By Kristina Kovacevic
Let’s say Sarah was your best senior developer. She could debug complex systems in her sleep and mentored junior team members naturally. So when a management position opened up, promoting her seemed obvious.
Three months later, Sarah is overwhelmed. Her team is frustrated. Deadlines are slipping. And you’re wondering if you made a mistake. The problem isn’t Sarah. It’s that she was never taught how to lead people.
Across Canada and the U.S., 40–50% of new leaders struggle or fail within 18 months. Why? They’re promoted for technical excellence, then expected to “figure out” leadership on their own.
Leadership coaching is changing that equation. It’s one of the highest-ROI investments you can make in your managers, and emerging research confirms it works.
What Is Leadership Coaching?
Leadership coaching is a structured, evidence-based development process that helps managers build the skills, self-awareness, and confidence they need to lead people effectively.
Unlike mentoring (where a senior leader shares their experience) or training (where everyone learns the same content), coaching is individualized. A professional coach works one-on-one with your manager to identify blind spots, set specific goals, and create actionable strategies for real workplace challenges.
The process typically includes assessments (like 360-degree feedback), reflective dialogue, skill-building exercises, and accountability for applying new behaviours on the job.
Why Do Organizations Need Leadership Coaching Today?
Ask any HR leader about their best investment in talent development, and leadership coaching consistently tops the list.
Recent research shows coaching improves self-awareness, decision-making, and behavioural change, leading to better engagement, creativity, and performance at every level of leadership. Systematic reviews in sectors like healthcare confirm that coaching is an effective intervention for developing leadership capability, with positive impacts on leader competencies, confidence, team communication, and workplace climate.
Whether you’re running a growing tech startup, managing a construction team, or leading a non-profit, you’re likely facing the same challenges:
- Tight labour markets where you can’t afford to lose good people
- Rapid growth or restructuring that demands stronger leadership
- Increasingly complex people issues (hybrid work, employee conflict, and employee engagement)
- Managers promoted for technical skills who’ve never been trained in feedback, coaching, or conflict resolution
Leadership coaching addresses these gaps directly. It gives your managers the tools to navigate complexity, manage people well, and align their leadership with your business goals.
What Actually Happens in a Leadership Coaching Program
High-quality leadership coaching isn’t just “advice sessions.” It’s a structured process grounded in adult learning and behaviour change. Here’s what a typical program includes:
- Assessment: 360-degree feedback, leadership style assessments, and identifying current strengths and gaps
- Goal Setting: Creating specific, measurable goals tied to organizational priorities (e.g., “Have confident performance conversations” or “Build trust with a new team”)
- Regular Sessions: Bi-weekly or monthly one-on-one conversations focused on self-awareness and new approaches
- Skill-Building: Practical frameworks for communication, conflict resolution, and delegation that managers apply immediately
- Accountability: Tracking progress, debriefing what worked, and translating insight into behavioural change
Real Results: What Changes After Managers Receive Leadership Coaching?
Research across sectors shows that coaching for managers has positive impacts at three levels:
For the Leader
Coaching builds confidence, emotional intelligence, and practical capabilities. Managers develop stronger self-awareness, understand their impact on others, and learn to adjust their style for different situations and people.
For the Organization
When managers improve, organizational culture and performance follow. Companies see better alignment with strategy, stronger leadership pipelines, and improved employee relations outcomes.
For Teams
Employees led by coached managers report higher engagement, trust, and retention. They receive clearer feedback, experience less conflict, and feel more supported in their development.
For first-time and mid-level managers specifically, coaching helps them understand team dynamics, improve employee satisfaction, and refine their leadership approach. For senior leaders, it sharpens strategic thinking, influence, and change leadership.
Five Common Coaching Topics for Managers
Across industries, certain themes consistently come up in coaching conversations with managers. These topics reflect the shift from “individual contributor” to “people leader” and they’re where coaching can quickly move the needle.
- Building Self-Awareness and Emotional Intelligence
Managers learn to recognize how their mood, communication style, and behaviour affect their team. A manager who realizes they become short and dismissive under pressure can develop strategies to pause and reset before responding.
- Having Difficult Conversations
Most managers avoid feedback or conflict until problems escalate. Coaching helps them develop the skills and confidence to have clear, respectful, and timely performance discussions, including how to document concerns and align with HR best practices.
- Managing Change and Uncertainty
Whether it’s growth, restructuring, or shifting priorities, change is constant. Coaches help managers guide their teams through transitions, maintain morale, and communicate transparently even when they don’t have all the answers.
- Motivating and Engaging Teams
Especially in hybrid or distributed work environments common across BC and Canada, managers need new approaches to build connection, recognize contributions, and keep teams engaged without defaulting to micromanagement.
- Navigating Conflict and Employee Relations
From personality clashes to performance issues, managers need to address conflict fairly and legally. Coaching provides frameworks for staying neutral, documenting appropriately, and knowing when to involve HR or legal counsel.
Leadership Coaching vs. Mentoring: What’s the Difference?
These terms are often used interchangeably, but they’re distinct approaches:
- Mentoring pairs a less experienced person with a senior leader who shares advice, networks, and career guidance based on their own experience. The mentor often works in the same organization or industry.
- Leadership Coaching involves a trained professional who asks questions to help the manager discover their own solutions. The coach doesn’t need to be from the same industry; they’re experts in human behaviour, leadership development, and facilitating growth.
Both are valuable. Mentoring helps with career navigation and organizational knowledge. Coaching helps with behavioural change, self-awareness, and skill development.
Many managers benefit from both; a mentor for strategic career guidance and a coach for developing leadership capabilities.
How Do You Know Your Managers Need Coaching?
Not sure if coaching is the right investment? Here are clear indicators:
- High turnover on specific teams: If certain managers consistently lose people while others retain them, leadership capability is likely the issue
- Managers avoiding difficult conversations: Performance issues drag on, feedback is vague, or conflicts escalate because managers don’t address problems early.
- New promotions struggling after 6 months: Technical stars aren’t translating their success into leadership effectiveness.
- Engagement scores vary widely by team: When employee experience depends heavily on who their manager is, you have a leadership development gap.
- Managers reporting stress or burnout: Leaders who lack tools and support become overwhelmed quickly, especially in fast-growth or high-change environments.
If two or more of these apply, coaching can make a measurable difference.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does leadership coaching for managers typically cost?
Costs vary depending on the coach’s experience and the length of the engagement, but most organizations invest $3,000-$8,000 per manager for a 3-6 month program in Canada. Some employers start with a short pilot for a small group and scale up once they see the results. Blended approaches (1:1 coaching + group sessions) can also bring the per-person cost down.
How long does a typical coaching engagement last?
Most meaningful behaviour change happens over 3-6 months, with sessions every few weeks. Anything shorter tends to feel like a “quick fix,” while longer programs work best when they’re tied to bigger goals like succession planning or culture change.
Can leadership coaching be done virtually?
Yes, especially for busy managers. Virtual coaching has become standard and is just as effective as in-person for most leaders. It also makes it easier to deliver support across multiple locations, which is why many BC employers with distributed teams prefer it.
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Pivot HR Services is a Vancouver-based HR consulting firm supporting organizations across Canada with tailored people solutions, including leadership coaching, HR strategy, employee relations support, and respectful workplace training. If your managers need support to lead more effectively, let’s talk.
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