When a violinist takes first chair, the role changes overnight. The musician moves from blending into the section to setting the standard for it, holding the team together while staying in sync with the larger orchestra. The skills that earned the promotion are no longer enough on their own.
Leaders face the same shift. As they move from individual contributor to manager to senior executive, new responsibilities separate them from the colleagues they once worked beside. The view from the top can be isolating. To navigate these transitions, or simply to perform better where they are, many leaders turn to executive coaching.
The Power of Executive Coaching
Executive coaching is a leadership development tool that pairs leaders with professional partners as they step into or grow within senior roles.
"Senior leaders often describe feeling lonely at the top," explained Sarah Bettman, director of solutions architecture and executive coach at SHRM Linkage. "In many ways, as coaches, we are the one person they can talk to that is outside of their organization but invested in their success."
That sounding board is central to the work. But Bettman emphasizes that coaching is not about handing over answers. The client finds them.
Jennifer Broerman Spencer, director of global inclusion at Lenovo, a global technology firm, learned this firsthand while working with Bettman. She had reached a point in her career where something felt off, though she could not name what it was. Coaching gave her the space to find out.
Those experiences point to a larger truth. Tailored support for senior leaders is essential for sustaining leadership effectiveness and driving organizational success. Directors and above face distinct pressures, including isolation and the high stakes of avoiding mistakes, according to The Price of Success: Navigating the Trade-Offs That Shape Career Growth report from SHRM. Developing leaders is a business imperative, and coaching offers one path forward.
What Makes a Great Coach
The best coaches combine sharp business sense with the ability to explore a client's inner world. Whether the leader hires the coach directly or the organization does, the standard stays the same.
"A great coach listens and suspends judgment," Broerman Spencer said. "That's the basic qualification, for me."
Bettman sees a common pattern among new senior leaders eager to leave their mark. "A chronic issue I see is leaders don't know what they don't know," she said. "They really want to make an impact, but they're moving too fast in those first 90 days, and they miss that there is still a lot to learn before laying out their strategy and plans."
A great coach helps leaders slow down, process what they hear, and find their footing. Broerman Spencer adds that strong coaches also understand the environment their clients operate in. They act as an anchor, asking questions that produce answers suited to that specific context.
How Coaching Helps Leaders and Organizations
The pressure on senior leaders is measurable. In the same SHRM report, 20% of directors and above said they feel likely to face major scrutiny upon making a mistake at work. That pressure creates a real burnout risk, one that can ripple across entire teams. Given how widely senior leaders influence the organization, addressing burnout is an organizational priority, not just a personal one.
Letting Go of Old Roles
Coaching holds up a mirror, helping leaders see where they have room to change.
"One of the ways I see burnout manifest is when leaders see their role as doing everything on the team," Bettman said.
A leader may keep performing legacy tasks from past roles while quietly drowning in the demands of the new one.
"Combatting this kind of burnout is letting go of the things that are not part of the job, but are muscle memory from previous roles," Bettman said.
Reclaiming a Sense of Choice
Burnout can also come from feeling stuck. A leader who has been promoted steadily may reach a point where they feel set on a track they never chose. That loss of autonomy, the sense of being wedged into the org chart, can drain motivation. Coaching can help leaders examine those feelings and decide what they actually want.
“It's like a career tune-up... don't we deserve to go get checked out too?" Broerman Spencer said.
Bringing Clarity to the Role
Beyond burnout, coaching helps leaders sharpen their focus on their team and its purpose.
"Coaching brought a lot more clarity to my role," Broerman Spencer said. "My team is focused on priorities rather than trying to accomplish everything all at once and we’re asking questions to define those priorities.”
Choosing the Right Coach and the Right Time
A coach can listen well, ask the right questions, and probe the right sore spots. None of it matters if the fit is wrong or the timing is off.
Inclusion and Fit
Inclusion shapes whether a coaching relationship works, according to Bettman.
"Identities in the workplace are a significant thing worth talking about," she said. "I'm not the right coach for everyone, and that's okay, but I need to make sure I have in my network a wide range of coaches that represent the communities we serve."
Access to coaches with shared experiences can strengthen the fit. Shared identity is not always required for a productive relationship, but giving leaders a say in who they work with often matters just as much.
Timing
Timing carries its own weight. Broerman Spencer describes coaching as a career tune-up, while noting the mileage may vary. Some leaders anticipate their next move and start coaching early. Others, like Broerman Spencer, begin to feel their comfort turn into discomfort and need support to explore it.
"Change is hard, there's a lot of inertia to break free from," she said. When leaders sense they have accomplished all they can in a role, that can be the right moment to pursue development through a coach.
Redefining What Growth Looks Like
For Broerman Spencer, coaching reshaped how she measures success. It built her confidence and deepened her self-awareness. "Knowing myself better helps me lead others with confidence," she said.
It also changed her view of progress. Coaching helped her see that happiness is not always an upward climb. She still holds her larger aspirations, but she now recognizes the value of growing within her current role, with more patience for where she is right now.
Development for the Future
Executive coaching offers a meaningful path for leadership growth. As organizations face a fast-moving business climate and the high cost of losing talent in an uncertain labor market, understanding how to engage with a coach can serve as a hedge against that uncertainty.
However leaders and organizations pursue development, the plan needs to meet today’s pace of business. "The days of 10-year strategic plans are over — agility is the requirement for success," Bettman said.
If your senior leaders are navigating a transition, feeling the weight of the role, or searching for clarity, the right coach at the right time can help them lead with confidence.
Was this resource helpful?
Validate your HR expertise
Earning your SHRM-CP credential makes you a recognized expert and leader in the HR field.
Related Content
Learn how Marsh McLennan successfully boosts staff well-being with digital tools, improving productivity and work satisfaction for more than 20,000 employees.
The proliferation of artificial intelligence in the workplace, and the ensuing expected increase in productivity and efficiency, could help usher in the four-day workweek, some experts predict.
As artificial intelligence technology continues to develop, the demand for workers with the ability to work alongside and manage AI systems will increase. This means that workers who are not able to adapt and learn these new skills will be left behind in the job market.