Information Is Cheap. Poor Judgment Is Expensive AF.

Interestingly, this year has been a year where I saw demand for my executive and leadership coaching grow rather significantly. While thats a great thing and I feel truly blessed and thankful, I am also much more selective now in the clients I take on, both from a business standpoint and a time and focus standpoint. I want to be genuinely sure I have the energy, time, and space to really partner with the leaders I work with.

I want to share a real story about a client this year, because it might help someone reading this find whatever support they need on their own leadership journey. Or perhaps, you are new to Executive and Leadership Coaching.

A senior leader I coach has read most of the leadership books out there and leaned on ChatGPT and Claude for advice too. He can quote the frameworks, name the models, recite the guidance almost word for word.

None of that helped him on a work morning when three of his directors disagreed in front of him and the room went quiet, waiting for his call.

No book, and no AI chat window, has met your particular boss, your particular team, or the politics sitting under your particular decision.

Every situation is truly its own. And often...complicated from a human perspective.

What the client found useful in the end was not more content, more info, more frameworks. What the client needed was also not more advice from friends or peers. Very often, leaders don't have anyone to speak to.

We get real. We build on lived experiences. We get into the real, specific details of what actually happened in that meeting, and testing his read of it against someone who would push back instead of nod along. And trust me, I challenge hard.

In case you are new to Executive Coaching, that is the real value of coaching. A place to unpack one specific problem until the right move becomes obvious to the person who has to make it.

That said, the leader must be ready to face their truths and and to work hard on themselves.

I have coached senior leaders across several countries, culture and MNCs this year, most of them carrying complexity that rarely a book or search bar can help fully accounts for.

The knowledge is typically not what is missing. There are plenty of resources available, and also many for free.

What the client truly needs is the space to think clearly under pressure.

Books, search engines, and AI tools all have real value, and I use them too. What none of them can do is sit with you in the middle of a hard week and ask the one question that actually unlocks your particular problem.

That is what a good coach is about. It is also what a good leader does for their own people, being present enough, and available enough, to be there when someone needs to think something through out loud.

If your best people already have the books, the frameworks, and the tools, the real question is not what they know.

It is who is actually there for them when things get hard.