Executive coaching is a structured, one-to-one partnership that helps a senior leader perform at a higher altitude.
Below are the questions we hear most — first from the Directors, VPs, SVPs, and C-suite leaders we coach, then from the HR, People, and L&D teams who sponsor them. If your question is not here, our team is one short call away.
If you were promoted for your operating excellence and now lead at a new altitude, these are the questions worth asking before you start.
Executive coaching is a structured, one-to-one partnership that helps a senior leader perform at a higher altitude — setting direction, communicating with the executive team and board, and navigating organizational dynamics. At Stratos Coaching it is built for Directors stepping up to VP, VPs, SVPs, and C-suite executives navigating high-stakes transitions. It is not training, consulting, or therapy: it is applied work on how you lead, delivered by coaches who have held senior operating roles themselves. See what executive coaching is for the full picture.
Executive coaching is professional development, not therapy or mental-health treatment. It is forward-looking and performance-focused: the subject is your role, your decisions, and how you show up in high-stakes rooms, not clinical diagnosis or healing. Coaching starts from the assumption that you are a high-functioning leader who wants to lead at a new level. A good coach who senses an issue outside that scope will say so and point you to the right professional.
An engagement moves you from where you are to where you need to be through structured one-to-one sessions. It opens with a clear read of your current situation and the outcomes that would define success, then works session by session on the real challenges in front of you — the first 90 days, board and ELT communication, stakeholder dynamics, strategic focus. Stratos Coaching structures this through The Altitude Framework, and our coaches lead with questions rather than advice so the thinking, and the growth, stays yours.
Because the skills that earned the promotion are rarely the skills the new altitude rewards. At Director level you win by delivering results through your team; at VP and above you win by setting direction, influencing peers you do not control, and communicating at the executive table. Research puts the failure rate of executive transitions near 40% within the first 18 months (McKinsey/CEB transition studies). Coaching closes that gap with a structured approach, not more hours. Our VP & SVP coaching page covers this transition in depth.
Most senior-leader engagements run six to twelve months, with sessions roughly every two to three weeks and structured work between them. A transition engagement is often front-loaded around the first 90 days, when the altitude shift is steepest. The cadence is set to the mandate rather than a fixed package, so a focused transition and a year-long C-suite partnership look deliberately different.
Yes. What you say to your coach stays with your coach. When an employer sponsors the engagement, the company and the leader agree on development goals up front, and the coach may share progress against those goals in themes — never the content of individual sessions, and never a transcript. That boundary is what makes it safe to be candid, and candor is where the work actually happens.
As a market reference, executive coaching typically costs between $300 and $1,000+ per session, and a full engagement typically runs $7,500 to $30,000 depending on the number of sessions, the coach's seniority, and what is included (industry ranges). Stratos Coaching engagements are custom-priced per engagement — you get your exact number in one 20-minute altitude call. Our complete guide to executive coaching costs breaks down rates by leadership level and engagement type.
If you are sponsoring coaching for a leader or a cohort, these cover confidentiality, measurement, budget framing, and how to evaluate a firm.
The session content stays between the coach and the leader. At the start of a sponsored engagement, the sponsor, the leader, and the coach align on the development goals; from there the coach reports progress against those goals in themes and milestones, not in session detail. Clear three-way goal-setting at the front end, and strict confidentiality on everything after, is what lets a leader be honest enough for the coaching to work.
Impact is measured against the goals set at the start — behavior change observed by the leader's stakeholders, progress on the named priorities, and often a 360-degree feedback process at the beginning and end. The published research is strong: studies report a median return around 700% (ICF/PwC), up to 788% in one widely cited study (MetrixGlobal), and that roughly 70% of coached executives show measurable performance improvement. Our executive coaching ROI and statistics pages lay out the full evidence base.
Use industry ranges to frame the budget. Individual executive coaching typically runs $300 to $1,000+ per session and $7,500 to $30,000 for a full engagement; a 360-degree feedback process adds roughly $2,000 to $7,000. Company-sponsored programs typically run $10,000 to $18,000 per leader per year, and many organizations fund them from existing L&D allocations of $10,000 to $15,000 per leader per year. Stratos Coaching scopes each engagement individually and gives you the exact number in a short call. The cost guide has the full breakdown.
Look first at whether the coaches have actually operated at the altitude of the leaders they coach, then at credentials, methodology, and engagement model. Ask who your leader will actually work with, whether it is the same coach from first session to last, and how progress is measured. At Stratos Coaching every engagement is led by a former C-suite or SVP operator who holds the Certified Executive Coach (CEC) credential, with no associate handoff. Our guide on how to choose an executive coaching firm walks through the criteria in full.
Yes. Alongside 1:1 executive coaching, Stratos Coaching runs corporate and group programs for organizations developing their leaders together — a cohort of senior managers moving into bigger roles, or an intact leadership team working as one unit. These programs are delivered under a single annual partnership and are a common way for People and L&D teams to extend executive-level development across more of the organization at a lower per-leader cost.
Every Stratos Coaching engagement is led by a current or former C-suite or SVP leader with 20+ years of enterprise experience who holds the Certified Executive Coach (CEC) credential. Our coaches are not academics teaching theory — they have sat in the seat, managed P&Ls, and navigated board dynamics firsthand. That operating experience, combined with formal coach certification, is what lets them coach the person and the role at the same time.
No. A leadership training program teaches shared skills to a group through a defined curriculum; executive coaching is a one-to-one partnership tailored to a single leader's situation and goals. They are complementary — research suggests pairing coaching with training lifts productivity far more than training alone (roughly 88% versus 22% in one widely cited study). Many organizations run a leadership training program across a cohort and add 1:1 coaching for the senior leaders carrying the highest-stakes transitions.
The clearest way to find out is a short, no-pitch conversation with a coach who has sat in the seat. We will talk through where you are, what a structured engagement would look like, and your exact number — in 20 minutes.
Book a Free Call20 minutes. Virtual. No pitch.