TEAM DEVELOPMENT·FOR YOUR EXECUTIVE LAYER
It isn’t only the CEO who needs the work.
Most coaching companies stop at the corner office. Mine doesn’t. If your exec team is where the work needs to land next, that’s what the associate-coach team is for.
The frustration you’re carrying about your team is rarely only about your team.
Almost every CEO I work with arrives convinced their leadership team is the problem. The exec layer that isn’t stepping up. The decisions that route back to them. The talent that hasn’t grown into the next stage.
And, look. Sometimes they’re right. Sometimes the team is the bottleneck. More often than not though, the team is responding to a system the CEO is reinforcing without seeing it.
If you’re recognising yourself in any of that, you’re not alone. Every CEO I’ve worked with has felt this. It comes with the role. It isn’t a personal failing.
The work I do with your team is the same depth as the work I do with you. Different angle. Same standard.
How the team work runs.
A consultative process. Not a panel of coaches dropped onto a leadership team and hoped to stick.
- 01
Diagnostic conversations.
Short one-to-one conversations with every exec on the team. What they’re carrying. Where they’re stuck. What they actually need. Confidential. The data lives with the coach, not the CEO.
- 02
Matched coaching.
Based on those conversations, every exec gets paired with the coach in our network whose practice fits what surfaced. Not the nearest body. The right one. The matching uses my own assessment plus AI to take the friction out.
- 03
Quarterly synthesis.
I sit above the team coaching at the CEO layer. Once a quarter, we look at the patterns surfacing across the team that the CEO needs to know about. No individual names. Just the system.
Who this is for.
Who this is for.
- Founder-CEOs and first-time CEOs of 100-to-200-person businesses scaling fast
- Investor firms whose investment terms include coaching the leadership team of a portfolio company
- Board members and chairs asking ‘is this team going to scale?’
- Leadership teams mid-transition: a new CEO, a fresh exec hire, a re-org, a fund-raise
Who this isn’t for.
- Anyone looking to outsource the hard team conversations to a coach
- Teams where the CEO won’t engage in the work themselves
- Companies looking for off-the-shelf leadership training
The coaches behind the work.
A hand-picked team. Every one of them accredited, with deep coaching practice, and personally vetted by me before they go anywhere near a client.
HIGH-GROWTH & SCALING
Harry
Has held managing director and commercial director roles in founder-led, VC-backed and high-growth businesses across the UK, US, UAE and Asia. Coaches leaders who were promoted for performance and now have to change how they lead. He knows the pace and ambiguity of scaling from the inside.
CHANGE & LEADERSHIP TRANSITIONS
Araceli
A former managing director with twenty-five years in financial services, leading transformation across Europe, the US and Asia. Now coaches senior leaders and founders through scale and cross-cultural complexity, and sits on the EMCC global board. Her signature is care held together with real challenge.
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Karen
Over twenty years in senior leadership and coaching, from leading a billion-dollar pharmaceutical brand across forty-four countries to a decade with the Academy of Executive Coaching, where she is now core faculty. Coaches leaders stepping into bigger roles, with commercial credibility and psychological depth in equal measure. Warm and calm, and willing to challenge where it counts.
STRATEGY & CHANGE
Kate
An executive coach and strategy leader who has held senior roles across the US, Asia Pacific and the UK, including director of strategy at the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. Coaches executive teams through merger, growth and cultural change. Strengths-based, calm, and strong with leaders moving into expanded roles.
PRESENCE & COMMUNICATION
Em
Twenty years coaching founders and leadership teams, from first-time leaders to the boards of multi-billion-pound organisations. A TEDx speaker, trained actor and comedian, she hears what is really driving behaviour and shifts it in the room. Strong on presence, communication and performance under pressure.
PSYCHOLOGICAL INSIGHT
Lucy
Over twenty years of commercial leadership across operations, sales and transformation, and a decade coaching senior leaders and executive teams. Deeply perceptive, she works with the messy, multi-sided challenges of leadership, identity and performance, including neurodiversity-aware coaching. Supportive, but not soft.
PERFORMANCE & ENERGY
Tom
A former professional rugby player turned executive performance coach, accredited through Henley. Coaches CEOs, founders and partners under sustained commercial pressure, treating senior leaders like elite performers. His focus is energy, capacity and the behaviour change that holds up over time.
TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP
Marc
A former CIO with twenty years leading technology and transformation across international businesses. Coaches CIOs, CTOs and technical leaders stepping into enterprise and board roles, where influence matters more than expertise. Calm and grounded, he helps leaders lift their gaze beyond the immediate fix.
DATA, AI & TRANSFORMATION
Roberto
A former senior civil servant and chief data officer who has led teams of more than a hundred across data, AI and digital delivery. Coaches technical and specialist leaders making the move from expert to confident leader. He brings technical credibility, systemic thinking and a calm, challenging presence.
“I built the associate team because the work I do with a CEO has a ceiling if it stops at the CEO. The ripple effect of changing how one person leads is real. The ripple effect of changing how an entire executive layer leads is something else entirely. That’s the work this side of the practice exists for.”
Sophie
Talk to me about your team.
Not a sales call. A 30-minute conversation. We talk about what’s happening at the exec layer, who’s on the team, what’s surfaced in the last six months, and whether the work I do is the right fit. Honest answer either way.
Your details stay with Sophie. Goes to sophie@swinnleadershipcoaching.co.uk for review. No newsletter add unless you ask.