Is Executive Coaching Worth It? A Data-Backed Look for CEOs

Looking for some support? If now is the time to consider coaching, reach out here.

I was deeply skeptical of executive coaching.

Not casually skeptical. Actively skeptical.

Years ago, when I was running my own company, I hired my first coach on the recommendation of a tier-one VC. Then I hired a second. Both were smart. Both were well credentialed. And both felt useless to me. I fired them.

At the time, coaching felt vague, expensive, and strangely disconnected from the actual pressure I was under. I didn’t need encouragement. I needed clarity. I didn’t need frameworks. I needed help carrying the emotional weight of 50 employees and a new board. And beyond that — adult life!

When I started working with my eventual long-term coach, Jerry Colonna, I was leading a hot, newly funded Series A company that was very much the talk of the town. On the surface, things looked great.

Underneath, the company was cracking at the seams.

We had senior hires that weren’t working. Cultural tension no one wanted to name. Growing conflict between co-founders that we kept ignoring. Every week felt heavier than the last.

At the same time, my personal life was coming apart. I was navigating a divorce. I was grieving the loss of a child. And the models of leadership and masculinity that had been modeled for me growing up were no longer holding.

I didn’t feel strong. I felt lost. And deeply alone.

So when people ask, “Is executive coaching worth it?” I understand the skepticism. I lived it. I didn’t come to coaching because I believed in it. I came because the ways I knew how to carry pressure were failing me.

Working with Jerry didn’t make the circumstances easier. But it helped me stay intact inside of them. That difference mattered more than anything else.

The TLDR for busy CEOs: Executive coaching improves decision quality, hiring, and retention over time. It also reduces burnout by giving leaders clarity, emotional containment, and a place to think without performing. The return compounds quietly, across the business and the person leading it.

Why CEOs Question Whether Executive Coaching Is Worth It

Most CEOs aren’t asking whether coaching works in theory. They’re asking whether it works for someone in their seat.

Coaching is expensive. It takes time. It requires honesty. And sometimes it’s uncomfortable in ways you don’t expect. For leaders already carrying investor expectations, team dynamics, personal responsibility for outcomes, and an endless stream of decisions, adding coaching can feel indulgent.

The question underneath “Is executive coaching worth it?” is usually simpler.

Will this actually help me lead better and suffer less? Or is this a scam?

What “Worth It” Actually Means for CEOs

For a CEO, “worth it” rarely means a clean financial return you can point to in a single quarter.

It usually means clearer thinking under pressure. Fewer reactive decisions. Less emotional spillover into the organization. Stronger alignment with co-founders. More energy at the end of the day instead of depletion.

In my experience as both a client and a coach, the value compounds quietly. Often in ways you don’t notice while you’re inside it.

Early-stage founders often experience coaching as stabilization. Growth-stage CEOs experience it as filtration. Later-stage leaders experience it as a deep partner and mirror. Regardless of stage, a deep coaching partnership can be the most effective support for growing up as an adult and a leader—and for maintaining your sanity along the way.

Does Executive Coaching Actually Work? What the Data Shows.

The research on executive coaching is surprisingly consistent. Studies across leadership and organizational psychology show improvements in leadership effectiveness, communication, emotional intelligence, and self-awareness. Many cite ROI figures that exceed the original investment.

• Executive coaching delivers about 7× ROI, meaning companies see roughly seven dollars in value for every dollar spent according to a study by the International Coaching Federation.
• 86% of organizations report a positive ROI from leadership and coaching programs. 

I’ve never seen a spreadsheet capture what happens when a CEO stops spinning internally. But I have witnessed it in my own life and with my clients. When the leader finds solid ground, the whole organization has a stable place from which to begin.

Many of the biggest returns also show up as avoided costs. Fewer bad hires. Decisions made once instead of replayed at midnight or reopened in the next board meeting. Conflicts addressed earlier.

What Results do CEOs Gain From Executive Coaching?

Here’s how the difference most often shows up in real life.

What I hear most often from CEOs isn’t, “I learned something new.”

It’s more often, “I have stopped doing the things that were quietly hurting me and the organization.”

How Executive Coaching Works in Practice

Good executive coaching is not therapy, though it can be emotionally deep. It’s not consulting, though it often engages real strategy.

The work blends reflective inquiry, pattern recognition, values alignment, and real-time decision support. It is informed by the work of Carl Jung and others in the therapy realm, and we dip into childhood experiences and patterns, but coaching is more future and outcome-oriented than therapy.

Furthermore, the coach’s role is not to tell you what to do. It’s to help you see what you’re already doing, and decide whether it still serves you.

At our firm Sanity Labs, we pair these traditional elements of coaching with deep founder experience. Each of our coaches are successful founders trained as coaches. The result is deep partnership with someone who both knows what its like to be in the founder/CEO seat and can bring deep awareness of options for experimentation. Over the last decade, we have watched this combination be deeply effective for our client base.

How CEOs Measure the ROI of Executive Coaching

Financial ROI shows up as fewer costly mistakes and better decision quality. Emotional ROI shows up as reduced burnout and greater capacity. Organizational ROI shows up as trust, speed, and healthier leadership dynamics.

This table simplifies things. Real life is messier. But it’s a useful starting point.

When Executive Coaching Is Not Worth It

This part matters and is rarely talked about.

Executive coaching is not worth it if the CEO wants reassurance instead of change. If they’re unwilling to examine their own patterns. If they expect the coach to carry responsibility for their decisions.

It’s also not worth, in my opinion, it if the coach lacks founder-specific experience, relies on rigid frameworks, or avoids discomfort. And sometimes, what a leader truly needs is therapy, not coaching.

How to Choose the Right Executive Coach

Fit matters more than credentials. Look for someone who can sit with intensity without flinching. Someone who understands the emotional burden of leadership, not just the mechanics. Someone who can challenge you without performing dominance or retreating into niceness.

Red flags include generic advice, dogmatic models, lack of confidentiality, or a reluctance to name hard things.

Your nervous system usually knows.

I often suggest to prospective clients:

Find a coach with whom you end the call thinking: I wish the conversation could last 10 more hours!

Executive Coaching as a High-Leverage Investment for CEOs

I didn’t come to coaching because I believed in it. I came because I ran out of other ways to carry what I was holding.

Done well, executive coaching isn’t self-improvement. It’s capacity building. It helps leaders metabolize pressure so it doesn’t leak into their decisions, their teams, or their lives.

Is executive coaching worth it?

For every CEO, the answer is different. For me, the real shift wasn’t confidence; it was bigger. It was learning about the man I was meant to be, the adult I was meant to be, and the leader I needed to be.

If you are looking for a coach, I would love to meet you. You can contact me here.

Sending you a big hug from my desk in LA.

-Matt

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Looking for some support? If now is the time to consider coaching, reach out here.