Every Olympic champion has multiple coaches. Technique coaches, fitness coaches, mental performance coaches.

Many Fortune 500 CEOs and Executives operate without one.

This makes no sense.

An athlete cannot become a world champion without elite coaches helping them with technique, fitness, strength, tenacity, and mental and emotional preparation. In business, where competition is fierce and executives support families and build careers that matter more than gold medals, leaders refuse the same advantage.

The stakes are actually higher for executives than athletes.

The Time and Cost Excuse

Executives may claim they don't have time for coaching. Yet they find time to post on LinkedIn daily and sit through inefficient meetings that could be streamlined.

They baulk at a few hundred pounds per hour for coaching sessions.

The same executives may think nothing of spending thousands on business class flights or less-than-budget hotels. They sometimes order more food than is consumed at client dinners. They approve marketing budgets with questionable returns.

Why? Because these expenses feel like business investments. Coaching feels personal.

But coaching delivers measurable business outcomes that dwarf these other investments.

What Actually Happens

When executives invest in coaching, they develop greater clarity in decision-making. Instead of getting overwhelmed by volume, they focus on areas that make a difference.

Tools like the Eisenhower Matrix help them realise what doesn't need to be done and what should be delegated. They free themselves to focus on important decisions.

This clarity creates space not just for themselves, but for everyone around them.

One executive I worked with stepped back from making all decisions, something that had disempowered others in the business. The stepping back felt unnatural. They felt they were "doing less managing" than before.

The effect of stepping back was observed within weeks.

People around them became responsible for their own decisions. They owned them. They bought into the business and its success more.

The executive had to fight the urge to get involved in the details. But having a framework helped them build new habits of empowerment.

Business performance improved within a quarter.

The Growth Mindset Question

Those who rise to executive level only do so because they've been successful. They have ways of doing things that have worked to this point.

The challenge is helping them see that other approaches could be better.

I draw on parallels with sport and other business leaders, focusing on those who have open growth mindsets. Leaders who wanted to win more than be right.

The GB Rowing Team's mantra cuts through ego: "Will it make the boat go faster?" If the answer is yes, do it even if it feels uncomfortable.

I ask executives: "Would you like to be more successful and win more often than you have? If so, what are you prepared to do to make that happen?"

Their answer reveals how close they are to a growth mindset.

Leadership Muscle Memory

When executives start modelling new behaviours and find them becoming natural, they see the power of coaching.

It's like a sports person who watches how others hit a ball, take a swimming stroke, or rowing stroke, then copies this to embed muscle memory.

We can do the same for executives and new leaders.

The transformation happens when new leadership behaviours become as natural as their old habits, when they see results flowing through their organisation.

That's when they understand what athletes have always known.

Champions don't train alone.