Kathy Kolbe
Acclaimed theorist, organizational strategist, and educator, Kathy Kolbe is a sought-after consultant, speaker and advocate for change in workplaces, schools and health care services. Her ground breaking work has been featured in over 200 newspapers and journals, including Time magazine’s 1985 “Man of the Year” article, which featured her as one of seven American’s who exemplified the “spirit to inspire.”
The seminal theorist in identifying human instincts, Kolbe has solved the riddle of how to determine a person’s modus operandi. She has developed the only validated assessment of instinct-based strengths, and discovered the algorithm for synergy.
Kolbe, a trained journalist inducted into Northwestern University’s Hall of Achievement, has written best-selling books. Kolbe's first book, The Conative Connection, identified and explained the elusive third dimension of the mind, the conative. Later, Pure Instinct detailed her experience with high performers in the corporate arena. Her latest book, Powered by Instinct: 5 Rules for Trusting Your Guts gives readers easy to use examples and practice for applying Kolbe's knowledge to overcome the fatigue, fear and frustrations dominating the world today. It is a guide that allows all readers to increase personal productivity and improve well-being by learning to unlock the power of their own creativity.
An entrepreneur at heart, she founded both a not-for-profit research organization, and a corporation, Kolbe Corp, for gathering and disseminating practical applications for her breakthrough discoveries. After managing this award-winning enterprise for 25 years, she proved her own theories by successfully turning it over to a son and daughter to lead.
Kolbe’s pioneering efforts began with an award-winning publishing company, Resources for the Gifted, for which she wrote over 40 books, sold them to schools in 15 countries, and set a worldwide standard for K-12 gifted education.
Unsatisfied with IQ-based identification of abilities, Kolbe spent years studying the mysterious conative patterns of behavior, which have largely been ignored by academics during the last century. She authored the first reliable measurement of conation, the Kolbe A™ Index, which identifies the patterns of actions or modus operandi of an individual and developed coaching-type results which are individualized, internet-delivered insights in applying the information in real-life situations. This revolutionary assessment provided an entirely new approach to mental measurement and the explanations of it.
Kolbe’s Indexes and programs soon reached appreciative adults and youngsters in 34 nations across every part of the globe. Her one-of-a-kind consultations are sought by leaders as diverse as NBA coaches, monastery priests, Chief Justices, brain surgeons, and film directors.
Kolbe’s achievements in advancing the understanding of human nature have led to studies of her work at Stanford, Harvard, University of Chicago, UCLA, California State University, and numerous other universities throughout the world. She is an Entrepreneurial Fellow at the University of Arizona, and has been an adjunct professor at Arizona State University. She spends considerable time working directly with youngsters through her non-profit, The Center for Conative Abilities.
Kolbe is married with five children and eight grandchildren – all of whom gather frequently in her home Conasium™ Center, a place she describes as “being to the mind what a gymnasium is to the body.” Kathy clearly enjoys the kind of success she deems most important: having the freedom to be yourself.
© 2008 Kathy Kolbe. All rights reserved.