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In March 2020, hundreds of us corporations, coaching firms, and executive coaches gathered in New York City at the Conference Board’s Executive Coaching Conference. At that point, executive coaching had been on a 20-year run of remarkable growth: revenues were rising, more coaches were being certified, and even the number of industry-wide conferences was increasing every year. Even the famed Thinkers50 organization launched its first-ever top 50 thinkers in coaching. Unaware of the looming dangers around us, conference attendees experimented with bumping elbows instead of shaking hands (when we could remember to do so).

The experience of the pandemic did not kill coaching; it supercharged it. Executives, facing unprecedented challenges and uncertainty, turned to coaching in record numbers.

Two weeks later, we all knew how the world had changed, and we quickly learned New York had been far from safe. As CEO of a major executive coaching provider, I braced for the worst for our business. The contract cancellations began. First, a major cruise line conglomerate would not launch its long-planned executive coaching experience, and furloughed our contacts inside the organization. A well-regarded pharmaceutical company axed its women-in-leadership development initiative and related executive coaching experience. Other suddenly working-from-home clients warned us their executive development efforts could terminate. We began preparing our staff and our coaches for a slowdown.

But something surprising happened. Within a week, a coaching request here or there from previously quiet clients arrived they wanted support for certain key executives. Then our regular clients resumed their development requests. The entire coaching program was being put into play, including specialized requests to help executives lead through crisis.

Given that coaching could be conducted virtually, 2020 became the best year in our company’s history. 2021 was even stronger. 2022 stronger still. In fact, the experience of the pandemic did not kill coaching; it supercharged it. Executives, facing unprecedented challenges and uncertainty, turned to coaching in record numbers. The pandemic proved what many had long known: coaching could be an essential fixture for executives’ leadership growth.

From Flailing to Fad to Fixture
In its earliest days, executive coaching was often reserved for leaders who were “flailing”. These were often derailing executives on their way out, offered a performative attempt to fix them through coaching. Assignments were quite limited and kept very quiet. And thus, coaching didn’t have a good reputation. A veteran coach I knew was nicknamed the “angel of death”. When she arrived, everyone knew that Leathe Der’s days were numbered.

Coaching is future-focused and developmental, aimed at helping leaders unlock their potential by drawing out insights, practicing new behaviours, and applying them directly to their work.

However, by the late 1990s and early 2000s, coaching had become something else entirely, a “fad”. Silicon Valley tech companies, always the early adopters, found that their fast growth was being hampered by the limits of their leaders. Interest quickly spread to other industries. At some organizations, coaching became something one did because everyone else was doing it. Companies were (properly) using it as a way of signaling investment in rising leaders. Yet, the marketplace didn’t quite understand what coaching was, and the term “coach” was used for all kinds of non-related interventions. (My favourite off-label use of the term: “Do you have a coach who can teach sexual harassment training in Japanese?”).

Today, coaching is a fixture. No longer limited to the executive ranks, coaching has expanded across organizational levels and outside of organizations. Externally sourced executive-level coaching continues for the top leaders, but mid-level managers are benefiting more regularly from specifically trained internal coaches. The rapid rise of app-based discount coaching platforms democratizes coaching for more levels. AI “self-service coaching” has already arrived for anyone inside or outside an organization. Other varieties of coaching have gained steam, such as coaching aimed at team effectiveness, peer coaching each other, group cohort coaching, and training leaders in coaching skills. Together, these practices are often referred to aptly and alliteratively as “creating a coaching culture” inside an organization.

Coaching helps leaders make lasting shifts in mindset and behavior changes that continue to generate value long after the formal sessions have ended.

Coaching Defined and Distinguished
The 2009 HBR article “What Can Coaches Do for You?” clarified long-blurred boundaries differentiating coaching from consulting or therapy. Therapy diagnoses and treats dysfunction; it is about healing wounds from the past, addressing psychological challenges, and restoring well-being. On the other end, consulting is about providing expert solutions, delivering answers and frameworks based on specialized knowledge in an objective fashion. Coaching sits between these modalities. It is future-focused and developmental, aimed at helping leaders unlock their potential by drawing out insights, practicing new behaviours, and applying them directly to their work.

