Executive Coaching: Roundtable Reflections

Today, I hosted an Executive Coaching Roundtable with senior CPOs, HR, L&D and Talent leaders from a range of sectors and countries. The conversation was open, thoughtful and full of practical ideas. We talked about how executive coaching is used (or sometimes not used) in different types of organisations.

The group prioritised the topics:

• Proving the value of executive coaching

• Engaging stakeholders and sponsors effectively

• The future of coaching in a changing world

Here are some of the main things that came up.

Proving the Value of Executive Coaching

We spoke about how to show that coaching is making a difference. Some shared that they use data like promotions, readiness for promotion or feedback from 360s. Others look at things like behaviour changes, or whether people are stepping into more strategic roles.

There were good examples of involving a sponsor early on. A three-way conversation between the coach, coachee and sponsor at the start can help agree clear goals and check progress later on.

Some said they already have useful data in the business and don’t need to create something new, things like performance scores, behaviour frameworks or existing surveys. Others are working with us as coaching provider where we measure objectives agreed by the executive coachee and their sponsor and are reviewed along the coaching journey. Similarly using portals, which can review specific metrics, such as improved leadership behaviour, decreased costs, and increased employee engagement.

We also talked about areas that are harder to measure, like presence, confidence or how people show up with others. Even though they’re less visible, they still matter. Some organisations are encouraging senior leaders to share their own stories on the intranet, in live meetings or town halls. This helps make coaching more visible and shows that development is a strength, not a weakness.

As a reader of this blog post, consider this: if you’re a great leader and you have two job offers, one from a company that invests in its people and has a superb engagement level, whilst achieving great results and one with a poor reputation for leadership, high employee turnover but still making money, where would you go?

This links to a recent People Management article I contributed to, which showed that fewer people want to become managers and potentially leaders. Coaching has a part to play in making leadership feel more supported, not just more pressured.

Engaging Stakeholders and Sponsors

People spoke about how useful it is to involve the sponsor or stakeholders early. A shared understanding of what coaching is for and what success looks like seems to make things work better.

There was some reflection on how coaching is offered. In some places it’s still linked to problems or performance concerns. One option discussed was to run a small pilot with three execs, one who already sees the value in coaching, one who’s unsure and one who isn’t keen. This can help test it in a safe way and build wider support.

One thing that came up was timing. Some leaders said coaching is brought in when things are already going wrong. We explored how helpful it would be to invest earlier. When psychological safety, support and development are already in place, leaders are less likely to end up firefighting.

Waiting too long can cost the business, through higher sickness, burnout, staff leaving and good people choosing not to stay.

The Future of Coaching in a Changing World

We touched on AI and how it might help support coaching in larger or less senior populations. While tools may help between sessions or in tracking progress, executive coaching still needs human connection, trust and proper listening, read more on this here.

Final Thoughts

This session was full of good thinking and honesty. People were open, curious and willing to learn from each other. I’m very grateful to all those who contributed, thank you.

We’ll run more of these events and would love to hear what topics others want to explore.

If you want to follow up on anything shared, email us at info@theleadershipcoaches.co.uk.