How to Choose an Executive Coach

A little preparation before you talk to coaches makes them easier to compare, whether you are the leader who will be coached or the HR or talent partner arranging coaching for someone else.

Start with what has changed

Before you look at coaches, write down in 2 or 3 sentences what has changed in the role or around it: a promotion, a larger scope, a new boss, feedback that came as a surprise, a team that has stopped working well together.

Those sentences tell you which experience to look for. A leader stepping into a first VP role needs something different from a founder learning to hand over decisions.

They are also a first draft of the objectives. In a sponsored engagement, the leader, the sponsor and the coach agree the objectives together, usually in an alignment meeting early on. The leader owns them.

Check the credential

Anyone can call themselves a coach. The International Coaching Federation (ICF) awards 3 credentials. Each one sets minimum requirements for coach training and coaching experience, and the standard pathways also include mentor coaching, an evaluation of recorded coaching sessions and an exam. The minimums are:

ACC (Associate Certified Coach): 60 hours of training; 100 hours of coaching experience, at least 75 of them paid, with at least 8 clients
PCC (Professional Certified Coach): 125 hours of training; 500 hours of coaching experience, at least 450 paid, with at least 25 clients
MCC (Master Certified Coach): 200 hours of training; 2,500 hours of coaching experience, at least 2,250 paid, with at least 35 clients. Applicants must hold or have held the PCC.

Requirements differ by application pathway and are updated from time to time. The ICF publishes the current ones on its credential comparison page.

ICF-credentialed coaches also commit to the ICF Code of Ethics, which covers confidentiality and conflicts of interest. Ask which credential a coach holds and whether it is current.

Can the coach understand the system you lead within?

At senior levels, much of the difficulty sits in the system around the leader: who decides what, which relationships carry weight, where the boss and the peers disagree, and what a decision will cost the business if it goes wrong.

Effective executive coaching considers both the leader and the system in which they operate. Ask how the coach explores organizational dynamics, competing priorities, stakeholder relationships and the consequences of leadership decisions:

How would they learn who holds influence, formally and informally?
How do they bring the boss’s and peers’ views into the work?
How do they connect the coaching to decisions the business actually faces, such as a reorg, a budget or a hire?
What experience do they have of organizations of this size and complexity?

Listen for specific answers about decision rights, stakeholders and business consequences. General answers about mindset tell you less.

Look for experience at the leader’s level

A credential tells you about coaching skill. Ask separately about the people the coach works with:

What share of their clients are Directors, VPs or C-suite executives?
Which industries and kinds of organization do they know?
Have they worked with leaders in a situation like this one?

Ask how the work is structured

Coaching for senior leaders usually runs as a defined engagement over several months. Not every engagement includes every element, so ask each coach:

How does the engagement start, and who agrees the objectives?
Is there a 360 or other assessment, and who sees the results?
Is there a written development plan?
How often are sessions, and over how many months?
How is progress reviewed, and with whom?

Compare the answers side by side. The cost guide explains how each of these affects the price.

Settle confidentiality before you start

This matters most when the organization is paying. Agree at the start, with the leader, the sponsor and the coach in the same conversation, what the sponsor will see and what stays between the leader and the coach.

In a typical arrangement, the sponsor receives agreed objectives and progress updates, while coaching conversations remain confidential. Assessment results are shared according to the consent and disclosure agreements established at the outset. Any legal or ethical exceptions should also be explained before coaching begins.

Ask how the coach responds if a manager or HR asks for more detail than was agreed.

Use the first conversation well

Talk to 2 or 3 coaches. Bring a real problem, one you would actually want help with this month.

Pay attention to the questions the coach asks, and to how much of the call they spend describing their own method. Notice whether they are willing to challenge your thinking.

Afterwards, ask yourself one question:

“Did I feel understood, challenged and able to see something I had not considered before?”

For HR and talent partners

Offer the leader 2 or 3 coaches and let the leader choose.
Brief each coach on the context and the business reason for the coaching.
Agree the roles of the leader, the manager, HR and the coach at the start.
Ask how the coach will report progress without breaking confidentiality.

Warning signs

Promises of specific results. No coach controls them.
No clear answer on confidentiality.
A rigid approach that does not adapt to the leader’s context, objectives and emerging needs.
No way to evaluate progress beyond the leader’s satisfaction with the sessions.
Pressure to sign after a single call.

How engagements work at Better Together Group

Claudia Beck, MCC works with each leader directly. She spent 25+ years in global business. As VP at Burberry in London she reported at different times to the Regional President, the Chief Commercial Officer and the Chief Financial Officer. At Tory Burch in New York she was SVP and a member of the Executive Operating Team. That experience informs how she works with leaders navigating competing priorities, difficult stakeholder relationships, consequential decisions, and the gap between strategic intent and organizational execution. She has led more than 6,000 coaching sessions since 2019.

Company-sponsored engagements follow 7 stages, from kickoff to wrap-up. They include an alignment meeting with the leader’s manager, a 360, a written development plan and 3 touchpoints where the leader reviews progress with the manager.

Self-funded engagements are scoped with each leader in the first conversation, including whether an assessment or a written plan is part of the work.

View the ICF MCC credential (PDF)