The Conscious Leadership Group

The Conscious Leadership Group (CLG) is the principal institution for the Conscious Leadership methodology articulated in Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaley Warner Klemp's 2014 book The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success. CLG operates as a coaching, consulting, and education organisation that trains leaders, teams, and coaches in the methodology. It is not a professional accreditation body in the ICF sense; it is a structured practitioner community built around a defined body of work, with particular resonance in venture-backed technology and Bay Area founder communities and across the YPO global network.

CLG was co-founded by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaley Warner Klemp. Dethmer is a coach, speaker, and author with several decades of experience; he has worked with more than 150 CEOs and their teams. Chapman has advised more than 700 organisational leaders, with particular concentration in venture-backed technology companies. Klemp is a sought-after speaker, executive coach, YPO facilitator, and Enneagram specialist. The three are also the co-authors of the 2014 book that established the methodology in the broader leadership development field. Each works extensively with senior leaders and executive teams.

Above the Line / Below the Line is the methodology's central diagnostic and is presented as a single horizontal line in CLG materials. At any moment a leader is either above the line (open, curious, committed to learning) or below the line (closed, defensive, committed to being right). The line is not about being a good or bad person; it is about the state from which the leader is operating in this moment. The work of conscious leadership is to notice which side one is on, then to choose, in real time, to shift back above the line when the leader has drifted below.

The 15 Commitments are the methodology's structured practices for living and leading consciously. They begin with foundational commitments to taking radical responsibility, learning through curiosity, and feeling all feelings, and extend through commitments around speaking candidly, eliminating gossip, practicing integrity, generating appreciation, working in one's zone of genius, playing and resting, exploring the opposite, sourcing approval and security from within, having enough, experiencing the world as ally, creating win-for-all solutions, and being the resolution. They are practices to be lived, deepened, and revisited across the leader's career rather than skills to be acquired.

The Four Ways of Leading are four states of consciousness from which leaders operate. To Me is victim consciousness, where life is happening to the leader and the cause is outside them. By Me is responsibility, where life is happening by the leader and they are the source of their experience. Through Me is surrender, where life is moving through the leader, who has let go of control and is acting in service of something larger. As Me is oneness, where the leader experiences no separation between themselves and what is happening. The model describes states leaders can occupy in different moments rather than fixed developmental stages.

CLG offers Conscious Leadership Forums for founders, VCs, and CEOs (concentrated in the Bay Area and operating through YPO Forums and Chapters worldwide), a multi-stage Coach Training program created and led by Dethmer and Chapman, executive team workshops delivered to senior leadership teams, public workshops and online programs accessible to leaders not yet engaged with CLG directly, and the Conscious Leadership Forum online community providing book-aligned learning resources, practice tools, and peer community. CLG also delivers consulting engagements to organisations that want to build conscious-leadership practices into their culture.

No. CLG is not accredited by the International Coaching Federation, EMCC Global, the Association for Coaching, or other professional coaching bodies. CLG-trained coaches who hold ICF credentials acquire those credentials independently. The CLG credential signals competence in delivering the conscious leadership methodology specifically, rather than generalist ICF-recognised coaching competency. Many CLG-trained coaches do hold ICF or EMCC credentials concurrently, but the two are independent. Coaches seeking credentials recognised across the broader coaching profession should pursue accredited training separately and treat CLG as a complementary methodology training.

The methodology has had particular concentration in three communities: the Bay Area founder, VC, and CEO ecosystem (where Diana Chapman has worked with founders at major venture-backed companies including Asana); the YPO Young Presidents' Organization global network; and the broader tech-industry executive community where the book has been recommended widely. Outside these concentrations, CLG works with executive teams in healthcare, education, professional services, and other sectors. The book itself has reached a wide general leadership readership and is frequently included on Bay Area leadership reading lists.

The methodology draws on Stephen Karpman's Drama Triangle (Victim/Villain/Hero), David Emerald's Empowerment Dynamic (TED, with the Creator/Challenger/Coach roles), Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks's Zone of Genius and conscious-loving work, mindfulness and contemplative traditions, and adjacent leadership and consciousness writers including Frederic Laloux, Ken Wilber, and Eckhart Tolle. The CLG body of work is original in its synthesis but explicitly indebted to these traditions, and the founders frequently credit them in CLG materials and teaching.

CLG is incorporated in the United States, with significant activity concentrated in the Bay Area where Diana Chapman runs Forums for founders, VCs, and CEOs. Forums and workshops also run through YPO Chapters worldwide and through CLG-affiliated practitioners in other cities. The book and its associated learning resources have international reach; CLG itself is principally a US-based organisation that delivers programs internationally rather than a globally-distributed institution with country-level chapters. Diana Chapman, Jim Dethmer, and Kaley Warner Klemp each work internationally as part of their individual practices.

A CLG Coach Training certification means the coach has been trained directly in the Conscious Leadership methodology by Dethmer and Chapman, the same practitioners who have worked with more than 150 and 700 CEOs respectively and built the Bay Area's most influential leadership development community. It signals deep competency in the 15 Commitments, Above/Below the Line, and the Four Ways of Leading as a practical coaching framework rather than simple academic familiarity with the book. It does not signal ICF or EMCC accreditation; CLG credentials are proprietary and independent of professional coaching bodies. Many CLG-certified coaches hold ICF or EMCC credentials acquired separately. The certification is most relevant if you are a founder, executive, or leader who already knows the CLG methodology and wants a coach trained within it, or if you are curious whether the consciousness-based approach is right for your leadership development.

Ask how long they have been practicing with the CLG methodology and whether they completed the full multi-stage Coach Training program or a shorter workshop track; depth of training varies significantly. Ask whether they hold an ICF or EMCC credential separately; many CLG-trained coaches do, and the combination gives a clearer picture of their professional standing. Ask them to walk you through how they work with the Above/Below the Line distinction in actual sessions. A grounded, specific answer is the signal of real practice rather than surface familiarity. Ask about the kinds of clients they work with: the CLG approach has its deepest roots in founder, VC, and executive team contexts, so someone who works primarily in that world is a different fit from someone applying the methodology to other coaching populations. Finally, ask what they don't work with. CLG is a methodology for consciousness development, not a therapeutic or clinical service; if your situation involves acute mental health concerns, a licensed clinician is the right first resource.