About us
“WHAT COUNTS IN LIFE IS NOT THE MERE FACT THAT WE HAVE LIVED. IT IS WHAT DIFFERENCE WE HAVE MADE TO THE LIVES OF OTHERS THAT WILL DETERMINE THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LIFE WE LEAD.”
— Nelson Mandela
Coachiva is a coaching and organizational development company dedicated to building peace in the world through the empowerment, healing, and transformation of human lives.
The company was born out of a deep understanding that when an individual human being decides to transform and empower themselves to live life with purpose, and in a state of peace and wellbeing, then there is a ripple effect created outwards towards our families, communities, teams, organizations, governments and society as a whole. This is symbolized in the Coachiva concentric circles in our logo.
With this in mind, we provide individuals and organizations the approaches and tools to heal, transform, and empower themselves towards purpose, inner peace and wellbeing. We do this through an approach that is anchored by the 4 core pillars of 1) Purposeful Leadership, 2) Compassionate connection, 3) Mindful balance, and 4) Joyful Creativity. We believe that better teams and organizations are built by creating a more purposeful, compassionate, peaceful, and joyful environment first within individuals, and then in synergy within teams. We help individuals become better leaders and achieve balance in every aspect of their lives, whether personal or professional; and provide teams and groups a space to establish a common vision, build trust, and become better connected with each other.
The name Coachiva comes from the prefix “co”, the word “coach”, and the word “achiever” which combined are meant to signify “co-achievement” in community and collaboration of you and your organization’s purpose, inner peace, and wellbeing. It also reflects a balance between being and doing, masculine and feminine, passive and active energies that are key to creating more purpose, peace, and wellbeing in our lives and within groups.
THE COACHIVA STORY
The desire to create a more peaceful world by combining individual and organizational coaching and peacebuilding disciplines originated in a meeting by our founder and CEO, Catalina Quintero, with Nelson Mandela when she was only 13 years old. Coming from experiencing the violence and insecurity back home in her country of birth, Colombia, she asked him what children and youth could do to bring peace to the world. He answered that the most important thing they could do was to first work on getting an education and changing themselves from within to become the exemplary leaders of tomorrow. He explained that prison was a blessing in disguise because he had been given the gift of time to change himself and his way of thinking during those years. This has stayed with Catalina and embodies the spirit of Coachiva.
Many years later, while working on peacebuilding and conflict prevention in Africa and around the world, Catalina realized there was a missing component to the very important work she was doing with the World Bank, UN, and governments - the human transformational component. She saw how only technical solutions (while very necessary) were applied to dilemmas that required individual transformation, healing, and empowerment from within on all levels: spiritual/energetic, mental, emotional, and physical. As she began to train to become a coach by first undergoing coaching herself and experiencing this transformation, and witnessing it in others, she realized she could now contribute to changing the world for the better by combining her expertise and knowledge on the conflict transformation and peacebuilding front, the coaching and leadership training she received, and the transformational experiences she has lived. So, Coachiva was born.
OUR VALUES
Through years of researching the five key disciplines that Coachiva’s empirically-based work is anchored in: human psychology, coaching, leadership, conflict prevention and peacebuilding, and mindfulness and spirituality, we have been able to ascertain the 10 core values that are imbued in the 4 pillars of the Coachiva approach and that create trust, connection, and better relationships with ourselves and with others. These are the 10 core values that are imbued in both our company’s spirit and in all of the coaching and workshop work that we do.