The term “coach” has become incredibly popular over the years. Executive and leadership coaching remain the flagship high-touch work with senior executives aimed at boosting their leadership skills. Career coaching supports individuals contemplating career changes, along with strengthening their possibilities for a new job. Life coaching, health/wellness coaching, and even financial coaching have emerged to serve broader human needs. Reality shows, and scripted TV such as “Silicon Valley”, “Billions”, and “The Office UK” have featured “coaches” (by a very loose definition, life coaches, spiritual advisors, etc). In this way, the term has stretched from executive suites to living rooms to couches.

Why Coaching Works
Over the past two decades, a growing body of research has demonstrated that coaching delivers measurable benefits for both leaders and organizations. An early often-cited study demonstrated return on investment (ROI) of nearly six times the cost of executive coaching with improvements in productivity, quality, retention,n, and organizational strength. Other ROI studies have generally realized 600-700% returns, though admittedly, ROI can be elusive to truly measure definitively. Studies have highlighted the ripple effects of coaching across organizations. For example, research conducted at a global pharmaceutical company found that direct reports of leaders who had been trained in coaching skills reported significantly higher levels of engagement compared to those working under leaders who had not. Other studies have shown improvements in employee satisfaction, reduced turnover intention, and stronger cross-functional collaboration when leaders engage in coaching. Our own research regularly demonstrates enhanced leadership effectiveness as judged by anyone who has to work with a leader who has received coaching.

Perhaps most interestingly, longitudinal studies indicate that the effects of coaching endure. Research from the International Coach Federation (ICF) and other industry groups has found that leaders continue to improve in stakeholder-rated effectiveness six to 12 months after coaching engagements conclude. In other words, coaching helps leaders make lasting shifts in mindset and behavior changes that continue to generate value long after the formal sessions have ended.

But why do we believe coaching works? Over time, four themes stand out: Coaching is strategic, keeping leaders focused on what matters most for the business. It is sticky, embedding new behaviours in real time. It is supportive, offering a rare confidential space. And it is sustainable, creating changes that endure well beyond the coaching engagement.

In moments of stress or transition, the confidential nature of the coaching relationship is often what keeps leaders steady, engaged, and willing to stay.

Strategic. Company strategy,y, along with an organization’s mission, vision, and values, should drive leadership behaviours. Coaching is one of the few development approaches that directly aligns with those imperatives. Executives work on the behaviours that matter most for advancing the business, whether that is leading change, building stronger teams, or increasing cross-functional collaboration. And as talent management is often a core strategic priority for many organizations, coaching helps companies grow the leaders they already have rather than relying on uncertain external hires.

Sticky. Many leadership programs inspire in the classroom but fade back at the office. Coaching is different. Because it occurs in real time, centered around a leader’s actual challenges, it has current relevance. Assignments often run six months or more, allowing time for new behaviours to be practiced and codified, old limiting mindsets to be shifted, and deeper habits to take hold. A coach partially plays the role of “accountability partner,” ensuring leaders follow up with various action steps they have committed to. Just-in-time learning happens as new situations arise.

Supportive. Leaders may look confident on the outside, but most carry a heavy load of pressure and expectation. Coaching provides a rare space for candour. As one top executive told me bluntly, “I simply would not still be at this company if I hadn’t received coaching.” The cost of replacing that executive would have far outweighed the cost of providing supportive coaching. In moments of stress or transition, the confidential nature of the coaching relationship is often what keeps leaders steady, engaged, and willing to stay. This is very likely the largest reason why coaching exploded during the pandemic. Leaders faced unprecedented uncertainty, and they felt isolated, unable to confide honestly in peers or even HR. Coaching provided a safe mechanism for reflection and growth when it was needed most.

Sustainable. Coaching creates changes that endure. As previously mentioned, research shows that leaders continue to improve in effectiveness six months after coaching begins in the eyes of the stakeholders who work with them every day. Great coaching does not just aim to change a key behaviour in a key situation but rather to explore the deeper drivers and mindsets in operation represented by that key situation. And then, when mindsets shift, behaviours follow in lasting ways, for years to come. While formal assignments end 6-12 months after beginning, it is not uncommon for coaches and their leaders to stay in touch informally long after the assignment has ended.

The human need for trusted, confidential partnerships will remain central.

