The Power of Coaching: Not Just for the C-Suite

When you step into leadership, nobody tells you how much you're expected to carry alone.

Early in a leadership role, you're managing people, navigating underperforming team members, building trust and credibility, trying to think and act strategically — often all at the same time. When it gets complicated (spoiler alert, it always is), the expectation is that you handle the tricky bits quietly, behind the scenes, without showing that you're figuring it out as you go — because your team, colleagues, and peers are watching your every move. Or at least that's what it feels like. It's a heavy and stressful load to carry.

I've been there. A new manager, managing remotely post-Covid, onboarding new team members and navigating performance issues. I don't remember an exact moment where I thought it's what I need. I just remember the stress. The sheer, relentless weight of it.

A white space.

Not another meeting. Not a manager or colleague who was doing their best but was too close to the situation to be truly objective. A protected, golden hour — away from the noise — where what actually mattered could surface. Where I could explore what I was really worried about. What if I get it wrong? What if I make a mistake and we're sued? What if it looks like I have no idea what I'm doing? What if they don't like or respect me? An hour where I could think and talk as Laura without performing. Where someone who has stood in my shoes would challenge me without an agenda.

That is coaching.

Over the years, I've observed that this phase of leadership is often the least supported, and the level of support rarely matches the challenge. Companies invest heavily in developing their most senior people — and it makes sense, they're driving the strategy which drives the top and bottom lines — but first and second-time leaders, the ones closest to the teams delivering the work, managing the customers, absorbing pressure from every direction, making decisions that affect real careers, real cultures, and real lives, are largely left to figure it out alone.

Their managers mean well. But they're stretched. The time for a genuine, unhurried conversation about how someone is really leading — not just what they're delivering — rarely materialises. The default becomes: watch, observe, make mistakes quietly, and hope the instincts develop in time.

Some people do figure it out. But it takes longer than it needs to, and costs more than it should. Time, stress, worry.

I hear it often: I'm not sure how coaching could help me. It feels vague and I don't know what I'll get for my money. I get it. I was that person once too. But coaching isn't vague — it's one of the most specific and practical things you can do for yourself as a leader. It gives you clarity you can't always access alone: on what's really going on, what's getting in the way, and what to do next. In your own time, in your own style.

The leaders I work with in Leaders Hours rarely arrive knowing exactly what they need. They arrive knowing something needs to change.

They leave knowing what to do about it. What could be more powerful than that?