Executive Coaching Models

If you’re leading at the executive level, this model should be printed on your desk, revisited every Monday and taught to every manager you promote. It looks deceptively simple. But the consequences of misunderstanding it are anything but. The Circle of Concern: contains every news headline, competitor rumor, shareholder whisper, and internal drama you hear but can’t do anything about. The Circle of Influence: includes your team, your culture, and the conversations you’re not having but should be. And the Circle of Control: the smallest and most ignored of all; holds your time, your focus, your personal leadership hygiene. Here’s the paradox I’ve seen across 20 years of coaching C-suite leaders: The more senior someone becomes, the more likely they are to spend time outside their own circle. They start focusing on market conditions they can’t shift, employee narratives they haven’t addressed directly, and perception battles that drain energy but produce no clarity. Most leaders are rewarded early in their careers for “being in the know.” Later, they become so fluent in absorbing concern that they lose fluency in directing action. In leadership intensives, I often draw this diagram and ask: “Where are you leaking energy right now?” 9/10 times, the answer is the outer ring, concern without action. So I teach this discipline. Start your week with 3 questions: 1. What am I worrying about that I cannot control, and need to release? 2. Where am I quietly influencing outcomes, but haven’t claimed responsibility? 3. What’s fully in my control that I keep deferring, avoiding, or underutilizing? If you’re a founder scaling fast, a CEO under pressure, or a leader navigating change, your growth won’t come from controlling more. It will come from knowing precisely what’s yours to carry, and what isn’t. And in complex systems, your influence grows not by chasing every signal, but by mastering your own. 📩 I coach executive teams to build strategic clarity, emotional precision, and decision frameworks that stop the energy leaks before they spread. If your bandwidth feels maxed but your impact feels diluted, this is where we start. #leadership #executivecoaching #ceocoach #thoughtleader

The difference between mediocre feedback and transformational coaching? Four simple questions that most leaders never think to ask. Albert Einstein said it best: "If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the right questions." As a former corporate trainer developing hundreds of sales representatives, I learned a humbling truth: my expertise meant nothing if I couldn't unlock theirs. The breakthrough came when I stopped giving answers and started asking better questions. The GROW model became my secret weapon. The GROW Model: A Framework for High-Impact Leadership G - GOALS: Establish the Destination "What would you like to achieve?" When people define their own objectives, they take ownership. Goals with personal investment become missions, not obligations. R - REALITY: Ground in Truth "Where are you now in relation to your goal?" Create psychological safety for honest self-assessment. You can't bridge a gap you haven't accurately measured. O - OPTIONS: Unlock Problem-Solving "What could you do to achieve your goals?" Let your people generate possibilities. When they create solutions, they commit to execution. When you create solutions for them, you create dependency. W - WILL: Convert Insight Into Action "What will you do?" This isn't just a question—it's a commitment mechanism. Always follow with "What support do you need?" Three Questions for Your Leadership Practice: 1. When was the last time you gave feedback that created true behavioral change?What made it different? 2. How often do you solve problems FOR your team versus WITH them? What would shift if you inverted that ratio? 3. If your legacy was defined by how many leaders you developed, how would you show up differently tomorrow? The most dangerous myth in leadership is that your job is to have all the answers. Your job is to ask the questions that help your people find theirs. People don't resist change. They resist being changed. The right questions don't push people toward performance. They pull out the performance that was already inside them. What's one question you could ask your team this week that would shift from directing to developing? P.S. - The employee or sales representative who was struggling? One coaching conversation using this framework completely turned things around. Same person. Different questions. The future of leadership is wiser! Need a speaker, moderator, or trainer for your next event? www.sidneyevansglobal.com #Leadership #EmotionalIntelligence #ExecutiveCoaching #GROWModel #PerformanceManagement #LeadershipDevelopment #CSuite #SalesLeadership #CoachingSkills

Get curious first. A CEO I work with, who’s leading a Series B AI company, came to a session frustrated. Her Head of Product couldn't get Marketing and Legal aligned. Deals were slowing down, launches were slipping, and the Head of Product kept coming to her with the same complaint: they're blocking us. She'd told him to fix it, repeatedly, but there was still a Product vs. the rest of the company stand-off. I got curious and asked her: What is making him feel stuck? What questions have you asked him? "I haven't really. I've mostly told him how I think he should fix it." That's the trap. When you always bring the answer, you train your team to bring you the problems. I invited her to get curious. The GROW model (a framework for asking powerful coaching questions) makes this practical: G — Goal. What does success look like for you here?  R — Reality. What have you tried? What effect has it had?  O — Options. What else could you do?  W — Way forward. What's your next step? These are just four question categories that you can use in any order. Spend 15 more minutes asking rather than telling in your next one-on-one and see what happens. My client tried it. Her Head of Product realized in that conversation he was trying to fix it on an island and needed to co-design a new system with his cross-functional counterparts. He came back the following week with a proposal. Not perfect, but progress that he was driving.  That's what you're going for — not just a better answer, but a more capable team. I'm sharing my coaching toolkit in the comments — when to coach vs. advise, active listening levels, and GROW questions you can use tomorrow. 👇

