Is Now the Right Time for Executive Coaching?

Executive CoachingLeadership DevelopmentHuman LeadershipLeaders

Sep 8

There are moments in a leader's career when working harder isn't the answer.

The role has become bigger. The stakes are higher. The environment is changing faster. There are more people depending on them, more competing priorities to navigate, and less margin for getting leadership wrong.

And often, the very behaviours that helped a leader become successful—taking ownership, solving problems, pushing harder, carrying more—start to become the behaviours that limit their effectiveness at the next level.

That's often when Executive Coaching can have the greatest impact.

But how do you know when the time is right?

5 signs executive coaching may be worth considering

1. The complexity of the role has outgrown the leader's old ways of working.

A promotion, expanded mandate or significant organizational change can fundamentally change what leadership requires.

Success may no longer be about how much the leader can personally accomplish. It becomes about strategic perspective, influence, decision-making, developing others and achieving results through other people.

That transition isn't always automatic.

2. The pressure is changing how the leader shows up.

One of the questions at the centre of my work is:

What happens to the way we lead when the pressure goes up?

Even highly accomplished leaders can default to behaviours that helped create their success: doing more, controlling more, carrying more and pushing harder. At increasingly senior levels, however, those same patterns can begin to limit executive effectiveness, team capability and organizational performance.

Coaching creates the space to notice those patterns—and intentionally choose something different.

3. A strong leader has an important development edge.

Sometimes coaching isn't about fixing a problem at all. It may be about taking an already strong leader and helping them become even more effective.

Perhaps they need greater executive presence. More confidence in senior-level environments. Stronger communication and influence. The ability to delegate and lead through others. Greater strategic perspective. Or a more sustainable way of performing at a high level.

Those are precisely the kinds of capabilities that become increasingly important as leaders advance.

4. The organization is heading into significant change.

A new strategy. Transformation. Restructuring. Rapid growth. AI and technological change. A new leadership team. Increased expectations. Organizations spend enormous amounts of time thinking about what needs to change. But there is another question worth asking:

Who do our leaders need to become to lead us through it?

As organizations invest heavily in technology and AI, I believe the human side of leadership becomes more—not less—important. Trust. Judgment. Communication. Influence. Resilience. Connection. The ability to navigate uncertainty and bring people with you.

These capabilities don't necessarily develop simply because someone has been given a more senior title.

5. You don't want to wait until something is wrong.

This may be the most important one. To me, the best Executive Coaching is not remedial. In fact, some of the most valuable coaching happens when an organization sees potential in a leader and deliberately invests in that person before they are overwhelmed, disengaged or struggling.

It says: You're important to where we're going. Let's invest in helping you lead at your best.

So, what does Executive Coaching actually look like?

Good executive coaching should be much more than a series of interesting conversations. My coaching engagements are strategic and customized around the individual leader, their role and the outcomes they—and their organization—want to achieve.

Depending on the engagement, that can include leadership assessments, a 360° assessment or stakeholder interviews, alignment with the leader's manager, clear measurable development objectives, one-to-one coaching, real-world application between sessions, progress reviews and an evaluation of leadership impact.

The real work happens when we take what emerges in coaching and apply it to what is happening right now:

The difficult conversation tomorrow. The executive meeting next week. The team that needs something different. The decision the leader keeps avoiding. The pressure that is affecting how they are showing up. The next level of leadership they're trying to grow into.

Why my approach is different

I've spent more than 15 years coaching leaders, and I'm a Master Certified Coach (MCC), the highest credential awarded by the International Coaching Federation. I'm also an MBA, former Corporate Vice President and certified practitioner of The Leadership Circle 360 Assessment.

But my approach to leadership has also been shaped by experiences that couldn't be learned in a boardroom or classroom.

I'm a mother, cancer widow and brain injury survivor.

That combination of professional and lived experience has given me a particular lens on leadership: I understand both the business demands of delivering results and the human realities of leading through pressure, uncertainty and change.

That's why my work sits at the intersection of human leadership, executive performance and leadership under pressure.

I don't believe sustainable high performance comes from asking leaders to continually carry more.

I help leaders become more intentional about how they lead—so they can strengthen their impact, build capability around them and deliver results without losing themselves in the process.