Who Are the Coaches?
In the late 90s, nearly anyone could approach us and say, “I am an executive coach”. And we would believe them more or less. There was no decent way to vet coaches at the time. We used a mixture of CV review, interview questions, and blind faith to determine if we would put someone in front of one of our clients. Even today, the title “coach” is largely unregulated. Unlike therapy, which requires licensure, or consulting, which often demands industry credentials, anyone can still technically call themselves a coach. This creates variability in quality and makes due diligence important for organizations selecting coaches.

Having said that, most organizations and external service providers have settled on somewhat similar criteria for what constitutes an executive coach. At our firm, we employ the “7 Key Criteria”, which considers the coach’s former business experience depth and length of coaching practice, senior-level coaching experience, client lists, academic degrees, and executive presence. Beyond these, we also look at factors such as specific coaching certification/training, diversity, language capabilities, and assessment certifications. Today, most client organizations insist that executive coaches possess an ICF, European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC)

or equivalent credential.
Executive coaches originate from a wide variety of professional backgrounds. Many start their careers in corporate leadership roles as former executives, HR leaders, or consultants who bring firsthand organizational experience. Others arrive via psychology, counselling, or organizational development, with a grounding in human behaviour and learning. This diversity can be a strength, offering executives a coach who understands their world from multiple perspectives.

What Executives Want from Coaching

While organizations may have ideas on where they want their leaders to grow, it is worth asking: what do executives themselves want from the experience? We recently analyzed more than 2,200 executive coaching engagements across 2023–2024. The findings revealed that executives most often focus on what might be called the “soft” skills, which, in practice, are the hardest to master.

#1 Influencing Others. At senior levels, leaders rarely succeed by authority alone. They are bringing others along, including directrepresentativess boards, government policymakers, external stakeholders even the general public. Executives come to coaching looking for ways to sharpen how they inspire commitment and overcome resistance. One coach put it simplyInfluencence is how things actually get done.”

#2 Executive Presence For many, executive presence is the difference between being heard and being followed. It is the ability to inspire confidence, communicate vision, and project credibility under pressure. Coaching helps leaders step into this power with greater intentionality, whether they are addressing a boardroom, leading a town hall, or navigating tense conversations on a video call.

#3 Communication Skills Communication has always mattered, but in today’s hybrid and global environment, it is make-or-break. Executives often realize they cannot rely on technical mastery alone; they need to connect across audiences, cultures, and mediums. Coaching helps them refine everything from messaging and tone to listening and empathy, ensuring that what they say actually lands.

#4 Fostering Effective Teams Executives know that their impact is multiplied or limited by the teams they lead. Increasingly, coaching engagements focus on how leaders shape team dynamics, handle conflict, and create climates where performance and engagement can thrive.

#5 Relationships and Networking The higher one rises, the more success depends on relationships outside formal authority. Leaders use coaching to strengthen their networks, broaden influence, and cultivate trust across silos and sectors. These relationships often prove essential when navigating crises or advancing bold strategies.

Taken together, these five areas highlight a truth long felt but only recently measured: executives want coaching to help them succeed with people. Strategy, finance, and technical knowledge remain important, but today’s leaders know their true edge comes from influence, presence, and connection.

Conclusion: Coaching as Fixture and Future

Admittedly, economic uncertainty and layoffs, fs, particularly within the tech sector, traditionally a major buyer of ccoachinghave slowed the peak of executive coaching through 2023 and 2024. While some organizations have pulled back or delayed investments, executive coaching continues to endure strategically among clients in many other industries.

Coaching has moved from the margins of leadership development to the mainstream. What began as a remedy for flailing executives became a fad and has now become a fixture. Leaders at all levels, in most industries, rely on coaching to sharpen their skills, navigate complexity, and sustain their performance.

Looking ahead, coaching’s future will be shaped by both continuity and change. The human need for a trusted, confidential partnership will remain central. At the same time, new delivery models group coaching, internal coaches, app-based platforms, and AI-driven assistants, will continue to broaden access. Organizations will increasingly view coaching not just as an intervention but as part of the fabric of leadership culture.

The conclusion is clear: coaching is no longer optional. It is both fixture and futur,,e a permanent part of how leaders learn, grow, and succeed in a world that demands more from them than ever before.