🚀 Elevating Team Performance: The GROW Model in Action In the world of high-performance teams, the fusion of leadership and coaching isn’t just beneficial; it’s essential. As leaders, we often find ourselves at the helm of a ship navigating through the ever-changing seas of the corporate world. The GROW Model stands out as a beacon of guidance in this journey. 🌱 Goal: Clear, ambitious, yet achievable goals are the North Star for any team. A leader must ensure these goals resonate with the team, embedding a shared vision that propels every member forward. 🔍 Reality: Acknowledgment of the current state is crucial. Where does the team stand now? A true leader has the courage to face the reality of their team’s situation, strengths, and areas for improvement. 🚀 Options: Once the landscape is understood, it’s about exploring the routes. What are the possible pathways to our destination? This is where a leader transforms into a coach, facilitating creative thinking and encouraging team members to propose solutions. 🛤️ Will: Finally, commitment to action. The leader-coach supports the team in committing to specific steps that will lead them to their goals. It’s about turning potential into action, and action into results. 🔗 The connection between leadership and coaching is symbiotic. While leadership sets the direction, coaching empowers the team to find their path to success. The GROW Model isn’t just a tool; it’s a mindset that transforms managers into catalysts of growth. 💡 Imagine a team where every member is not just following a leader but is an active participant in the journey. That’s the power of combining leadership with coaching through the GROW Model. Let’s discuss: How have you implemented the GROW Model in your team? Share your experiences and let’s grow together. #LeadershipDevelopment #TeamPerformance #GROWModel #CoachingCulture #Empowerment

One question I get a lot from HR and L&D professionals is: What’s the difference between Precision Skill Development and Executive Coaching? In short: they have different goals, delivery, and outcomes. Let’s break them down… ➡️ Depends what your goals are The goal of executive coaching is to provide ongoing support, a place to bounce ideas, vent, have a person who will challenge you, ask you why five times, and be your thinking partner, all on an ongoing basis. The goal of precision skill development is fundamentally outcome-oriented: to help an individual perform better, by improving a very specific skill. Think of a manager having a hard time with a specific employee, holding their team accountable, or public speaking. ➡️ How does it happen? Executive coaching is ongoing. An executive meets on a regular basis with their coach to discuss a range of topics relevant to the person and their experiences only, kind of like business therapy. Lots of executives work with their coach for a long period of time. Precision skill development, on the other hand, aims to achieve a specific outcome relatively quickly, therefore the delivery is highly focused. Similar to a sprint, the development is focused on achieving one specific goal in a predefined time. ➡️ Who’s in charge here? Executive coaching is delivered by executive coaches with certification by the International Coaching Federation. Precision skill development is taught by experts who share the specific expertise in the specific domain being worked on. In contrast to executive coaching, the expert must understand the background and context for the who, what, why, and how of the skill development. We recently had a customer who wanted their sales team to work on soft skills, and the customer specifically asked us “Do all of the experts have a sales tech background?”. Our response was “Of course”. This is exactly what we want to hear. The customer understood that sales tech is not the same as engineering tech and needs to be taught to sales professionals in the language that speaks to them. All of this does not mean that one is better than the other - each one has their place. Personally, I use both. I am privileged to work with Shmuel Merhav, one of the best coaches in the world, on an ongoing basis. I also work with various experts to get better at specific things, like public speaking, negotiations, HR etc. I believe that executive coaching is a great offering to executives that supports their ongoing performance in their roles. The problem is that sometimes companies try to embed coaching into their talent development programs, to achieve very specific outcomes, and then it just doesn't work. I often hear F500 leaders frustrated that their coaching programs are failing. This is not because the coaches aren't good, but because they applied the wrong solution to the problem. #ExecutiveCoaching #SkillDevelopment #TalentDevelopment #Upskilling #LearningAndDevelopment #HRmanagement

5 Simple Coaching Steps for Transformative Leadership Great leadership requires more than just decision-making—it demands the ability to coach others effectively. Whether you’re guiding a team member, addressing a challenge, or mentoring a peer, the way you approach conversations can make all the difference. Created by Executive Coach Kim Ades and her Frame of Mind Coaching® methodology, here’s a simple but powerful framework for coaching conversations: 1️⃣ Check Your Story: Before you engage, leave your assumptions and biases at the door. Assume positive intent and create a safe space for dialogue. 2️⃣ Get Their Story: Ask open-ended questions like, “What happened?” and genuinely listen to their perspective without jumping to conclusions. 3️⃣ Dig Underneath Their Story: Go deeper. What’s not being said? What emotions are driving their behavior? Understanding the full picture requires asking thoughtful questions. 4️⃣ Identify Their Beliefs & Encapsulate: Test your hunches about their beliefs and restate them clearly to confirm. Help them see the belief that might be holding them back. 5️⃣ Challenge Their Beliefs: Offer new perspectives. Show how a different mindset can open doors to growth, success, and fulfillment. As a Vistage Worldwide, Inc. Chair, I see firsthand how these steps—grounded in Kim Ades’ transformative approach—can shift not only individual mindsets but also organizational outcomes. These coaching techniques are not just tools—they’re essential for fostering trust, understanding, and meaningful change. Are you applying these steps in your leadership? Which one resonates most with you? Let’s share insights below! #Leadership #Coaching #NYCCEOs #VistageNYC #KimAdes #FrameOfMindCoaching #TransformativeLeadership