ACCEPTANCE AND NON-JUDGEMENT
When we hold acceptance and non-judgement as a core value, we accept ourselves and others for who we and they are. We honor and respect ourselves and others understanding that each of us carries our own stories and beliefs that make us unique. We allow others to evolve without trying to change them, and we allow life to flow through us rather than fighting against its current.
vULNERABILITY
Vulnerability as defined by Dr. Brene Brown is the emotion that we experience during times of uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. Vulnerability is being brave enough to risk uncertainty and emotional exposure when you can’t control the outcome. We need to trust in order to be vulnerable but we also need to be vulnerable in order to build trust.
hEALTHY BOUNDARIES
Understanding our boundaries, is just as important as understanding our core values. When we have healthy boundaries we are willing and able to say no to something that doesn’t align with us. We are also able to respect others’ boundaries and when not clear if we are overstepping them, we ask and listen.
cOMPASSION AND EMPATHY
Developing empathy and compassion are the keys to positive relationships in our lives. Empathy helps us to develop a better understanding of others’ perspectives, attitudes, worldviews and ideas. Compassion furthers our common humanity and will to help relieve the suffering of others. When we understand the suffering of another we can also better understand the suffering within ourselves and develop, through mindfulness and deep listening, greater self-compassion as well.
accountability
Accountability means self-ownership, it means holding ourselves accountable for all of our decisions and taking responsibility for our actions. When we realize that whatever we put out into the world we will receive in turn (or as Deepak Chopra calls it the Law of Karma or Cause and Effect), we can release victim mentality and empower ourselves to be the leader of our lives.
confidentiality
We do not overshare whether it is about ourselves or others, and we respect and keep the confidences of others to ourselves.
AUTHENTICITY AND INTEGRITY
These values are expressed when we are courageous enough to be our pure, authentic selves, without the fear of being judged and without the restrictions that have been imposed on us by society, our culture, our families, etc. When authenticity is coupled with integrity we speak our truth in an honest and moral way and practice our values daily, living by them instead of only professing them.
CURIOSITY AND HUMILITY
We only know that we don’t know everything, and that in fact, the urge to want to know and have an answer for everything comes from the ego. When we live our lives with curiosity and in “beginner’s mind” we remain open to different perspectives and ideas, we are more open to creativity and innovation, and we welcome the void of the unknown. Humility is the ability to listen with the intention to understand, to allow space for differences, and to develop patience.
COLLABORATION AND COOPERATION
The spirit of these values is that anything we have achieved in life we have never done completely on our own, there are always people around us who have provided us advice, given us direct help, or simply cheered us on. This is the essence of co-achievement and community - to work together for a common purpose that also reflects our own.
LISTENING AND COMMUNICATION
There are many levels of listening, but when we practice mindful listening we are consciously tapping into the energy of the other person and the room in a way that allows for non-judgement, criticism or interruption while being aware of internal thoughts and reactions that may get in the way of communicating effectively with others. Listening is the gateway to better communication with others and to better understand our true selves.
About our founder
Catalina Quintero is the founder, chief executive officer, and lead coach at Coachiva. Catalina is also a leader in the field of conflict prevention and peacebuilding with nearly 20 years of experience working within international organizations, governments, and private sector organizations leading and working with teams and communities to find a way out of conflict into purpose and peace .
She created and led the World Bank's first fragility, conflict and violence assessment tool – the Risk and Resilience Assessment (RRA) and was a thought leader on how to integrate conflict-sensitive approaches into World Bank strategies and projects. She led and worked on multiple multi-million dollar development lending operations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She also worked on the back-channel negotiations to the La Habana peace process between the FARC and the Colombian government and on the reintegration of ex-combatants in Colombia. She began her career at the international law firm of Arnold & Porter LLP as a paralegal. Catalina graduated from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Boston with a Masters in International Affairs and Conflict Resolution and obtained her Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Florida International University in Miami. She also obtained her coaching certification from the Co-Active Training Institute (CTI).
Catalina’s deepest belief and the reason she founded Coachiva is that peace in the world can only be achieved through peace in oneself. A native of Cali, Colombia, she is a passionate dancer, watercolor painter, yoga and meditation practitioner and healer, and enjoys reading books on human psychology, leadership, and spirituality. She is fluent in Spanish, English, and French.
“Peace in the world can only be achieved through peace in oneself”