What Most Leaders Get Wrong About Executive Coaching

Most leaders who hire a coach do it on gut feel. The pitch sounded right. The person seemed credible. The website looked professional. Three months later, they are having the same conversations they had on day one and wondering why nothing has changed.

The problem is not that executive coaching does not work. The problem is that the coaching industry is completely unregulated, and even people inside the industry will tell you so. Liam James Collins, co-founder of a $28 million coaching company, described the industry plainly in Forbes: "The coaching industry is also unregulated, chaotic and unsafe. No one knows who to trust." A Strathclyde University Business School fellow echoed that same concern, saying he was "concerned that in the current unregulated environment, some people will sign up to be a coach without having the first clue about what they're doing." Only 42% of coaches themselves feel the industry is well-regulated. There is no board. No license requirement. No minimum training hours. Anyone who wants to call themselves an executive coach can go build a website tomorrow and start taking clients.

That information gap is expensive. Choosing the wrong coach does not just cost you a monthly retainer. It costs you the time you spent in sessions that went nowhere, the momentum you lost while you waited for results that never came, and the opportunity cost of not working with someone who could have actually moved the needle.

I have spent over 27 years running organizations across the military, government, and the private sector. I have also spent years as a coach working with executives, founders, and leaders across dozens of industries. I have seen what great coaching looks like. I have also seen where executive coaching goes wrong, and it happens more often than most leaders realize in a market where the bar for entry is essentially nonexistent. Here is what most leaders get wrong.

They Mistake Confidence for Competence

A good sales call is not a coaching credential. The coaches who are best at marketing themselves are not always the coaches who are best at developing leaders. But in an unregulated industry, the person who sounds most confident often wins the contract.

Real executive and leadership coaching is built on a structured process, not a personality. Before any coaching work begins, a serious coach wants to understand who you are today, not who you want to be. That means an honest assessment of your strengths, your blind spots, your behavioral patterns under pressure, and the gap between where you are and where you need to be. I use over 100 scientifically grounded performance assessments in my practice, including DISC, leadership competency tools, and emotional intelligence evaluations. That data removes guesswork from the development process and gives both the coach and the client a clear baseline to work from.

If a coach is willing to skip that step and jump straight to advice, they are not coaching you. They are giving you their opinions dressed up as a program.

They Accept Cookie-Cutter Programs

I hear this consistently from clients who come to me after working with other coaches. They tell me they felt like they were having the same conversation over and over. They felt stuck. They got what the coach had to give and then hit a wall because the coach did not have the depth to go further. They needed to be challenged in different ways at different times, and the program was not built to do that.

The right coaching engagement is customized from the start and continues to evolve based on what the assessment data shows, what the leader is actually facing, and what the next level of growth requires. There is no cookie-cutter version of that.

They Underestimate What Coaching Requires From Them

This is the one most leaders do not want to hear. Executive and leadership coaching only works if the leader does their part. A coach is not a consultant. A consultant comes in, does the work, and hands you the deliverable. A coach works alongside you and holds you accountable to doing the work yourself.

If we agree that you are going to have three specific conversations with your leadership team this week and you show up to the next session having not had them, we are not making progress. The timeline slips. The results get delayed. The coaching relationship only produces a return when both sides execute on the plan.

In my practice, clients who follow the plan consistently see a 10 to 20 times return on their investment. That number is real and it is documented. But it is conditional on one thing: the leader has to show up ready to do what they committed to doing. That level of accountability is uncomfortable for a lot of high performers who are used to being the one holding everyone else accountable. It requires a different kind of discipline.

They Choose a Coach Without Real Operating Experience

This is the gap that matters most and the one that is hardest to screen for on a website. A coach who has never run an organization cannot fully understand the pressure of running one. They can learn frameworks, study leadership theory, and accumulate coaching hours. But there is a difference between knowing what a decision feels like from the outside and knowing what it feels like to make one when the stakes are real and the margin for error is small.

I have led organizations in environments where the cost of underperformance was not a missed quarter. I have run 12 different organizations across the military, government, politics, and the private sector. I have made the hard calls, navigated the chaos, and built the accountability structures that allow teams to perform at their best when everything is on the line. That experience does not just inform how I coach. It is the foundation of it.

When you are evaluating a coach, ask them directly: have you run an organization? Have you sat in the seat you are asking me to perform in? If the answer is no, or if the answer is vague, keep looking.

What Real Executive Coaching Looks Like

The right coaching relationship starts with an honest assessment, builds a customized plan around what that assessment actually shows, and installs an accountability structure that keeps you moving toward the goals you defined at the start. It does not disappear after the first recommendation. It stays involved through execution because that is where most plans fall apart.

It is also completely confidential. None of the conversations we have, the gaps we identify, the decisions you are working through leave the room. That confidentiality is what makes it possible to have the honest conversations that actually produce growth. A coach who cannot offer that is not offering you a safe environment to do real development work.

If you have been on the fence about executive and leadership coaching because you have seen or experienced the watered-down version of it, I understand. The market has given a lot of leaders good reasons to be skeptical. But the version that works looks nothing like what most people describe when they say coaching did not deliver for them.

Ready to Find Out What Real Coaching Delivers?

The first step is a direct conversation. No pitch, no pressure. Just an honest assessment of where you are, what you are trying to build, and whether this is the right fit for you. I offer a free consultation for exactly that reason.

Schedule your free consultation with Coach Jason today and find out what becomes possible when your coaching relationship finally matches your potential.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is executive and leadership coaching?
Executive and leadership coaching is a one-on-one development process designed to help senior leaders close the gap between their current performance and their potential. It combines honest assessment, customized development planning, and ongoing accountability to produce measurable results in both leadership effectiveness and business outcomes.

How is executive coaching different from leadership training?
Leadership training is typically group-based and curriculum-driven. Executive coaching is individual, customized to the specific leader, and built around that person's actual gaps and goals rather than a standardized program. Coaching also includes accountability structures that training does not.

How long does executive coaching take to show results?
Most clients begin to see meaningful movement within the first 60 to 90 days when they are executing consistently on the plan. Significant results, including documented productivity increases and leadership breakthroughs, typically emerge over a six to twelve month engagement.

How do I know if a coach is actually qualified?
Ask about their credentials, which internationally recognized organizations certified them, how many coaching hours they have logged, and whether they have real operating experience running organizations. A qualified coach should be able to answer all of those questions with specifics.

Does Soar Higher Coaching require a long-term contract?
No. Soar Higher Coaching does not require contracts. Clients engage on a monthly basis and can stop at any time. There is also a money-back guarantee if the coaching is not delivering. The goal is to earn your continued engagement through results, not lock you into an agreement.