What is the most important skill for a manager in the tech industry to be effective? There are a lot of opinions out there, but there is one clear answer. Coaching. Several years ago, Google did a large-scale study called Project Oxygen to discover what it takes to be a good manager--including a manager of tech teams. They were surprised by the results. Google engineers at generally thought managers were a necessary evil and didn't make a difference (they even tried to get rid of managers for while with, uh, not so great results). What they found was the exact opposite. Managers make a BIG difference to their people. And the biggest difference makers all did one thing really well--coaching. (Ironically, tech skills were last on the list of 8 qualities.) How do you become a great coach? EQ skills are essential. Ask good questions. Listen well. Show empathy. Be focused. Manage yourself. One tool that can really help is the GROW model. Created by executive coaching legend John Whitmore, it is a simple but powerful framework for solving problems and bringing out the best in people. Here is the GROW model: 👆 𝗚𝗼𝗮𝗹: What do you want to achieve? What does success look like? 👆 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: What are the facts of the current situation? What have you tried so far? What are the obstacles you've faced? 👆 𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: What options do you have? What are the pros and cons of each one? What else could we do? 👆 𝗪𝗮𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱: What will you choose to act on? How can we chunk this into manageable steps. What's the timeline? At AWS, we have an amazing program called Field Manager Coaching that teaches managers to use the grow model to help their team members overcome challenges and achieve higher performance. Created and led by my wonderful colleague, Emma Barker-Goldie, it has helped numerous managers up their game and go from good to great. Learn more about the GROW model here: https://lnkd.in/gVcRNuKZ Coaching has made a profound difference in my professional and personal life. I am a better leader, husband, and father because of it. And, no surprise, coaching has been the pivotal component of my EQ development. Because, in the end, "You can't learn EQ (or karate) from a book." How has coaching made a difference in your career (and even life)? I'd love to see in the comments!

Most leaders believe they’re giving feedback. Their team experiences criticism. Because communication only works when it lands. And people don’t all receive it the same way. Some want directness. Others need context. Some need space to process. Others want next steps immediately. If you rely on only one communication style, your results will be inconsistent. High-impact CEOs adapt. Here are five feedback models I’ve seen work repeatedly: COIN Model ↳ Connect, Observe, Impact, Next Steps ↳ Ideal for addressing behaviors while protecting trust GROW Model ↳ Goal, Reality, Options, Way Forward ↳ Best for coaching conversations and forward alignment Radical Candor ↳ Challenge directly. Care personally. ↳ Strengthens accountability without damaging relationships Pendleton’s Rules ↳ A collaborative two-way feedback method ↳ Excellent for development-focused one-on-ones BOOST Model ↳ Balanced, Observed, Objective, Specific, Timely ↳ Useful for fair, constructive performance discussions When leaders adapt feedback to the moment, trust rises. Defensiveness drops. Performance improves. Because leadership effectiveness isn’t just about what you say. It’s about how consistently your behaviors create results. If feedback, execution, or team dynamics feel harder than they should right now, there’s usually a deeper pattern driving it. My Executive Health Quiz helps diagnose exactly where constraints are forming — and what to adjust next. You can take it here for free: bit.ly/ExecutiveQuiz 👉 Have you ever worked for a leader whose feedback truly helped you improve? ___ ♻️ Repost if this resonates ➕ Follow for practical leadership insights 📬 Join 5,000+ CEOs reading every Saturday https://lnkd.in/eXiRx-HZ

Why do 40% to 50% of new leaders fail within their first 18 months? The primary issue is not a lack of intelligence or effort, but a gap in foundational leadership competencies leaders must develop to navigate the complexities of different people and contexts. Drawing on over 20 years of experience coaching and developing leaders, I’ve developed three core models that help close this gap and drive success. 1) 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮: Three foundational leadership skill sets for success - Technical, Organizational, and Self-Leadership. 2) 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗖𝗧 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹: A culture-building framework for establishing Alignment, Clarity, and Trust. 3) 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗲: A roadmap for accelerating and sustaining agility. In this month’s LinkedIn newsletter article, 𝟯 𝗘𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗴𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵, I explore how each of the three models works and why it matters more now than ever. • - - - The best leaders don’t have all the answers, but they are committed to learning, adapting, and improving. Which of these models will you apply next? Share your COMMENTS below. ⤵️ • - - - Click the 🔔 on my profile to be notified when I post | Tony Gambill Repost if you know others could benefit from this. ♻️