Karen Davis: Coaching From the Soul Line and the Goal Line
By Jonathan Carroll for The Coaches' Chronicle
Karen Davis brings a quiet authority to the coaching profession, shaped by decades of leadership experience and a deep commitment to personal evolution. Her work bridges the worlds of executive leadership and inner transformation, grounded in the belief that lasting change emerges not from strategies alone, but from a fundamental shift in how people relate to themselves, their thinking, and their circumstances.
In this conversation, we explore Karen's entry into coaching, the ontological foundations of her work, and why intuition, agreements, and sustained one-on-one relationships remain central to meaningful transformation. What emerges is a portrait of a coach devoted to depth, integrity, and service.
The Journey Into Coaching
Jonathan Carroll: What was it that originally led you into this world of coaching, which can feel both fascinating and a little mysterious for many people?
Karen Davis: Going back to around 2006 or 2007, I had left the workplace. I was an executive inside an advertising firm, and the company was being acquired. They wanted me to sign a seven-year non-compete, and I didn't want to do that. So I started consulting. As part of that, I did some pro bono work for the Boulder Housing Authority, and I was able to pull off something for their annual event that others hadn't been able to do. One of the board members approached me and asked if I had ever coached before. I hadn't, but I was very interested. That's how I began coaching top-potential leaders within organizations.
Jonathan Carroll: You often say that you coach from both your head and your heart. How do you define that balance in practice, and where do you see coaches most often leaning too far in one direction?
Karen Davis: I see the heart as intuition, the ability to allow questions to arise rather than forcing them. The head holds the arc of the coaching time, the structure of the session. As an example, I'm currently working on my MCC, and I've had to unlearn some things. It's been quite humbling. The work has shifted from being very focused on the goal line to working much more on the soul line. That means focusing on the inner work: who is the client being, and what story is being created.
The Inner Shift: From Executive to Coach
Jonathan Carroll: After more than 25 years in executive and managerial roles, was there an inner shift that needed to happen before you could fully step into being a coach?
Karen Davis: Yes, absolutely. I hired my first coach in 2007 and have been consistently coached since that time. That has been a major part of my personal journey.
Hoffman Institute
Deep personal transformation work
Werner Erhard & Harvard
Leadership programs and frameworks
Byron Katie
Inquiry and belief examination
George & Linda Pransky
Three Principles understanding
I've also done a lot of deep work through the Hoffman Institute, leadership programs connected to Werner Erhard and Harvard, and teachings from Byron Katie, George Pransky, and Linda Pransky. I've worked with Rich Litvin, who says you can only take your client as deep as you've gone yourself. I'm a huge believer in that. Continuing to do my own work and being coached on my blind spots, both with clients and myself, has been absolutely pivotal.
Jonathan Carroll: How would you say your corporate leadership background uniquely shapes the way you work with senior executives today?
Karen Davis: It gives me a great deal of empathy for the challenges they face. I experienced political dynamics and complex organizational challenges myself. Being able to truly step into my client's world and understand what they're up against is extremely helpful. Most of my career was in technology, so when I work with tech companies, I understand their acronyms, their systems, and how large organizations function.
Common Threads: What Executives Face
Jonathan Carroll: When you look across multiple executives you've worked with, what are some of the common threads you see? What are they consistently facing?
Karen Davis: Communication and listening are major themes, especially listening to their teams. Appreciation comes up often, slowing down and really seeing the people around them. There's also the challenge of managing up, down, and across an organization. One of the most important distinctions I teach, which I learned from Steve Chandler, is: Expectations are often unspoken and lead to breakdowns. Strong agreements create clarity and integrity.
Ontological Coaching Defined
Jonathan Carroll: You come from an ontological coaching lineage through Newfield. For those unfamiliar, how would you define ontological coaching, and what do you think is often misunderstood about it?
Karen Davis: Ontology is the metaphysical study of what it is to be in the world. Ontological coaching works with how we think, how we feel, including moods and emotions, and how we use language. It's about deeply listening to the client's language.
The MCC-level coaching I'm doing now is probably the closest to that ontological way of working. It's not about addressing the problem directly, but about how the individual is seeing and relating to that problem.

Jonathan Carroll: As soon as we say "metaphysical," it can sometimes border on the spiritual or woo-woo. Do you ever get pushback on that?
Karen Davis: My clients actually tend to love that I'm intuitive. They appreciate that I can work on both the soul line, who they are being internally, and the goal line, what they want to create. That balance is something they value in our work together.
Language, Mood, and Transformation
Jonathan Carroll: How would you say working with language, mood, and physiology changes the depth of results clients experience?
Karen Davis: It opens them up to new ways of seeing themselves and new ways of showing up in the world. Instead of operating only from thinking or ego-driven stories, they begin to step outside those narratives. That creates safety and allows them to see other actions or paths that weren't available before.
Understanding the Ego
Jonathan Carroll: Would you say that understanding the ego is unfamiliar territory for some executives when they first enter coaching?
Karen Davis: Yes, absolutely. Many believe that outside circumstances create their internal experience. But circumstances don't create their world. Thinking does.
I've watched the light bulb go off when clients realize that they didn't feel a certain way because something happened, but rather that their thinking created the experience, and the event just coincided with it.
The Art of Intuitive Questioning
Slow Down
Be very present with your client
Listen Deeply
Questions come through you, not from you
Allow Emergence
The next question arises naturally
Jonathan Carroll: You're known for asking powerful intuitive questions. How does a coach develop that level of discernment?
