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Door one · the seat you already hold

Executive coaching for leaders

Executive coaching at Critical Path is for the things a new job title doesn't fix: how you lead, what you avoid, and the pattern that keeps producing the same result in a new building. Three months, up to six sessions, with the line open in between.

An executive coaching session at Critical Path in Raleigh, North Carolina
The engagement

How the coaching works

Duration
Three months
Sessions
Up to six
Between sessions
Open line

Sessions are scheduled around your work, not a fixed weekly slot. Between them the line stays open — voice memo, email, or a short call when something lands and you need to think out loud before you react to it. That between-session line is where most of the real work happens, because leadership problems arrive on their own schedule, not yours.

The method is the same one the whole practice is built on: in any situation, a few things actually decide the outcome and everything else is slack. In coaching, that means finding the one or two behaviors that are quietly costing you the room, and changing those — not handing you a generic list of twenty leadership habits to fix at once.

When it helps

Is this you?

Coaching earns its place when you're good at the work and the way you lead has become the thing in your way.

  • You got the bigger job, and the instincts that won it are the ones now getting in your way.
  • You have plateaued, and the people promoting past you are not obviously better than you.
  • You are leading people who were your peers a month ago.
  • You are in the room, and the room does not move when you talk.
  • Your ideas land better when someone else says them.
  • You are good at the work, and it is quietly eating the parts of your life you cannot get back.
Running a search, not just leading through one? The end-to-end version is Critical Path Positioning — six sessions to land the next role.
Questions

Common questions

How long is an executive coaching engagement?

Three months, with up to six sessions. Sessions are scheduled around your work rather than a fixed weekly slot, and the line stays open between them for a voice memo, email, or short call when something lands.

How is executive coaching different from mentoring or therapy?

A mentor hands you their playbook; a therapist works on your history. Coaching here works on the present pattern — the behavior that keeps producing the same result — and the few changes that shift it. It is practical and forward-looking.

Is it in person or remote?

Either. Most sessions run remotely and are scheduled around your calendar. The open line between sessions is the part clients use most.

Who is it for?

Executives, senior managers, and specialists who are already good at the work — usually just promoted, leading former peers, or plateaued — and want to change how they lead, not just what they know.

What if I am also running a job search?

Then the fuller path is Critical Path Positioning, the end-to-end campaign. Coaching is for the seat you hold; Positioning is for landing the next one.

Find your critical path

Start with one conversation.

Twenty minutes, no cost. Bring the decision you're stuck on, the role you're chasing, or the thing you want built. We'll find the critical path from there.