]
The post Episode 19: Designing Your Life appeared first on New Ventures West.
The presence we are continually developing as Integral Coaches allows us to be with clients—and to parent children—in a way that has them feel safe, seen, and capable. Addressing the issue beneath the behavior, being curious and receptive, and working to mitigate our own reactivity are all competencies that are essential for relating both as […]
The post Episode 18: Parenting as an Integral Coach appeared first on New Ventures West.
At this year’s Enneagram Global Summit, James Flaherty spoke with host Jessica Dibb about the inextricability of humans and systems. They delve into how each Enneatype can develop their engagement with systems to revolutionize them at every level, from personal to organizational to global. This is James’s third appearance at this annual event and, as […]
The post Revolutionary System Changes with the Enneagram appeared first on New Ventures West.
Anne Egseth is an Integral Coach and trained actor who regularly leads the somatic day of the Professional Coaching Course. In this engaging conversation with Adam she speaks to what can open for us and our clients when we begin to be present in our bodies. They also discuss myths around embodiment and common ways […]
The post Episode 17: How Embodiment Frees Us appeared first on New Ventures West.
How is empathy distinct from compassion? What is self-empathy, and why is it important? How can we develop ourselves into compassionate witnesses for our clients’ experiences? In this episode Adam is joined by Whitney Hess, an Integral Coach dedicated to putting humanity back into business. Join them to delve into the important—and sometimes debated—topic of empathy. […]
The post Episode 16: The Real Power of Empathy appeared first on New Ventures West.
Grief can blindside and disorient the people directly affected—and those who wish to support them. In this episode Adam speaks with Richard Levi, who facilitates grief support groups and coaches individual clients in grief. He offers some ways we can ready ourselves to join our clients in the abruptly new world that grief often creates. Resources: […]
The post Episode 15: Supporting Clients in Grief appeared first on New Ventures West.
At the Shift Network’s 2018 Enneagram Global Summit, James Flaherty joined host Jessica Dibb to for a profound discussion about the many ways that Buddhism and the Enneagram overlap. They explore how integrating the Enneagram into a Buddhist practice allows us to come to it with greater openness and understanding. By giving us insight into […]
The post The Revelatory Convergence of Buddhism and the Enneagram appeared first on New Ventures West.
PCC graduate Kelly McGannon works in Washington DC, coaching and teaching mindfulness to leaders the US government. In this episode she talks with Adam about how today’s political / cultural climate offers opportunities to have new kinds of conversations with each other—and with ourselves. Resources from this episode: The Fisher King, Arthurian Legend On Being, […]
The post Episode 14: Gateways to Real Conversations appeared first on New Ventures West.