There is no single executive coaching agenda. The work depends on the leader and what they are navigating. And, if coaching development opportunities have been identified by their organization, that will anchor the coaching work.

Executive coaching may include:

• Strategic thinking and decision-making
• Executive presence and influence
• Leading through growth, change or uncertainty
• Stepping into a new or expanded leadership role
• Communicating with greater clarity and impact
• Delegating and building accountability
• Navigating difficult conversations and conflict
• Managing relationships with peers, senior leaders or a Board
• Developing a stronger leadership team
• Prioritizing and leading at the right level
• Working through a complex business or people decision

Sometimes the most valuable coaching conversation is simply the one a leader cannot easily have anywhere else.

The terms overlap considerably.

We generally use Executive Coaching when working with C-Suite leaders, Presidents, General Managers and SVPs. Leadership Coaching may include VPs, Directors, Managers, emerging leaders and high-potential employees preparing for greater responsibility.

The level of conversation also changes as responsibility increases. Senior executives are often working through enterprise-wide decisions, organizational complexity, stakeholder relationships, strategic priorities and the broader impact of how they lead.

Both forms of coaching are designed to help leaders become more effective, thoughtful and intentional in how they lead.

You do not need to wait until something is wrong. Coaching supports individuals to strengthen their approach in how they lead and in their overall work.
In fact, organizations frequently use executive coaching with strong leaders when the leadership demands around them are increasing.

Executive coaching can be especially valuable when:

• A leader is stepping into a larger or more complex role
• The organization is growing or changing quickly
• A high-potential leader is being prepared for future responsibility
• A leader needs to strengthen strategic or enterprise thinking
• A newly hired executive is navigating their first 90 days
• A leader needs to increase their influence or executive presence
• A team needs stronger leadership, accountability or alignment
• A succession plan requires leaders to be ready for what’s next

Coaching can support both the leader someone is today and the leader the organization will need them to become.

The first few months in a new executive role are critical.

A coach can help a leader understand the landscape, establish priorities, build key relationships, identify potential blind spots and make thoughtful decisions about where to act quickly; and where to first listen and learn.

Executive transition coaching can also help leaders move beyond what made them successful in their previous role. As scope increases, leaders often need to delegate more, think more strategically, influence across the organization and lead through others rather than doing more themselves.

The goal is to establish a strong leadership foundation sustaining for the role ahead, beyond early the days.

Yes. Confidentiality is fundamental to an effective coaching relationship.

Leaders need a place where they can speak candidly about difficult decisions, relationships, uncertainty and challenges without feeling that every conversation is being reported back to their organization.

When coaching is company-sponsored, we establish clear expectations around confidentiality at the beginning of the engagement. The organization may help establish coaching objectives, but the content of individual coaching conversations remains confidential within the boundaries of professional and ethical requirements.

That trust allows deeper and more useful coaching work to happen.

At Glacier Point Solutions, we are a team of experienced, ICF-credentialed coaches, which allows us to think carefully about the right match rather than simply assigning the next available coach.

We consider the leader’s role, level, goals, business environment and, where useful, the coach’s leadership, functional or industry experience. We also consider personality and coaching style.

The objective is to find a skilled thought partner who can understand their world, challenge their thinking and help them develop.

Career Exploration Coaching helps you step back and think more intentionally about what you want next in your career, particularly when the answer is not yet clear. It helps to answer the question, “What’s next?”

You may know that something needs to change without knowing exactly what that change should be. Or you may be considering several possibilities: a new role, a different organization, a career pivot, entrepreneurship, retirement, or simply finding a way to make your current work more meaningful and sustainable.

Career Coaching can help you explore questions such as:

• What do I want from the next stage of my career?
• What kind of work, organization or role is the right fit for me now?
• What strengths and experience do I want to carry forward?
• What am I ready to leave behind?
• Should I stay, make a change or explore something completely different?
• How do I translate my experience into new possibilities?
• What practical steps will help me move forward?

Your coach helps you broaden your thinking, explore possibilities, identify what matters most and turn greater clarity into practical next steps.

For executives and experienced professionals, career decisions are rarely just about finding another job. They may involve identity, purpose, lifestyle, financial considerations, family, ambition and what you want this next chapter of your life and work to look like.

Career Coaching can also help identify new skills or behaviors that will position for that next step, whether it’s a promotion, new role or a pivot.

Sales Coaching is one-to-one development designed to help sales professionals and sales leaders become more effective in the conversations, decisions and behaviours that drive sales performance.

Unlike traditional sales training, which typically teaches a methodology or set of techniques, Sales Coaching works with the individual on the real opportunities, relationships and challenges they are navigating right now.

Sales Coaching may help someone strengthen their ability to:

• Build stronger relationships with prospects and clients
• Ask better questions and understand what really matters to the buyer
• Communicate value more clearly
• Navigate complex or longer sales cycles
• Prepare for important sales conversations
• Work through objections and resistance
• Increase confidence and consistency
• Prioritize opportunities and manage their pipeline
• Strengthen accountability and follow-through
• Move from transactional selling toward trusted-advisor relationships

For Sales Leaders, coaching may also focus on how they lead the sales function, including coaching their own team, improving accountability, developing sales talent, navigating performance issues and creating a stronger sales culture.

