Our leadership team is constantly misaligned and frustrated, and my executives are asking for individual executive coaches. Will private coaching fix a dysfunctional leadership team, or does it make things worse?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Hiring individual executive coaches for a dysfunctional leadership team usually accelerates fragmentation rather than fixing it. When four or five executives work with different private coaches, they receive conflicting advice, learn divergent frameworks, and often build fortified defenses around their personal behaviors. Individual coaching cannot solve systemic structural confusion.

Before spending money on personal executive coaching, fix the fundamental architecture of the leadership team. Most executive friction is not caused by bad personalities; it is caused by role ambiguity, lack of shared vision, and absence of a common operational discipline.

Focus on three foundational steps first:
- Clarify the Accountability Chart. Ninety percent of leadership friction dissolves when roles are clearly defined with five major roles per seat and a single person accountable for each seat. If people do not know who owns what, conflict is inevitable.
- Establish a common operating system. Running on EOS gives every executive the exact same vocabulary, meeting cadence, and issue-solving framework. When the team uses the Level 10 Meeting and IDS to resolve issues as a unit, peer trust naturally builds.
- Conduct team-level health sessions. Work collectively on vulnerability, peer accountability, and healthy conflict using proven team frameworks. Building cohesive relationships at the table reduces friction far faster than isolated coaching sessions.

Only after the structural foundation, shared vision on the V/TO, and team operating rhythms are locked in should you consider individual coaching. At that stage, use coaching solely to develop specific tactical skills for a leader who already has strong GWC and fully embraces the enterprise team dynamic.