The ‘Right’ Executive Coach Depends on the Problem You Are Trying to Solve

These days, everyone is claiming to be an executive coach. But how do you know what kind of coach is going to be the right choice for your situation?  

If you make the right decision, you will be rewarded with a problem solved and more capable and energized leadership.  If you get it wrong, the balloon of hope will deflate, resources and credibility will have been spent, and the problem is still there.

Too often, executives fall back on asking their network if they “know someone good.” A referral from a trusted colleague is a helpful start, but it is not a strategy. To make a sound decision, you need to understand both the problem you are trying to solve and the types of coaching expertise available. The best outcomes come when these two are aligned.

Five Situations Where Coaching Can Help

1. Pointy elbows

Pete’s results are fair, but his leadership style is causing friction. He is unaware of his effect on others or, worse, maybe he doesn’t care. His blind spots drain morale, kill creativity, add stress and increase flight risk.

The challenge here is not only to raise awareness of his impact but to support behavior change that sticks beyond the coaching period, and without sparking a backfire of defensiveness or denial.

2. Step-up

Dana has just stepped into a larger role. She now leads a bigger team, covers more geography, and holds greater strategic responsibility. What worked before—being the fixer, the reliable problem-solver—will not sustain her now.

Succeeding in her new role will be a stretch because it requires a change in how she sees herself, as well as learning new leadership skills. She will want to reimagine herself not as a people-pleasing fixer, but as a peer among leaders with permission to act on her own initiative and drive change.

3. Underperforming team

Highly functioning, highly energized teams are rare. For many executives, they are a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  When they work well, they generate remarkable results and an energetic response from employees and investors alike. When they don’t, the cracks are visible: decisions drag, competitors pull ahead, overruns pile up and talented leaders exit in frustration. 

Four recurring challenges surface

1. Stagnation vs. innovation: The world is changing faster than the team.
2. Lack of unity: Leaders identify too much with their function, not shared aims.
3. Difficult personalities: They slow down the work, sour relationships and sap motivation.
4. Lack of competence: Highly skilled and motivated team members are essential. 

4. Start-up CEO

With a scientific background, the leader finds themselves thrown into the role of running a business with little training for this. 

Challenges include adapting from solving technical problems to optimizing the human factors of team performance and investor relations.  One of the hardest leaps is learning how to avoid “analysis paralysis”—to make decisions with less-complete evidence.

5. Cross-functional relationships

Janet and Daniel are locked in conflict. Is it about operational disruption, or is it really a turf war for budget and influence? Either way, their feud spreads through their teams, creating tribes, stonewalling and contempt. The result is inertia, timelines slip, budgets are blown and we don’t have a working solution.

Selecting the Right Coach

To select the right coach, we want to consider the best fit between these situations and the coach’s expertise.  If we choose the wrong type of coach, we can do more harm than good.  For example:

A purely client-centered or therapeutic coach will provide a pleasant experience for the coachee, but may also frustrate them and their employer due to the lack of observable change, unless combined with guidance on helpful organizational and behavioral practices. 

Delivering the coach’s book of recommendations to the client’s desk will not produce change unless the coach has followed the client’s interests and engaged them in co-creating the proposed solutions. 

No matter how clear we are about expectations, a client may not be able to demonstrate the behaviors that will bring them success if their self-conception is holding them back. 

There Are Four Main Types of Coaching Expertise

Executives often assume that “coaching is coaching.” In truth, the field spans several different traditions. Each has strengths, but also limits.

Client-centered (aka non-directive)

Creates a safe space, follows the client’s agenda and unlocks potential by helping them surface their own solutions. This builds buy-in, agency and motivation. Credentials: ICF Associate, Professional, or Master Coach; CPCC from CTI.

Behavioral

Focuses on observable behaviors—what leaders say and do. Using feedback, assessments and progress reviews, these coaches help leaders form habits that others notice. Credentials are often tied to consultancies like CCL, Marshall Goldsmith and Korn Ferry.

Organizational 

Looks at the system around the leader—strategy, structure, processes, talent and rewards. Success here depends as much on the organization you build as on how you lead. Coaches often bring MBAs, consulting backgrounds or enterprise leadership experience.

Psychotherapy: 

Is coaching therapy? No, it’s therapy-adjacent. Helps executives manage the normal mental challenges of high-stakes roles. Credentials are typically clinical psychologists, licensed social workers and licensed professional counselors.

Putting It Together:

When we overlay these four main types of coaching on the typical coaching scenarios, we see a pattern. A client-centered approach—creating a safe environment and drawing on the coachee’s interests and intelligence—is a foundational skillset for any kind of change. The level of behavioral, organizational or psychotherapeutic guidance required depends on the situation.

Pointy elbows: Needs a behavioral approach, 360 feedback and translating that input into an actionable plan with progress reviews. 

Step up: Depends on that individual. Is their challenge about overcoming limiting beliefs and finding greater self-confidence and agency, or would they benefit most from an assessment and development of leadership behaviors? Probably both. 

Team Opportunity: Requires all three—client-centered to open dialogue, organizational to align strategy and structure and behavioral to cement new norms.

Start-up CEO: Primarily organizational—strategy, structure, execution—with coaching to manage the identity shift.

Cross-functional: Client-centered facilitation plus behavioral reset, with organizational alignment to remove friction.

In practice, every executive coaching assignment combines these approaches. The danger is assuming all coaches have the same expertise—or worse, selecting a coach just because a colleague recommends them or the coachee “likes them.” Comfort is not the same as effectiveness.

Choosing the right coach is a strategic choice. It involves diagnosing the real issue, understanding the expertise required and then matching the two. When done well, coaching delivers measurable results: improved leadership, stronger teams, and more resilient organizations. When done poorly, it consumes resources and leaves leaders—and their companies—stuck in a difficult spot.