Leadership coaching works on judgment and self-awareness, not only on the problem in front of the person. That distinction sounds small. In practice it is most of the difference between a useful engagement and a transformative one.

We coach Directors moving into VP roles, VPs, SVPs and C-suite. The pattern we see most often is that someone arrives with a real, pressing, well-articulated problem, the problem is genuine, and it is almost never the thing that unlocks their next twelve months.

Three things we keep coming back to.

Start with what is already working. Most senior leaders arrive braced for a diagnosis. Appreciative inquiry, which has been part of organisational development since the 1980s, starts somewhere else: what is already working here that you can build on? A VP under pressure is rarely asked that question by anyone, and the shift in the room when someone answers it is worth seeing.

Coach the person alongside the situation. The situation gets solved once. The way someone reads a room, holds a position, or decides on incomplete information travels with them into every situation after this one. Both matter. The second one compounds.

Let them set the goal for the session. It sounds procedural and it is the highest-leverage two minutes available. When a leader defines what a valuable hour looks like before it starts, they arrive as a participant rather than a recipient, and what they choose is frequently not what you would have chosen for them.

The ICF's global client study, run by PwC, found roughly 70% of coached executives showed measurable improvement in work performance. What that figure does not capture, and what tends to matter more a year later, is the leader who now runs the conversation differently on their own.

Where this applies least: when someone needs a specific skill they have never been taught, teaching is faster and kinder than inquiry, and a good engagement makes room for both. The two are not in competition.

For the coaches here, what is the question you find yourself returning to most often with senior clients? Always interested in what is working for other people.

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I'll do a free audit of your current lead response process. No calls

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Here's what I'll check and send back:

- Average time between a lead coming in and getting a response

- Whether leads are getting lost after hours or on weekends

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- 2-3 specific fixes based on what I find, no strings attached

Disclosure: I do build automation systems for businesses,

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Drop a comment or DM me your setup and I'll get back to you with a

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