Karen Davis: Intuition is like a muscle you build over time. If you can slow down and be very present with your client, the questions come through you. You're not thinking about what the next question should be. You ask what arises, listen, and the next question emerges naturally from there.
Clever vs. Transformational
Jonathan Carroll: What's the difference between a clever coaching question and a truly transformational one?
Karen Davis: A transformational question is sourced from presence and connection. Clever questions are often taken from lists or scripts learned in training and may not even relate to what the client just said.
Jonathan Carroll: Your practice is almost entirely focused on deep one-on-one coaching. Why does that format remain so powerful for you?
Karen Davis: I've done groups and team work, but I always return to one-on-one coaching. It's what I love most. That's where I feel the greatest potential for deep transformation.
Two-Day Accelerators: The Power of Immersion
Jonathan Carroll: You offer two-day accelerators. What makes those immersive containers so effective?
Karen Davis: Clients travel from around the world to work with me for two days. Despite the name, the work is about slowing down. We remove distractions and spend uninterrupted time together. That continuity allows us to go much deeper than a weekly session and creates clarity and momentum.
Readiness for Deep Work
Jonathan Carroll: What tells you that a client is ready for deep work rather than surface-level change?
01
Introductory Conversation
Initial exploration and alignment
02
Coaching Session
Experience how we work together
03
Long-Term Relationship
Typically a year-long commitment
Karen Davis: I slow down on the front end. We begin with an introductory conversation. If it feels aligned, I offer a coaching session so we can both experience how we work together. Only after that do we talk about a longer-term relationship. I typically work with clients for a year, and I want to feel inspired by something unique in them before committing.
How to Get the Most Out of Coaching
Jonathan Carroll: Your book, How to Get the Most Out of Coaching, focuses on the client's role in the coaching relationship. What do many clients do that unintentionally slows their progress?
Karen Davis: Many clients don't know how to be coached well. They don't know how to prepare, what to do between sessions, or how to create strong agreements with their coach. The book walks clients through creating a coaching roadmap, becoming more coachable, integrating sessions, and understanding what derails progress. Coaches often give it to clients because it strengthens the depth and effectiveness of the work.
Common Derailer
Jonathan Carroll: Is there a common derailer you see again and again?
Karen Davis: Deflecting attention onto others rather than focusing on oneself and taking responsibility.
Reclaiming Responsibility
Jonathan Carroll: What responsibility do clients need to reclaim if they want coaching to truly change their lives?
Karen Davis: Making coaching their number one priority, which really means making themselves a priority. Many people say "after my family" or "after my job," but real transformation requires choosing yourself first.
What the Best Coaches Embody
Jonathan Carroll: From your vantage point, what do the most in-demand coaches embody that others often overlook?
Karen Davis: A genuine heart of service. I know coaches who have no website and constant waitlists because they consistently show up for people, remain deeply curious, and focus on service rather than promotion.
Find a coach or mentor to guide you.
Jonathan Carroll: If you could offer one piece of advice to a new coach entering the industry today, what would it be?
Karen Davis: Find a coach or mentor to guide you.
A Portrait of Devotion
Karen Davis’s work is a quiet but steady reminder that the deepest shifts in leadership and life do not come from force, cleverness, or speed. They come from presence. From the willingness to slow down, listen beneath the surface, and stay with what is true long enough for something new to emerge.
What stands out most in Karen’s approach is not any single methodology, but the integrity with which she lives the principles she teaches. Her commitment to being continuously coached, to unlearning as much as learning, and to placing the quality of the relationship at the centre of the work speaks to a level of mastery that cannot be manufactured. It is earned over time, through humility, curiosity, and sustained inner work.
In a coaching industry that often rewards visibility over depth, Karen’s practice reflects another way. One rooted in service rather than performance, agreements rather than assumptions, and transformation rather than transaction. Her work demonstrates that intuition is not opposed to rigour, and that compassion and high standards can coexist when grounded in clarity and integrity.
At The Coaches’ Chronicle, our intention is to shine a light on coaches who embody this level of craft and care. By sharing conversations like this one each month, we celebrate the individuals who are quietly shaping the profession from the inside out, reminding us that coaching, at its best, is not something we do to others, but a way of being with them.
With love and appreciation,
Jonathan Carroll Founder & Editor in Chief, The Coaches' Chronicle
Watch the full interview with Karen Davis and Jonathan Carroll below (36 min).
Jonathan Carroll
Founder & Editor-in-Chief, The Coaches’ Chronicle
Jonathan Carroll is devoted to elevating the art and profession of coaching through depth, mastery, and conscious impact. As the Founder & Editor in Chief of The Coaches’ Chronicle, he curates conversations that invite reflection, integrity, and a more mature expression of leadership within the coaching industry.
Through his work as an author, facilitator, and strategic partner, Jonathan supports conscious leaders who feel called into greater alignment, coherence, and purpose. His approach emphasizes presence over performance, wisdom over tactics, and the long view of meaningful, sustainable expansion.
Jonathan’s work is rooted in energetic alignment, intuitive leadership, and an ongoing exploration of infinite possibility. He is particularly drawn to the intersection of time honoured mysteries and modern day mastery, where inner development and real-world leadership meet.
He is also the founder of The Dragonfly Club™, a global community and experiential ecosystem offering private alliances and immersive retreats for visionary leaders at pivotal moments of evolution. Across all his work, Jonathan creates space for clarity, refinement, and a more grounded expression of what it means to lead in our modern world. Click on Jonathan's photo to connect with him on LinkedIn.
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