Coaching and Executive Development

Executives are expected to carry the weight of strategy, culture, profitability, and purpose; all while navigating ambiguity and disruption. It’s no wonder that the demand for skilled executive coaches has surged worldwide. Yet effective coaching at the top levels requires more than motivational questions or surface-level goal setting. It demands a deep understanding of executive-level competencies and the psychological, organizational, and interpersonal challenges that come with leadership at scale.

In this article, we explore the essential capabilities that leaders must refine at the executive level, how coaching supports these development areas, and what this means for the design of high-impact executive coaching programs. Whether you’re an executive, coach, or HR professional, understanding these dimensions is key to unlocking transformation in the C-suite.

Competencies for Executive Leadership

Executive leadership requires a shift from managing tasks to leading systems. Competency models vary by industry, but four stand out across contexts:

1. Strategic Thinking

Executives must anticipate market shifts, see around corners, and translate vision into direction. Strategic thinking is about synthesis, not just analysis.

Henry Mintzberg’s model of strategy as a process of synthesis and intuition, rather than rigid planning, is particularly relevant here.

In his work, particularly The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning (1994), Mintzberg argues that effective strategy formation is less about rigid analysis and more about synthesis, learning, and emergent thinking.

According to Mintzberg, strategic thinking is:

Holistic, drawing together disparate information to form a coherent picture.

Intuitive, involving deep insight gained through experience.

Creative, embracing innovation and imaginative problem-solving.

For Example: A coaching client, CEO of a logistics firm, was struggling to communicate a five-year plan to their team. Through coaching, they learned to distill their strategic vision into actionable narratives, clarifying purpose, not just process.

2. Influence and Political Acumen

At the top, authority doesn’t come from titles alone. Executives must influence a matrix of stakeholders: peers, boards, regulators, investors, often with competing agendas.

Possible Coaching Approach: Coaches can use tools like stakeholder mapping and influence strategies (e.g., Robert Cialdini’s principles of persuasion) to help leaders build alliances and communicate with credibility.

3. Decision-Making in Complexity

Senior leaders make decisions with incomplete data and irreversible impact. They must navigate risk, ambiguity, and rapid change.

The Cynefin Framework helps leaders distinguish between simple, complicated, complex, and chaotic contexts, each requiring a different decision approach.

Read about the Cynefin Framework here.

For example: A CFO facing a high-stakes investment used coaching to explore ethical, financial, and reputational angles, ultimately making a choice that aligned with both values and shareholder trust.

4. Systems Leadership

Executives lead within ecosystems, not silos. Understanding how policies, culture, markets, and people interact is fundamental.

Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline, particularly his emphasis on systems thinking, remains a cornerstone of leadership coaching. Systems thinking encourages leaders to:

• See the organization as an interconnected whole, not as isolated parts.
• Recognize feedback loops and unintended consequences of actions.
• Understand how mental models shape decisions and behaviors.

Coaching in Action: For executive coaching, this perspective is vital. Many executive challenges, such as cultural shifts, team dysfunction, or stakeholder resistance, are systemic, not individual. Coaches help clients explore feedback loops, unintended consequences, and cultural patterns that shape behavior at scale.

Development Themes Unique to the C-Suite

While competencies define what executives do, development themes define how they evolve. These themes require coaches to go beyond performance metrics and into the territory of identity, resilience, and change.

1. Leadership Identity

The transition from functional expert to enterprise leader demands a shift in self-concept. Coaches must help executives answer the existential question: Who am I now?

For Example: An engineer turned CTO struggled with stepping back from detail. Coaching helped redefine their role from problem-solver to enabler, shifting their identity from “doer” to “strategic leader.”

2. Resilience and Emotional Agility

C-suite roles are pressure cookers. Leaders face criticism, loneliness, and decision fatigue. Coaching supports them in developing routines for energy management, self-regulation, and boundary setting.

Daniel Goleman’s emotional intelligence framework is invaluable here—particularly self-awareness, empathy, and self-regulation.

View this article on EI and Leadership

For Example: A COO navigating a volatile merger used coaching to create daily grounding rituals, reframe unhelpful thoughts, and reclaim agency amidst chaos.

