Ask Savannah
What executive coaching actually is, how it works, and how to know if it's right for you.
An executive coach helps a capable, successful person see their own patterns, blind spots, and decisions more clearly than they can from the inside — and then works with them to change what needs to change. The work isn't teaching new information; it's sharpened judgment, applied to real decisions you're already facing, with someone who has no stake in the outcome except your growth.
Coaching looks forward at performance and decisions; therapy looks back to understand what's driving dysfunction in the first place. If the question is "how do I lead this situation better," that's coaching. If it's "why do I keep reacting this way across every part of my life," that's therapy — and the two are sometimes both needed, just for different things.
A consultant tells you what to do based on their expertise; a coach helps you build the judgment to decide for yourself. A mentor shares their own path and experience; a coach works from your specific situation, asking the questions that get you to your own answer rather than handing you theirs.
If you're capable and successful but sense a pattern repeating — a decision that keeps going sideways, a dynamic with your team you can't quite name — that's usually the sign. Pushing through works when the problem is effort. It doesn't work when the problem is a blind spot, because by definition you can't see your way out of something you can't see.
Rates typically run from a few hundred dollars per session to several thousand a month for an ongoing engagement, with structured programs often landing in the five-figure range over several months. Cost varies with the coach's experience, the intensity of the engagement, and what's actually being worked on — it's worth treating like any other serious investment in your judgment.
For the right person at the right moment, yes — a single bad decision avoided, or a promotion that lands instead of stalling, typically pays for an entire engagement many times over. The return isn't guaranteed by the price tag, though; it depends on whether you show up ready to actually change something, not just talk about it.
Some shifts show up within weeks — a conversation handled differently, a decision made with more clarity — while the deeper patterns, the ones built over a career, typically take months to genuinely change. Anyone promising an instant transformation is selling something other than real coaching.
Look for someone with real experience at your altitude, a clear sense of how they actually work session to session, and a way of talking to you that feels direct rather than performative. Credentials matter less than whether they ask sharp questions and are willing to tell you something you don't want to hear.
In practice the terms overlap heavily, but "executive coach" usually signals work with someone already in a senior role, while "leadership coach" can include earlier-career managers building leadership skills for the first time. The more useful question isn't the label — it's whether the coach has genuine experience with people at your specific level and stakes.
A mentor has walked a path similar to yours and shares what worked for them; a coach doesn't need to have walked your path at all, because their job is drawing out your own judgment, not offering theirs. Both have real value — they're just different tools for different needs.
If the problem is that you don't know the answer, get a consultant. If the problem is that you know the answer but something is stopping you from acting on it clearly, get a coach. Plenty of executives need both, at different points, for different problems.
Most sessions start with what's actually live for you right now — a decision, a conversation, a pattern you've noticed — and move through it with direct questions rather than a scripted curriculum. It's less a lecture and more a working session on your actual, current problems.
Start with whatever is genuinely costing you something right now — a stalled promotion, a team dynamic that isn't working, a decision you can't get clarity on — rather than a vague goal like "be a better leader." Specificity is what makes the engagement actually move.
You should be able to point to something concrete that's actually different — a conversation you handled differently, a decision made with more clarity, a pattern you've caught yourself in and interrupted. If months in you can't name anything specific that's changed, that's worth raising directly with your coach.
Coaching can't get you a title, but it can close the specific gaps — in presence, judgment, delegation, communication — that are often the real reason a promotion has stalled. Most executives who feel "stuck" have a nameable, addressable pattern behind it, not just bad luck or politics.
Yes — a good coach can help you separate genuine calibration gaps from a distorted self-read, which is usually the actual work imposter syndrome requires. The fix is rarely generic confidence-building; it's figuring out precisely what's real and what isn't in how you're reading yourself.
Have a question of your own?