In this episode of the Proteus Leader Show, host Erika Andersen interviews Kat Coppett, founder of Coppett & Company, about using improvisational techniques to strengthen leadership capabilities. Kat frames improv as a "gym" for exercising the mental and interpersonal muscles leaders need, explaining that everyday interactions are improvisational scenes where we make unconscious performance choices. By practicing improv, leaders can become more aware of those choices and expand their repertoire of responses. The conversation outlines specific leadership skills honed through improv—presence, deep listening, empathy, charisma, collaboration, flexibility, and courageous risk‑taking. Kat also addresses common misconceptions, such as the belief that improv requires innate funniness or that it’s rule‑free and purely about comedy, clarifying that the core of improv is intense, judgment‑free presence and the ability to accept and build on what emerges. Listeners receive concrete, actionable tools: joining an improv class, using simple improv games like the "7 Things" warm‑up to practice spontaneity, and accessing resources such as Kat’s book Training to Imagine (which pairs improv principles with 50‑100 facilitator‑guided games). The episode concludes with references to Kat’s website (kopett.com) and Proteus’s resource hub (BeBadFirst.com), encouraging leaders to integrate improv practices into their development routines.
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You're listening to the Proteus Leader Show with Erika Andersen, where you will get practical tools and insights for leading, managing, and staying ready for the future. Erika is the founding partner of Proteus, a firm that focuses uniquely on leader readiness. A nationally known executive coach and bestselling author, you may already know her as one of the most popular leadership bloggers on Forbes.com. Ready for something you can use today? Here's Erika.
Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Proteus Leader Show. My guest today is Kat Coppett. She's the founder of Coppett and Company, which uses the mindset and the techniques of improv to enhance individual and organizational performance. She and her colleagues work with companies like Apple, Facebook, GE, and JPMorgan Chase to help them leverage the power of improvisation. And I'm also thrilled to note that Kat is now partnering with us at Proteus to add her insight and creativity to our work as well. So welcome to the show, Kat.
Thanks for having me.
Oh, I'm so glad you're here. And as soon as you and I started working together, I really got excited about having you share your wisdom with my listeners on the Proteus Leader Show because so much of what you offer I've already seen as supportive of good leadership and, and management. So my first question just goes right to the heart of that. How do you see improv helping leaders become more effective?
I think the simplest way to say it is that improv is the gym for exercising all sorts of muscles that leaders need and really that humans need. So a lot of the skills and mindsets That you work on developing with your clients and that most leaders look to be developing. Improv can help exercise.
Oh, I like that, the gym. So, talk a little bit about— connect those dots for me. Talk about what happens in that gym.
Yeah, yeah. Well, let me break it down in a couple of stages. So, at a sort of high-level umbrella, we are, as human beings, one of the ways we can think about it is we're improvising all the time, really, right?
Mm-hmm.
We make choices about how to show up. We can look at the little interactions we have as improvisational scenes where most of us, we don't wake up in the morning and have a script. Next to our bed, right? So we're having a conversation, you're deciding what to say, I'm deciding what to say. Now, a lot of the time we're doing that unconsciously and habitually, sort of performing, if you will, in rote ways, kind of unconsciously. But if we start to recognize that we're making these performance choices, that we're in these improvisational scenes, if you will, then improv can help us— consciously practicing improv can help us do 2 things. One is become more aware of the choices we're making and the impact they're having. So, expand our awareness. And the other is it can help us expand our range of options in any given moment.
Oh, that's great. And those, as I'm listening to you, I know from my own life that those 2 things Go together, the more— just being more conscious gives you a choice because otherwise you're tending to just default to whatever your ordinary choices are.
Yes, exactly right. And then if we take it down a level, the kinds of skills that improvisers work on that are beneficial to leaders and that leaders also talk about are things like being more present and receiving and listening. more deeply and better, or having more empathy, or being able to present yourself and influence with more impact and charisma, or collaborating with others, being more flexible and responsive in the moment. Even things like being courageous and being willing to take more risks.
Rather than just defaulting to a maybe less courageous or more risk-averse choice that you would do unconsciously. Oh, that's great.
Being spontaneous. All of those things, you know, a lot of things that sometimes we think of as innate qualities, we as improvisers believe are these muscles that you can exercise and get more adept at.
I'm sure you run into this a lot, that people come in with fixed ideas about improv. So, what are some of the misconceptions that you've run into over the years that you'd most like to, you know, debunk?
I think the main one is that improvisers, first of all, have some are funny, have some kind of innate funny gene. And a related one is that improv is about being wacky and silly and that there are no rules.
Yeah. Oh, man, I can see that. A lot of that is from the popular TV shows that use improv as part of what they do.
Right. I think it's from the popular TV shows that are all about comedy.
Yes.