The goal is to help our clients think more effectively, adapt to the situation in front of them and build sales behaviours they can use consistently over time.

Executive coaching is an investment in both the leader and the organization, and the quality of the coach matters.

ICF-credentialed coaches have completed professional coach training, demonstrated coaching competency, accumulated coaching experience and agreed to professional ethical standards.

We also believe credentials alone are not enough. Executive Coaches need the depth and maturity to work with complex leadership situations, understand organizational dynamics and have credible conversations with senior leaders.

Our coaching team brings both professional coaching expertise and significant business and leadership experience.

It depends on the purpose of the engagement.

Some leaders engage a coach for a focused leadership transition or specific challenge, working with an Executive Coach for six or twelve months and some continue coaching over a number of years as their responsibilities and challenges evolve.

For sustained leadership development, we typically think in months rather than one or two conversations. Leadership behavior develops over time, and coaching is particularly valuable because leaders can apply something in their day-to-day work, reflect on the result with their coach and continue refining their approach.

Many clients meet with their coach once or twice each month.

The right cadence depends on the leader, their objectives and what is happening in their role. A leader navigating a significant transition or period of rapid change may benefit from more frequent coaching, bi-weekly or weekly, while an established executive may prefer a monthly or bi-weekly cadence.

Our goal is to provide enough continuity for the coaching to have momentum while still giving the leader time to apply what they are learning in their actual work. Coaching works best when sessions are consistent.

Yes. This is one of Glacier Point Solutions’ strengths.

Rather than coaching only one executive at a time, we can support multiple leaders across an organization using our team of Executive Coaches.

This allows organizations to create greater consistency in their leadership development while maintaining the independence and confidentiality of each individual coaching relationship.

Where leaders are closely connected or interdependent, having access to multiple coaches can also help protect trust and avoid creating perceived conflicts of interest within coaching relationships.

Each serves a different purpose.

Individual Executive or Leadership Coaching focuses on one leader’s development, decisions, challenges and goals.

Team Coaching works with an intact leadership team to strengthen how its members communicate, make decisions, navigate conflict, create accountability and work together.

Peer Group Coaching brings leaders together to work through real leadership and business challenges, learn from one another, test assumptions and build stronger leadership capability through shared experience.

Organizations may use one approach or combine them as part of a broader leadership development strategy.

Yes.

Coaching can help high-potential leaders prepare for greater responsibility before they step into it.

This may include strengthening strategic thinking, increasing executive presence, building influence across functions, developing stronger leaders beneath them, improving decision-making and making the shift from functional leadership to a broader enterprise perspective.

For organizations, coaching can become an important part of succession planning because it helps develop not only the technical readiness of future leaders, but their capacity to lead at a more complex level.

Good coaching should eventually be visible in the leader’s day-to-day leadership.

Depending on the objectives, progress might show up as clearer decision-making, stronger communication, greater delegation, better relationships, increased accountability, more strategic thinking, greater confidence or an increased ability to navigate complexity without becoming the bottleneck.

At the beginning of an engagement, we work to create clarity around what the leader wants to strengthen. In company-sponsored coaching, organizational or manager perspectives can also help inform appropriate objectives.

The intention is meaningful and sustainable change.

Yes.

Glacier Point Solutions provides virtual Executive and Leadership Coaching to leaders throughout the United States and Canada.

Virtual coaching allows leaders to work with the coach who is the best fit for them rather than being limited by geography, while making coaching easier to integrate into a busy executive schedule.

Both are possible.

Many of our Executive and Leadership Coaching engagements are sponsored by organizations as part of leadership development, succession, executive transition or broader talent initiatives.

We also work directly with individual leaders who want a confidential thought partner to help them navigate their leadership, career or a significant transition.

For individuals exploring a larger career change or trying to determine what they want next, we can also provide more focused Career Exploration Coaching.

What makes Glacier Point Solutions different from other executive coaching firms?

We combine the personal attention of a coaching relationship with the capacity of an experienced coaching team.

For more than 20 years, Glacier Point Solutions has supported executives and organizations through leadership development and coaching. Our coaches are experienced, professionally credentialed and selected for both their coaching skill and their ability to work credibly with leaders in real organizational environments.

We can support one executive, multiple leaders, leadership teams or a broader coaching initiative.

Most importantly, we keep the work practical.

Our focus is not leadership theory for its own sake. We help leaders work through the decisions, conversations, relationships and challenges they are actually facing, so they can lead with greater clarity, confidence and effectiveness.

It begins with a conversation.

For an organization, we will first want to understand what is happening in the business, which leaders you are considering for coaching and what you hope will be different as a result.

From there, we can recommend an approach, discuss coach matching and determine whether individual Executive Coaching, Leadership Coaching, Team Coaching, Peer Group Coaching, or a combination, makes the most sense.

For an individual leader, the first conversation is an opportunity to understand what you are navigating and whether coaching is the right fit.

Schedule a consultation (insert link) to discuss your unique situation.