Coaching By People Who Have Actually Run Businesses.

Executive coaching is a structured one-to-one relationship between a senior leader and an experienced coach, focused on improving decision-making, leadership effectiveness, and commercial judgement. Sessions are typically 60-90 minutes on a monthly or fortnightly cadence, with the agenda set by the leader being coached. Unlike consulting, coaching does not deliver a specific project output — it develops the leader's ability to make better decisions themselves. Our approach differs from most UK executive coaching in one important respect: every coach on our network is first an operator (a fractional CFO, CMO, CIO, COO, or MD) and second a coach. That means the coaching draws on real commercial experience, not just methodology.

UK 2026 executive coaching typically ranges from £150 to £500 per hour for one-to-one sessions, depending on the seniority of the coach and the size of the client. Leadership Services publishes its rates openly: £150-£500 per hour for standalone sessions, £800-£2,400 per month for retainers, £1,800-£4,500 per session for team coaching, and £4,000-£12,000 per participant for structured six-month programmes. Coaching is included at no additional cost when bundled with a fractional director engagement. Most UK coaching providers refuse to publish rates, offering enquiry-only quotes. We publish ours because opaque pricing damages trust before the coaching relationship has even started.

A coach helps you find your own answers through structured questioning, reflection, and challenge — the coach does not usually give you their opinion on what to do. A mentor is more directive: they share their own experience, offer specific advice, and act as a senior sounding board with skin in the game. Both are useful; the choice depends on where you are. First-time CEOs often benefit more from mentoring because they need pattern recognition from someone who has done the job before. Established leaders often benefit more from coaching because they have the operational knowledge and need reflective discipline. At Leadership Services, our coaches can operate in either mode depending on what you need in a given session — because they are experienced operators, they can shift naturally between coaching and mentoring within a single engagement.

Two things. First, every one of our coaches is an experienced operator — a director who has run functions or businesses in the real economy and coaches on the strength of that experience, not on the strength of a coaching qualification alone. Most UK executive coaching is delivered by professional coaches whose careers have been spent coaching; we deliver coaching that draws on lived commercial experience. Second, we publish our pricing openly. Every other UK executive coaching provider we know of operates on an enquiry-only basis for pricing. That opacity damages trust with UK SME buyers who are used to knowing what things cost. We publish ours to remove that friction.

Some do — including ICF (International Coaching Federation), EMCC (European Mentoring and Coaching Council), and AoEC (Academy of Executive Coaching) accreditations. Others do not, and coach on the strength of their operator experience alone. We do not gatekeep our coach network on paper qualifications because the strongest predictor of coaching effectiveness at SME level is operator experience, not accreditation. If formal accreditation is important to you — for example, because your business is regulated or your board requires it — tell us during the chemistry session and we will match you with an accredited coach from our network.

Most one-to-one coaching engagements run for 6-12 months on a monthly or fortnightly cadence, though some clients continue on rolling retainers for several years. Team coaching engagements typically run for 12 months on a quarterly cadence. Structured six-month programmes are exactly that — a defined six-month cohort with a clear beginning and end. Business mentoring engagements are more open-ended: clients often keep a mentoring relationship going for years at a lower cadence than formal coaching.

The chemistry session is a 45-minute, no-cost, no-obligation call between you and one or two shortlisted coaches from our network. We match you on your specific commercial context (sector, stage, situation), the outcomes you want from coaching, and the coaching style that will suit you best. The call is deliberately unstructured — the point is to see whether the working relationship will produce real value. If it does, we contract for an engagement. If not, we introduce you to another coach or refund any fees paid. Chemistry matters more in coaching than in almost any other professional relationship, so we take it seriously.

Yes — and increasingly often is. Every current Leadership Services fractional director engagement now includes structured coaching for the CEO or MD at no additional cost. Your fractional CFO, CMO, CIO or COO already sits at your leadership table and understands your business; extending that into monthly one-to-one coaching gives you leadership development alongside functional expertise without adding to the monthly fee. Existing clients can activate this by asking their fractional director or by contacting us directly.

A consultant is engaged to deliver a specific project — a strategy document, a due diligence report, an operating model design. The consultant produces the output, hands it over, and moves on. A coach is engaged to develop your capacity as a leader over time. There is no deliverable in the traditional sense; the value is in the improved judgement, decision-making, and leadership behaviour that emerge from the coaching relationship. Both are legitimate, and most SMEs use both at different times. Coaching is a longer-term investment in you; consulting is a shorter-term investment in a specific business outcome.

UK SMEs with turnover between £2 million and £30 million, typically founder-led or private equity-backed. Our clients are almost always CEOs, MDs, founders, and senior functional directors — the people at the sharp end of commercial decision-making. Sector coverage spans professional services, technology, financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, retail, and education. We do not tend to work with FTSE-scale enterprises (where the enterprise coaching specialists are better placed) or with very early-stage startups (where accelerator programmes and founder communities usually serve better).

Absolutely. Everything discussed in a coaching session is confidential between coach and client. This is a core principle of professional coaching practice and it is non-negotiable at Leadership Services. In team coaching engagements, we agree confidentiality boundaries explicitly at the start of the engagement — what stays in the room, what can be shared with the CEO, and what feeds back into wider business communication. Board members and shareholders never see coaching session content unless the client chooses to share it themselves.

Contact us via the website or email [email protected] with a short description of your situation and what you would like coaching to help with. We will respond within one working day with a shortlist of coaches matched to your context and propose chemistry sessions with the ones that fit best. Chemistry sessions are free and take 45 minutes. From there, engagements can typically begin within 2-3 weeks of the initial conversation.