Leadership Coaching: The Best Leaders Lead Themselves First
You've got the big job. People think you've made it.
So why does part of you still hold back in the room?
You know you're ready for the next level. You just can't see how to get there.
Let's change that.
Leadership coaching that goes as deep as you need
I've led teams myself, in banking. I know what it's like to have people looking to you and a boss looking at you. Since 2017, coaching leaders has been a big part of my work: VPs, directors, CFOs and heads of department who are already doing well and know they're capable of more.
Most professional coaching stays polite and steers clear of anything personal. As your leadership coach, I go as deep as we need to: to find where you're holding back, break through it, and bring out your best.
I'll always be kind. But I won't tiptoe around the hard stuff. If an uncomfortable truth is what stands between you and what you want, we'll look at it together.
Client story
"You can absolutely have both: the perfect career as well as a fantastic personal life. One thing I would say: I wish I'd done it sooner, a lot sooner."
Clare Gilham
VP of Marketing, UK
Clare felt she'd stalled. Today she leads a much bigger team across two countries and presents the company's strategy to the whole business.
What is leadership coaching? Leadership development coaching that starts with you
If you lead inside an organisation, leadership coaching is for you. You might run a department, a region or a whole function. Either way, people look to you, and you answer to someone too.
If you've worked with an executive coach before, you'll know the usual focus: strategy, stakeholders, presentation skills. Useful. But in my experience, what holds a capable leader back usually sits inside them: the belief that says "do I really belong at this level?", or the knot in your stomach before you speak up in front of the senior team.
"Nothing prepared me for the level of depth that Alex brings to the table."
Chris P., CFO, London
The best leaders lead themselves first. So we start there. Using timeless self-development principles, we turn your mind into your most valuable asset at work: the place your clarity, focus and courage come from.
On the surface, every leader's challenge looks different. Underneath, it always comes down to the same two skills: managing your mind and managing your emotions. I call them mental strength and emotional resilience. Build those two, and the confidence, the courage and the hard conversations follow. That's what makes this transformational leadership coaching: people around you notice the difference in how you show up.
And we look at your life as well as your career. A tough year at home follows you into the boardroom. That's where my life coaching comes in.
Own your business instead of leading inside one? My CEO coaching is built for you.
Is leadership coaching for you?
Read these and be honest with yourself.
From the outside, your career looks great. Inside, you feel like you've stalled, and you can't see the next step.
You know your stuff. Yet in the meeting with the other directors, you hold back, then watch someone else say your idea.
You've got the role and you know you can do it. Still, a voice whispers that one day they'll find out you're a fraud.
You say yes to every request from above, then stay late doing the work your team should be doing.
That conversation about the person who isn't performing? You've been "about to have it" for months.
You work crazy hours to prove you deserve the seat at the table.
Your health, your family and your own plans get whatever's left.
You've got your eye on a bigger role, and part of you wonders: "Can I really go that high?"
Many clients come to me before a big career move: a promotion, a bigger team, a new company. That's executive career coaching with one difference: we work on the person making the move, so you arrive ready to lead.
Leadership coaching for women
Many of the women I coach are known as the one who holds it all together. They want to be kind and lead with real authority. Underneath sit questions they rarely say out loud: "If I stop people-pleasing, will they call me difficult?" "Can I have a big career and a life?" I call it the Nice Girl pattern, and it's one of my favourite things to take apart. You can be warm and the person everyone takes seriously.
Who this isn't for: if you want someone to tell you you're doing great and polish your slides, I'm the wrong coach. This work asks one thing of you: are you prepared to look honestly at your own weaknesses, even when it's uncomfortable?
Executive and leadership coaching: what we work on
Know exactly where you're going. Clarity on your vision for your career so every big decision has a direction to point at.
Keep your focus on what matters. Your calendar fills itself with everyone else's priorities. We protect your attention for the work only you can do.
Speak up and be heard. Walk into the room with your peers and say what you think. Answer the hard question on the spot. Hold the room when all eyes are on you. This is executive presence coaching, built from the inside out.
Have the conversations you've been avoiding. Addressing underperformance, pushing back on your boss, saying no to a peer. How well you can challenge others depends on how much discomfort you can handle in yourself. We grow that.
Lead with courage. Take the decision others are waiting for, back yourself when it's unpopular, and own your mistakes without falling apart.
Fall in love with your career again. Find the passion and meaning that got you into this work, and look forward to Monday morning again.
Underneath every one of these sit those same two skills: mental strength and emotional resilience. We challenge the beliefs that keep you small, and I hold you accountable, so what you realise in our sessions turns into action. You'll bounce back faster, stop beating yourself up and back yourself when it counts.
