What Is a CEO Coach?
A CEO coach works with the person running the company, on how they lead, decide, and hold pressure, so the business gets their leader at their best. The work is less about strategy decks and more about arriving to clarity of judgment behind every call you make. After 17 years as a CEO and two exits, the thing I most needed was not more information. It was someone who could see what I could not see about how I was leading.
A CEO coach does not run your company. They work to unlock the limits of the person who does.
What does a CEO coach actually do?
They give you a place to think out loud with someone who has no stake in the outcome except your clarity. They pressure-test your reasoning, name the patterns you repeat under stress, and hold you to the decisions you keep avoiding. The good ones spend more time on who you are being than on what you should do. There is a reason why people say advice is cheap. Coaching for your personal development, however, rewards your entire life.
How is a CEO coach different from a mentor or an advisor?
A mentor tells you what they did. An advisor tells you what to do in their domain. A coach helps you see what you are not seeing, so you become clear on what matters most to you and how to get there. Most founders need all three at different moments. I broke this down in Do You Need a Mentor, an Advisor, or a Coach?
When should a founder hire a CEO coach?
Anytime, why wait for the sky to fall before seeking coaching. The goal of the company is to grow, and that happens only if you grow to lead it to where it must go.
What results should you expect?
Cleaner decisions made faster and with less second-guessing. Hard conversations you stop avoiding. A company that can function without you in every room. The performance gains follow a change in the person producing them, in that order.
Is a CEO coach the same as a therapist?
No. Therapy heals the past. Coaching changes how you lead in the present. They work on different layers and they work well together. I spent 17 years in therapy and still needed coaching for the specific problem of being a founder. More on that in 17 Years of Therapy as an Entrepreneur.
Related reading
Identity-Level Coaching for Founders and Feeling Founder Burnout. If you are weighing whether this is what you need, see how I work with founders.