You’ve made the time. You’ve booked the session. But what should you talk about?
The value of coaching is tied to the clarity of the topic you bring in.
You do not need to have the answer, but you do need to know where you want to create movement. The most effective sessions are grounded in something real that is shaping how you are leading or how the business is operating right now.
When the topic is clear, we can use the time to think at the level your role requires and leave with a defined shift in how you move forward.
What Coaching Is and My Role as Your Executive Coach
Coaching is a space to step out of execution and look directly at how you are leading.
We use it to get clear on what is actually happening, how you are approaching it and what needs to change for the outcome to be different. The work is practical and tied to real decisions, real conversations and real pressure you’re experiencing.
My role is to ask the questions that bring clarity, challenge where needed and help you operate with more consistency in situations that typically create friction or hesitation.
How Coaching is Different from Therapy and Consulting
- Therapy– Focused on mental health and personal healing, often grounded in past experiences.
- Consulting– Focused on providing recommendations, frameworks or external expertise to solve a defined problem.
- Coaching– Focused on how you are thinking, deciding and leading inside the situations that matter most.
What Makes a Good Coaching Topic
A strong topic is:
- Specific– Grounded in a real situation you are navigating, not a general sense that something feels off.
- Current- Something active right now or recent enough that we can work with it directly.
- Outcome-oriented– There is a clear shift you want to make or a decision you need to move forward on.
- Within your control– Centered on how you lead, communicate or decide, even when other people are involved.
Sample Coaching Topics
These reflect the kinds of conversations that show up in executive sessions:
- “We are designing our operating structure for the next stage of growth and I need to decide how to structure roles across human and AI so we increase leverage without adding unnecessary complexity”
- “I am working hard but not seeing the level of progress I expect. I want to look at how I am prioritizing and where I may be defaulting to execution instead of making clear trade-offs”
- “I need to address underperformance with a critical team member who owns a key function, and I want to be direct without creating instability across the team”
- “I am noticing a pattern where I hesitate to push deals forward at the final stage. I want to understand what is driving that and how it is impacting revenue”
- “I want to take time away from the business without performance dropping, and I need to understand what is currently too dependent on me”
Session Structure
There is no perfect “agenda” to a coaching session, but most sessions follow a similar structure:
- 5min: Review commitments and learnings from previous session(s). Discuss what worked, what didn’t and any new insight you’ve gained since our last conversation.
- 5 min: Formalize the topic for the current session, including what you want to walk away with/your desired outcome.
- 30-40min: Coaching discussion around the selected topic.
- 5 min: Review of new insight and learning from the coaching conversation.
- 5 min: Finalize commitments (actions) you are making based on the insight gained through the session.
Planning for Your Session
You will receive a short pre-session form ahead of time, designed to help you step back, identify the situation that matters most and come into the session already oriented around the outcome you want.
It can take a few sessions to fully get the hang of planning for your topic, but I’m here to help guide you through the process.