Your head knows you're ready. Your body hasn't caught up yet.
The tight chest before the important meeting. The heat in your face when someone challenges your numbers. The 2am replay of what you should have said.
Most leaders deal with it by pushing harder and hoping nobody notices. It works, until the role gets bigger and the pressure with it.
The soft skills that make the biggest difference to a leader are the ones nobody teaches: handling challenges and setbacks, and processing uncomfortable feelings instead of burying them. I teach you to notice what's happening in your body and feel it through, so it moves on instead of making your decisions for you. Some call this nervous system regulation coaching for executives. I call it the hardest performance skill there is.
You'll still feel the nerves. You'll just walk into the room anyway, say what you came to say, and recover in minutes instead of days.
"The people who win don't feel less. They can handle more discomfort."
What leaders say
Clients have been promoted, taken on bigger teams across countries and won pay rises. They speak up in the senior team, get their ideas heard, and have a career and a life outside work.
"My confidence in the workplace has skyrocketed and with that, I was able to bag myself a promotion and pay rise."
Alicia Newn, Senior Marketing Executive, London
"It is fair to say that she's my secret weapon and my unfair advantage in my career, and I'm not the type of person who is overly quick to compliment."
Chris P., CFO, London
Leadership coaching FAQs
A leadership coach helps you become the leader you're capable of being. My approach has three parts. We find what's really holding you back, which is often a belief you didn't know you had. We work through the feelings that stop you acting on what you already know. And I hold you accountable, so the insight from our session shows up in your next meeting. You lead with more clarity, more courage and far fewer second thoughts.
The two overlap a lot. Executive coaching is usually for people at the top of an organisation and often focuses on performance in the role: strategy, stakeholders, presence. Leadership coaching can suit anyone who wants to actively improve or advance their career, at any level. As an executive leadership coach, I work on both, and I go further into the personal side: your beliefs, your emotions and your life outside work. That's usually where the real breakthrough is hiding.
No. Some of my clients are VPs and CFOs. Others don't manage anyone yet: they want to be seen and heard at work, build a reputation as someone to watch, and get ready for their next step. Leadership starts long before the title. What all my clients share: they're already doing well, and they want to grow.
Yes, it's confidential, and no, your employer won't know what we talk about. What you share stays between us. I never name clients or share their stories without permission; the people on my website chose to tell theirs. Many leaders tell me things they've never said to their boss, their team or their partner. That only works when it's safe, so I protect it.
Yes, and it's one of the best times to start. A new role often brings a voice that says "they'll find out I'm not ready". Many people fall back on doing the work themselves, because that's what got them promoted. Others struggle to lead people who were their peers last month. We deal with all of it, so you grow into the role faster and enjoy it.
Because getting the role and believing you deserve it happen at different speeds. Your results moved on, and the old story about you stayed behind. So you over-prepare, play down your wins and wait to be found out. It's one of the most common things I see in high achievers, and one of the most freeing to work on. We update that story until how you feel inside matches what you've built. Read more about confidence coaching.
Because in the moment, fear gets there before your knowledge does: the fear of sounding stupid, of being challenged, of getting it wrong in front of people who matter. So you wait, and the moment passes. Once you can feel that fear and speak anyway, everything changes. That's exactly the work we do.
There's no fixed price, because every leader needs something different. After we talk, I'll give you a personalised quote. Most clients work with me for six months, with 60 to 90 minute sessions and unlimited support in between. Our first conversation and the deep consultation are free, so you can see what you'd get before you commit.
All my coaching happens online, on Zoom, so it fits around your diary and your travel. It's virtual leadership coaching for leaders across the UK, Europe, the US and wherever in the world you are. Time zones are rarely a problem. We find a slot that works for both of us.
Leadership coaching services: how it works
Start a conversation. Email me a few words about where you are. I reply within 24 hours and we book a short Zoom call.
Deep consultation. 90 to 120 minutes, free. We look at where you are, where you want to be and what's really in the way.
Six months of coaching. Sessions of 60 to 90 minutes, with unlimited support between sessions, built entirely around you.
Ready to stop holding back?
You already know you're capable of more. You've known it for a while.
Waiting to feel ready hasn't worked so far. Start becoming the leader you know you can be, and the feeling will catch up.
Are you willing?
Other ways I can help: Life and mindset coaching · Confidence coach · CEO coach · High performance coach · Productivity coach · Imposter syndrome coach · Burnout coach · Accountability coach · Success capacity coaching