FEBRUARY 2026 - The Secret Life of an Executive Coach
Executive coaching is a space where people can speak candidly with a thinking partner. The conversation raises self-awareness, gives space for reflection, offers challenge and feedback, and is action focused.
There are conversations leaders have in meetings, with their teams, with their peers, or with their manager. And there are conversations they may have nowhere at all, unless they have coaching. The higher someone progresses in their career, the fewer places exist where they can speak candidly without needing to inspire, reassure, persuade or perform. Senior roles can be isolating. The higher the position, the fewer places there are to speak openly.
There is not one paragraph I could write that would sum up all the executive coaching sessions I have ever had. They are varied and deeply interesting. There is no formulaic pattern for an executive coaching session that ensures success for the coachee. But there are some key principles that ensure a session is impactful.
A great coaching session does not happen by accident; it happens because of a partnership between the coachee and the coach.
Crucial Executive Coach Behaviours
Build a relationship of trust and rapport with the coache.
Be fully present, with attention on the coachee, their said and unsaid thoughts, body language, patterns, choice of words.
Appreciate the context within which the coachee works and be able to ask questions that consider the system the coachee works within. (Sometimes it helps to ask questions that look from outside the system inwards)
Be present to themselves, their own reactions to the coachee, bias, assumptions, strengths and habitual thinking patterns and offer them up to discuss if useful or manage them if not. (Example of offering them up: the coach is feeling increasingly stressed listening to the coachee. The coach shares with the coachee that they now feel stressed, and the coachee realises how they are talking in the session is the same way they talk with their team, and therefore their team may feel stress too.)
Know what to leave at the door – what would be unhelpful to bring into the room? Have you had a bad day or are you feeling pessimistic? Are you feeling impatient or pressured? What would not help the coachee for you to bring it into the room?
Whilst there is no formulaic script of what goes on in an executive coaching session, there are common topics that come up.
Common Executive Coaching Topics
Navigating career choices, career transitions
Key priorities and how to move forward with them
Being strategic in thought and action
Increasing confidence or managing imposter thoughts
Influencing at board level, or influencing more widely across an organisation
Being able to network more effectively
Managing a challenging team member or line manager
Developing a new business, growing a business
Feeling stuck and not sure of next steps
Presenting or communicating with impact
Deeper Change in Executive Coaching
Executive coaches are privy to hearing the goals, the doubts, the internal dialogue, and the hopes and fears of their coachees. They hear the strategic plans, the team dynamics, the issues, the conversations being avoided, and the conversations that have played out.
Behind the closed door of a coaching conversation something much deeper often unfolds. Because leadership is never only about knowledge; it is about who you are when you lead.
Effective coaching conversations don’t just ‘sort out’ the issue presented. ‘Who’ we are is ‘how’ we are. To change the ‘how’, we often need to change the ‘who’ in some way – our awareness or our beliefs about ourselves. Executive coaching often works at that deeper level, to enable transformative, sustained change. Shifting limiting beliefs or habitual stories, and enabling success and high performance through those changes, executive coaching can lead to deeper transformations of personal narrative and identity.
For example, a senior leader wants coaching to help with their first senior leader role, they have 3 direct reports now, and a wider team of 15 people. They are overwhelmed with the workload and how to operate without knowing all the detail. What has got them to that position is being conscientious and knowing the answers, always in the detail. But that cannot serve them anymore as they now need to let that go and become more strategic and empowering, so they can be effective as a senior leader. To make that shift they must let go of a previous version of themselves – the person that knows and does it all. This is a change in identity. No amount of tactical suggestions will help unless the person can let go of who they were before. Effective executive coaching works on that shift.
What happens outside the room
Also, the real work of coaching happens twice - in the room, and after the session. After the session the coachee may experiment with new thoughts or new behaviours, reflect on the session, read or listen to suggested resources, or simply notice how they show up in different situations. For the coach, they will also reflect on the coachee between sessions - coaches develop and grow from the coaching sessions they do with their clients too.
Within the confidential relationship in executive coaching, leaders can explore doubt without fear of judgement. They can test their thinking before acting publicly. They can examine behavioural patterns that no one else feels able to challenge. Most importantly, they can slow down enough to make intentional decisions rather than reactive ones.
Find out more
If you would like to know more about executive coaching, then please get in touch for a chat to see if we can help you or one of your team.
Executive coaching is usually delivered over a set of coaching sessions of between 60-90 minutes/session. Three sessions would usually be the minimum, although for some career coaching discussions we can offer 2 sessions. We have a team of coaches with different experiences, so we can match you with a coach or you can ask for a specific coach.