It's also about, I think, just a misinterpretation from an audience point of view of conflating a result with a process. As an audience member, you watch improv comedy and it's really funny and it looks really wild and spontaneous and so you think, oh, what they must be doing is trying to be really funny and go for the laugh or go for the joke. And it's a misinterpretation of what the process is. So, what great improvisers really are doing at heart is their superpower is an ability to be intensely present In the moment and use— to receive and notice and use everything that's happening and in the most obvious way. So to really listen and receive and then to accept whatever is happening and build with it.
Okay.
Without censoring themselves, without judging it, which in some ways is the opposite of what people think they're doing. So, it can look like, oh, that person's trying to be really clever or trying to be really original. And in fact, great improvisers are doing the opposite of that. They're being—
So, people think that improvisers have this kind of bag of funniness or tricks that they're kind of pulling from rather than just doing what you're saying, which is being entirely present and focused on completely listening, hearing, taking in what they get. And then responding in the most appropriate way because they're free to do that because they don't have a bunch of stuff in their mind already.
Exactly right. So if you really have a great joke, right, and you're waiting, you're like, I have this great joke, it's probably not going to work because it means you're in your head with your great joke and you've lost the moment. You're not connected.
Oh, this is so great. So you're kind of starting a trend in this direction, but what are— I always promise my listeners that they'll get practical takeaways. So what are some practical tips you can give to start getting these benefits right now for people who are listening?
Well, I mean, the most obvious one is go find an improv company near you, and there is one these days wherever you are, and start taking an improv class. On an easier level, there's all sorts of improv activities, and you can Google them, that you can play on your own. to do the same way you can exercise in your house. You don't actually have to go to the gym. You can start to exercise these spontaneity muscles on your own. So, for example, if you and I were going to exercise our spontaneity right now, what we were just talking about is this idea of instead of trying to be interesting or clever, Mm-hmm. if you accept this idea that Where true creativity or true connection comes from is just trusting your impulses and being in the moment. I could say, let's play 7 Things. Very simple warmup improv game where we're gonna exercise our ability to just trust that we are enough and we can come up with good ideas if we just say the next, whatever comes to mind. I'm gonna name 7 things in a category that you give me. So, it could be things like pieces of advice my mom gave me, that I didn't listen to or things I could do with a hat other than wear it on my head. And then, I'll name 7 things.
So, 7 things a manager can do with an employee to help their relationship.
Now, every time I do one, you're going to say the number and you're going to count for me up till 7. So, 7 things they can do that are likely to help the relationship. Okay. Move their chair around to the same side of the desk.
1.
Ask them a question about how they're doing first.
2.
Make good eye contact.
3.
Nod and smile encouragingly when they're talking.
4.
Ask follow-up questions when they say something.
5.
Share a way that they've had a similar experience.
6.
Offer resources.
Wonderful. 7. Oh my gosh, that's great. Those are all great.
And see, what I did there is I actually gave you answers that maybe were good answers or maybe they weren't. I could have said something like, bring out a puppy to play with, or have popcorn.
Yeah, yeah. But they arose from your own understanding, your own experience, your own background.
The rules in this game are they don't have to be good answers. So, I could have said, bring out their mother to scold them, and that would have been just as legitimate.
That's great. So it just— I can see how it just sort of gets you to just say what's there, do what's there, come from your own experience.
Yeah. All right.
That's great.
And you can play that alone in your car, in your head, on the subway. And the idea is the more, you know, just to practice being fast. There are hundreds of games like that, so you can play on your own. You can, with your team, grab a— there are books. We have one that have improv activities that you can play with your team.
Yes. Can you tell— just say the title of your book for our listeners because I'd love for them to have access to it.
Our book is Training to Imagine.
Yeah.
And a long title that has the word improv. Training to Imagine is the main title. And the first half of the book explores a lot of the principles and sort of main tenets of improv. And then the second half is 50 to 100 improv games, simple ones like this, and that have facilitator guides so you can run them yourself very easily.
Okay. And I love that little game that we just did. It kind of took us back full circle because that's the gym, right? That's where we're practicing these new behaviors. That's wonderful. So I always promise listeners that this will be quick and practical, and I think we've made it that. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
This has been really useful and thought-provoking for people, and I hope that they will look more into this. And if you want to find out specifically more about Kat, listeners, I would certainly recommend her book. And you can also go to her website, which is kopett.com. And to find out more from the Proteus side about how to be more open to new learning in every part of your life, You'll find a lot of great resources if you go to BeBadFirst.com. So thank you again, Kat. This has been great.
Thanks for having me.
And thank you so much for listening. Until next time, here's to creating the life you truly want.
We hope you're feeling better equipped to create the career, the business, and the life you want. For more insights and tools for leadership and management, Join us at theprudentiousleader.com. Have an excellent day, and thanks for listening.
