Executive leaders’ perspectives on the impact of executive coaching on their leadership development

Purpose The purpose of this study is therefore to provide leaders’ perspectives on their own and their peers’ perceptions of how coaching influences their leadership practice. Executive coaching has become a widely used mechanism for developing leadership capability in organizations. Prior research shows that coaching can improve leadership effectiveness, self-awareness and workplace performance. However, much of the existing literature focuses on broad outcome measures, with limited attention to how leaders themselves describe the specific ways coaching influences their leadership practice. Even fewer studies have examined whether leaders’ perceptions of their development align with the feedback they report receiving from colleagues. Design/methodology/approach This study addresses this gap by analysing open-ended survey responses (n = 1130) from 686 executives across more than 300 global organizations, predominantly Fortune 500 companies who received coaching. Two questions were examined: how leaders perceived coaching to have influenced their overall leadership impact and what feedback they reported receiving from colleagues regarding changes in their leadership approach. A structured content analysis combining deductive category development with inductive refinement was used to identify recurring leadership development themes. Findings The findings show that leaders most frequently reported perceiving improvements in their team leadership (24.2%), communication (16.4%), people development (16.0%) and executive presence (15.7%). Perceptions of colleague feedback revealed similar patterns, with team engagement (27.4%), executive presence (17.5%) and communication (13.8%) most commonly observed. The convergence between leaders’ perceived self-reported development and their accounts of colleague feedback suggests coherent developmental patterns. Originality/value The study highlights the link between leaders’ self-perceived development and reported colleague feedback, suggesting that team leadership behaviours may function as a central behavioural mechanism through which leadership change becomes visible within organizations as a result of coaching.