What should you look for in an executive coach for CEOs?

What five things does a strong executive coach give a CEO?

1. Outside perspective on you, not just a conversation. Amy Jen Su interviews a leader’s board and direct reports to pin down their “highest and best use”, then looks for where that overlaps with what gives them energy. She calls it the “use and juice” equation. Look for a coach who triangulates other people’s input, not one who only works from what you tell them.
2. Pattern recognition from the founder-to-CEO transition. Su told one client “your job is to make yourself redundant”, the room went deathly quiet, and a week later the client said that single mind shift was all she needed to feel light at the end of the tunnel instead of drowning. A coach who has seen the founder-to-CEO transition again and again can name the pattern faster than you can.
3. A mirror, not an enabler. The support that moves you holds up the mirror when you don’t want to see it and gives it to you straight. Su separates the “mirrors” and “helicopters” you need from the naysayers and enablers who either flatter you or block you. An enabler feels reassuring and moves nothing, which is the most expensive coaching you can buy.
4. Operating credibility over coaching badges. Su grew up in business as a strategic planner at Taco Bell and a management consultant at Booz Allen before she coached anyone. She names the exact scale pivot: around $100m the CEO has to become a full-time CEO and hand off the sales or finance function they came up through to someone who does it better. It’s the same pivot Dominic Monkhouse works on with founder-CEOs: the team that gets you to $10m is rarely the team that gets you to $100m. Look for someone who has lived those transitions, not just studied them.
5. Attention to the whole person. After 20 years, Su’s mission is helping leaders make the difference they are meant to make without wrecking their health and relationships. In the episode Dominic Monkhouse points to Good to Great research suggesting only about half of great-company CEOs kept an intact personal life. A coach who ignores that is doing half the job.

In her own words

These excerpts come from the episode conversation and show the most useful points in the guest’s own words.

“if I were to go interview your board or your employees, or your direct reports, you know, what is Dominique’s highest and best use, where do you hope he’s spending time and energy. It yields a lot of great information. And at the same time when I ask you, well, what gives you juice? Again, this question of what gives you energy and I’m look listening for the intersection of those two things.”

“who are those mirrors in my life who hold up the mirror even when I don’t want to see it and are going to give it to me straight and give me honest feedback? Who are the helicopters in my life that when I’ve lost perspective and the world feels incredibly myopic or either or, remember to lift me up and out and take a moment to step back and look at the situation with a different set of eyes? And who are the cheerleaders and safe harbors that we can do that with? So important to line up and rally those folks and that’s different than a naysayer or even an enabler.”

Who is Amy Jen Su?

Amy Jen Su is an executive coach and co-founder of Paravis Partners, a boutique executive coaching and leadership development firm she started over 20 years ago. Before coaching she was a strategic planner at Taco Bell Corp, part of PepsiCo, and a management consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton. She’s the author of The Leader You Want to Be: Five Essential Principles for Bringing Out Your Best Self and a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review. She also sits on the board of SRS Distribution.

Frequently asked questions

What does an executive coach actually do for a CEO?

A good executive coach gives a CEO the one thing the role removes: honest outside perspective. They interview your board and reports to find where only you add value, hold up the mirror on blind spots you can’t see yourself, and help you shift from doing the work to scaling through other people.

When everything runs through you, no one inside the business gives it to you straight. A good coach does.

How do you choose the right executive coach for a CEO?

Weigh four things: real operating experience through business scale, a method for gathering outside feedback on you rather than taking your word for it, the willingness to give it to you straight instead of flattering you, and attention to the whole person. Chemistry matters too, but don’t mistake an enabler who agrees with everything for a coach.

Do successful CEOs really need an executive coach?

Yes, and often the most successful feel it most. Amy Jen Su spent 20 years with high-achievers who had huge external success yet no peace with themselves. External drive gets you to the top, then stalls. A coach helps you keep contributing without sacrificing your health, relationships and judgement to the striving.

Is an executive coach different from a peer group like EO or Vistage?

They overlap but work differently. Peer groups such as EO or Vistage give a CEO an un-emotional third-party view from others who share the role. A one-to-one executive coach goes deeper on your specific patterns, your highest and best use, and the internal game. Plenty of CEOs use both.

Where Monkhouse & Company fits

Amy Jen Su’s principles describe what good CEO coaching feels like from the inside. The longer you stay the single point of failure, the more the business waits on you, and the harder that pattern is to break alone. If you’re weighing up support for the scale-up stage, compare our CEO coaches for scale-up founders and see how the work maps to a founder-CEO’s reality. Founders navigating the role change itself may prefer our founder coaching. For the leadership qualities this episode keeps returning to, read why you need to be a Level 5 leader and how to master executive presence for strategic success.