When you choose an executive coach, check four things: Qualifications, experience, the chemistry in the first meeting, and whether the coach agrees goals with you against which the work can be measured. Each point comes with simple questions you can ask.
An executive coach works one-to-one with leaders on questions of their own leadership, such as difficult decisions or their impact on the people around them. The title coach is not legally protected. Anyone can use it without proving anything.
There is a coach for almost every situation in life today. In a press article in 2019 I said that a coach belongs to the basic equipment of the business world. That makes it all the more important how serious an offer is.
In my view, professional coaching competence covers five areas: Personality, social and communication skills, subject expertise, methodological skills, and field and functional competence. For leaders, field competence matters most. Someone who knows organisations from the inside understands faster what a tense executive board meeting does to a person.
A coach can earn recognised quality labels for these competences. In Switzerland, the BSO, the professional association for coaching, supervision and organisational consulting, admits members according to defined criteria. Internationally, the International Coaching Federation (ICF) certifies coaches at three levels. Both are examples, and other associations work to their own standards.
If you want to choose an executive coach, go through these points before the first appointment. Whatever remains open, the first meeting will clarify.
Training. Ask about a coaching qualification with a formal degree and how long it took. A weekend course and a master's programme lasting several years prepare people very differently.
Association. Membership shows that someone has accepted an association's standards and professional ethics.
Career before coaching. Someone who has led people or carried responsibility in an organisation will recognise the dynamics you describe more quickly.
Experience as a coach. How long has the coach worked with leaders at your level? Someone who has seen many similar situations is more likely to hear what lies between the lines.
Chemistry. The relationship carries the entire work. Notice whether you can speak openly and whether the coach is prepared to contradict you.
First meeting. Serious coaches offer an initial conversation before an engagement starts. There you will notice whether their way of working fits your concern.
Measurability. Clarify how you will recognise success at the end. Good coaches agree goals with you and review them.
My own offering is described on the page Executive coach Cristian Hofmann. Further criteria are covered in Top executive coach in Zurich: Two independent lists and 7 criteria.
In the first meeting you may test the coach just as the coach tests you. Four questions usually bring clarity quickly.
«What did you do before coaching?» The answer shows you the coach's field and functional competence.
«Which leadership levels do you mostly work with?» Someone who mainly coaches team leaders knows different questions from someone who works with executive boards.
«How will we measure whether the coaching works?» Notice whether the answer becomes concrete: Agreed goals and feedback from your environment.
«Who learns what?» If your company pays, clarify in advance what information goes to the client organisation and what stays between you and the coach.
When companies choose an executive coach for their leaders, the final decision should rest with the person who will work with the coach.
A few signals should make you wary before you choose an executive coach.
Ready-made solutions for everyone. Someone who knows after ten minutes what you should do is selling a blueprint. You know your own situation best.
Big promises without a yardstick. Statements like «You will be a different person afterwards» can hardly be checked. Serious offers name goals by which you can measure the coach.
Vague information about training. If the qualification remains unclear even when you ask, that is already an answer.
Pressure to sign quickly. Anyone who wants to commit you to a large package before the first meeting puts the sale ahead of the fit.
«It matters to me to bring about measurable improvements in my coachee's situation», I said in 2019. I stand by that. Coaching moves most when the leader is firmly involved in the process and works on their own concerns.
So my advice when you choose an executive coach: Take the one who asks about your goals in the first meeting and records with you how you will recognise success later. A serious coach can be measured against those goals. On request, part of my fee depends on the result (pay-for-results).
I think little of making the choice on certificates alone. A quality label proves training and standards, and the conversation shows whether the collaboration works. Deciding on gut feeling alone is just as risky: Liking someone feels good and says little about whether they will also challenge you.
Start with recommendations from your network and the directories of professional associations. Then hold a first meeting with two or three coaches and compare who asks most concretely about your goals.
By verifiable training, membership of a professional association and clear statements on confidentiality and goals. A serious coach answers questions about qualifications openly.
Very important, because the relationship is the foundation of the work. Still pay attention to qualifications, because liking someone rarely carries an engagement over many months.
Yes, if the goals are agreed at the start. Feedback from your environment before and after the engagement has proved its worth, for example through a 360-degree feedback. Anyone who wants to choose an executive coach should ask exactly this question in the first meeting.
Further reading on hofmann.coach: Leadership executive coaching: What makes it effective for senior leaders · Coaching client: How to stay accountable for your own progress
Note: This article was first published on 02.04.2024 and was revised and expanded in October 2026.
Cristian Hofmann is an executive coach in Zurich and Schaffhausen (MAS Coaching & Supervision BSO, Forbes contributor). Over more than 20 years he has coached more than 1,500 leaders: CEOs, executive boards and leadership teams in Switzerland, with measurably agreed goals and, on request, pay-for-results. More about Cristian Hofmann.
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