3. Leading Change

Executives must communicate vision, manage resistance, and model adaptability – often simultaneously.

Using Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model, coaches can help leaders identify where they are stuck, perhaps failing to build urgency, or neglecting quick wins.

Learn more about the Kotter Model in the Global course: Leading Change.

Executive Coaching: Performance, Transition, and Transformation

A well-designed executive coaching program doesn’t treat every engagement the same. There are three broad modes, each requiring a different focus.

1. Performance Coaching

This addresses immediate leadership challenges, board dynamics, communication, decision-making.

For Example: A Head of Marketing struggled to influence at the executive committee. Coaching focused on executive presence, narrative framing, and managing imposter syndrome.

2. Transition Coaching

Leaders in new roles face high visibility and short runways. Transition coaching supports onboarding, culture navigation, and rapid impact.

Consider this useful Framework: Michael Watkins’ The First 90 Days provides a structure for assessing early wins, building alliances, and setting direction.

Use Case: A CFO promoted internally used coaching to shift from peer to leader, focusing on presence, conflict navigation, and alignment with the CEO.

View this Global article: The First 100 days. 

3. Transformational Coaching

Here, the coaching journey is about personal reinvention, values, purpose, blind spots.

For Example: A founder preparing to exit his company realized the succession wasn’t just logistical, it was emotional. Coaching should then be focused on legacy, letting go, and identity beyond the business.

Consider this useful Theory: Immunity to Change (Kegan and Lahey) offers tools to uncover unconscious resistance and promote lasting behavior change.

Aligning Coaching Outcomes with Role Expectations

At the executive level, coaching must link personal growth with organizational value. Without this alignment, the ROI becomes hard to justify.

a. Understanding Role Mandates

Executives are hired for a reason; turnaround, growth, innovation. Coaches must understand the “why” behind the role.

For example: A Chief H-R Officer hired to “reshape talent strategy for global expansion” focused coaching on culture-building, global leadership, and internal influence, not generic goals.

b. Integrating Strategy and Development

Coaching goals should map directly to business strategy.

A useful tool here is a Leadership Alignment Map, which connects:

• Individual goals
• Role deliverables
• Organizational strategy
• Key stakeholder expectations

This ensures coaching conversations are always grounded in context.

c. Keeping the Impact in View

Good coaching always returns to impact:

• How will this insight shift behavior?
• What’s the visible difference in team or culture?
• How will success be measured?

Contemporary Leaders Who Embody Executive Competency

Coaching excellence is inspired by those who lead with clarity, courage, and character. Here are some such leaders:

• Satya Nadella (Microsoft) – Transformed Microsoft through empathetic leadership, system thinking, and inclusive culture.
• Jacinda Ardern (Former Prime Minister of New Zealand) – Demonstrated emotional intelligence and moral clarity in global crises.
• Paul Polman (Former Unilever CEO) – Integrated sustainability into core business strategy, modeling values-driven leadership.
• Rosalind Brewer (Walgreens Boots Alliance) – Known for strategic insight and navigating complexity with authenticity and vision.

These leaders are not only competent, they reflect on feedback, align with purpose, and lead with humility.

Conclusion: Designing Coaching for Executive Impact

If you’re designing or participating in an executive coaching program, remember: coaching at the top is about more than success. It’s about significance. It’s about helping leaders navigate the internal and external terrains of modern leadership, and doing so with intention, clarity, and aligned impact.

Great executive coaching:

• Builds strategic and systems-level competencies
• Supports identity shifts and resilience
• Aligns growth with business imperatives
• Fosters purpose-driven, sustainable leadership

At a time when organizations are looking for not just smart leaders, but wise ones, coaching offers a transformational edge.

Ready to Coach at the Executive Level?

Join the Global Training Program in Executive Coaching, designed to equip coaches, HR leaders, and senior executives with the theory, tools, and practices to lead and support at the highest levels of complexity. Dive deep into strategic coaching, systems thinking, identity work, and transformational leadership.

Click here for a detailed course outline or enrolment options: Certificate in Executive Coaching – Global Management Academy