The first 90 days determine the next 3 years.
Our executive coaching services support newly hired VPs, SVPs, and C-suite leaders through the integration period that makes or breaks their tenure.
Executive onboarding coaching is structured support for a newly hired VP, SVP, or C-suite leader through their first 90 to 180 days. A coach helps you map stakeholders, secure early wins, diagnose the team you inherited, and avoid the derailment patterns that sink 40%+ of executive hires. See our guide to the first 90 days as a VP.
According to McKinsey, 40%+ of externally hired executives fail within 18 months — not because they lack skills, but because most organizations have no structured executive onboarding. The assumption is that someone at the VP or C-suite level should figure it out.
New executives face political dynamics no interview revealed, teams with histories they don't understand, and cultural norms nobody writes down. We see this pattern consistently in our research on leadership transition challenges.
A failed executive hire costs 5–25x their annual salary in severance, re-recruiting, lost productivity, and team disruption. For a deeper dive into the integration patterns that separate the executives who succeed, see our analysis of executive onboarding done right.
Four areas that determine whether newly hired executives integrate successfully or derail.
Custom onboarding programs. 48-hour proposal turnaround.
A structured 90-day arc mirroring the critical phases of executive integration.
It is structured coaching support for newly hired VPs, SVPs, and C-suite leaders during their critical first 90 days. Unlike standard onboarding programs focused on systems and processes, this coaching addresses stakeholder mapping, political navigation, cultural integration, and the strategic moves that determine whether a new leader thrives or derails.
Research shows that 40% or more of externally hired executives fail within 18 months. The primary reasons are not skill gaps but integration failures: misreading the political landscape, making irreversible first impressions before understanding organizational dynamics, failing to build peer relationships at the leadership table, and underestimating the gap between what was promised in the interview and what the role actually demands.
Ideally, the coaching begins before the new leader's start date. The pre-start phase includes stakeholder interviews, culture assessment, and building a 30-day plan so the executive arrives with context and a framework rather than starting cold. If coaching starts after the leader has already begun, the first priority is a rapid listening tour and political mapping exercise. For a deeper look at how this phase plays out in practice, see our piece on executive onboarding done right.
A typical engagement spans 90 to 120 days, covering the pre-start phase through the first full quarter. This includes pre-start preparation, the critical first 30 days of listening and relationship building, the 31-60 day period of strategic priority setting, and the 61-90 day phase of establishing a 100-day plan and transitioning to ongoing coaching if needed.
The cost of a failed executive hire ranges from 5x to 25x their annual salary when you factor in severance, recruiting costs, lost productivity, team disruption, and opportunity cost. Structured onboarding coaching represents a fraction of this cost and directly reduces the risk of transition failure. Organizations that invest in new leader integration see faster time-to-impact, higher retention rates, and stronger first-year performance.
See how we've helped organizations navigate leadership transitions — real outcomes from executives we've coached through critical onboarding periods.