Notes from coaches you can book on the C-suite seat and the conversation around it. They do not name clients, and they are not a promise of results.
Start with What executive coaching is — and is not if you want the definition of the work.
What these notes are for
Read them when you are deciding whether a coaching series is the right contract, or when a specific conversation is already on the calendar: a first no, a board paper, an inherited team, a chair who wants a report. Each piece is a judgment you can keep or reject. None of them is a promise of an outcome.
If you already know the stretch of work, skip the catalogue and enquire to book a coach. If you do not, the notes below are a way to name the stretch before you write.
One-to-one coaching, role transitions, and a sounding board are on the coaching page. Insights do not replace a brief.
What a note is for
Use a note to sharpen a sentence you will say in the room — to a chair, to an inherited team, to yourself before you enquire. Do not send a note to your board as evidence that coaching “works.” Do not ask us to write a version with your company in it.
| Theme | What it is for |
|---|---|
| The seat | Load, energy, and a week that does not match the speech |
| Incoming operators | Decision rights, what to stop, the first no in a new C-suite seat |
| Board conversations | The paper, the chair’s question, silence that is not alignment |
| The coaching brief | What the work is, and a brief you can reread in session four |
The seat
8 May 2026 · Linus Murphy
The seat that does not share the load
Isolation at the top is a design feature of the CEO role. Treat it as such, not as a personal failure.
23 July 2026 · Linus Murphy
Energy as a constraint on the P&L
After decades on the P&L I treat energy as an operating constraint, not a wellness slogan. The calendar is where it shows.
30 August 2026 · Rhys Calder
The calendar is the strategy
If the diary and the strategy speech disagree, believe the diary. Strategy that cannot find a Tuesday is a wish.
14 February 2024 · Rhys Calder
Loyalty is not a reason to keep the meeting
A standing meeting kept for the person who invented it is not strategy. Courtesy is not a brief. Kill the meeting, or admit you are running a memorial.
19 January 2026 · Rhys Calder
Your diary is already the succession plan
Succession is not a pack. It is who already owns the hours that would have to move. If those hours still sit with you, you do not have a plan. You have a wish with a date on it.
28 August 2024 · Adeola Khan
The skip-level that becomes a leak
A skip-level is a conversation until someone treats it as a fact. The moment it becomes a back-channel for a chair or a sponsor, it is no longer a skip-level. It is a leak.
Incoming operators
27 May 2026 · Mara Vell
Decision rights before the honeymoon ends
Incoming C-suite operators lose the first quarter when they inherit a title and not a map of what is actually theirs.
15 June 2026 · Mara Vell
What to stop when you inherit a team that already works
A functioning inherited team is not a reason to keep every ritual. The first edit is usually a meeting, not a person.
18 September 2026 · Rhys Calder
The first no in a new C-suite seat
The first no teaches the organisation what the new seat will actually hold. Delay it and you teach the opposite.
30 March 2023 · Mara Vell
The incoming CFO does not inherit a clean week
A new finance seat comes with a full diary. If you do not write the first no before the courtesy meetings land, the organisation will write your job in the corridor.
7 April 2025 · Mara Vell
The first hundred days are already booked
A new C-suite seat does not arrive with a blank diary. The hundred days were allocated before you were. Write the first no before courtesy writes the job.
16 December 2024 · Mara Vell
Integration is a stop list, not a town hall
A deal does not become one company because you filmed a values hour. Integration is the meetings you kill, in writing, before the first Monday as a combined diary.
Board conversations
4 July 2026 · Adeola Khan
A board paper is not a confession
A sounding-board hour is for deciding what you will say. It is not a place to outsource nerve, and the paper is not a diary.
11 August 2026 · Adeola Khan
When the chair asks how coaching is going
The sponsor gets process, not content. Write that rule before the first session, or the chair will write it for you.
7 October 2026 · Adeola Khan
Alignment usually means someone has gone quiet
When an executive team says it is aligned, I look for the person who stopped arguing. Silence is not a strategy.
13 July 2025 · Adeola Khan
Silence after the board is not agreement
A nod in the room is not a decision you can keep. If the real dissent waits for the corridor, you do not have alignment. You have a quiet that will leak later.
19 August 2023 · Adeola Khan
A sounding board is not a second chair
A sounding-board hour is a place to think before a hard call. It is not a vote, a deputy, or a person who will sit in the room for you.
5 March 2024 · Adeola Khan
Risk appetite is a sentence, not a colour
A RAG heat map is a mood with a key. A board needs a sentence of what you will not do — one you can kill a project with, not a colour you can hide behind.
1 November 2025 · Linus Murphy
The sponsor who wants a report is buying the wrong thing
A chair who pays for coaching is entitled to dates and scope. They are not entitled to the hour. A report is a different product. I decline it.
The coaching brief
4 November 2026 · Linus Murphy
What executive coaching is — and is not
A plain description of one-to-one executive coaching: confidential, contracted work with one leader. Not mentoring, consulting, therapy, or a case study.
26 October 2026 · Linus Murphy
A brief you can actually keep
A coaching brief is three answers written down. If you cannot keep them, you do not yet have a brief — you have a mood.
24 September 2022 · Linus Murphy
You cannot coach a committee
A coaching series has one seat. A committee has a vote. If you want both in the same hour, you will get a performance, not a decision.
26 March 2026 · Linus Murphy
Coaching is not a substitute for the hard conversation
A confidential hour can rehearse the sentence. It cannot have the conversation for you, sit in the room, or spare you the first no. If you want that, you want a deputy.
8 February 2022 · Mara Vell
A strategy offsite is not a decision
A room with a view is not a choice. If the week after the offsite looks like the week before it, you held a meeting, not a strategy.
11 January 2023 · Linus Murphy
Culture does not follow a slide
A culture pack is a wish. Culture follows what the leader stops, repeats, and refuses to sit through — not a deck the organisation can file.
22 April 2025 · Rhys Calder
A founder still in the room is still the chair
Hiring a chief executive does not empty the chair if the founder still sits in it. The first no is often the coaching room, not the product. Write that rule before the sponsor asks for a read.