A leadership coach runs a series of confidential, one-to-one sessions. You bring a live problem, the coach asks the questions that expose how you're handling it, and you leave with a commitment to test at work before you next meet.
You can tell it's working when the change shows up between sessions, in how you run meetings, give feedback and make decisions.
The definition is covered in what is executive coaching, and the method is the same whatever the label. This piece covers the practical side. What happens in order, what I do in the room, what I won't do, and how you'd know the money was well spent.
What happens before the first session?
It starts with a free 30-minute Clarity Call. I ask where you are, what isn't working and what you hope for. You leave with one reframe you can use, whether or not we work together.
The call tests fit in both directions. I'm checking whether coaching is the right tool for your problem. You're checking whether you could be candid with me. If either answer is no, I'll say so, and you'll have lost half an hour.
What happens in the first session?
The first session sets the terms. We agree what you want to be different by the end, and how you'll recognise it. Make it specific enough to check. "My team brings me decisions, where they used to bring me problems" is a goal you can test. "Be a better leader" isn't.
We also agree confidentiality. If your employer is paying, the sponsor agrees the outcomes with us at the start and never hears what is said in the room. A closing review with the sponsor covers progress against those outcomes only, and six-session packages add a mid-point check-in. That's the ICF ethical standard, and as an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) I work to it in every engagement.
If your package includes a CliftonStrengths profile, or you've added one, I debrief it with you and use it through the sessions that follow. The sponsored six-session package adds the Values Navigator.
What does a leadership coach do during a session?
Each session runs 75 minutes, in person in Singapore or online, and you set the agenda. That gives a full 60 minutes of coaching, with time to check in at the start and check out at the end.
Bring whatever is live this week. A restructure. A peer who blocks you in every meeting. A decision you've been circling for a month.
The coaching hour is a working conversation. You talk, I ask, and I challenge where it helps. I listen for the gap between what you say you want and what you did when the pressure rose.
I ask questions that slow you down at exactly the point where you'd normally rush past. When I hear the same pattern for the third time, I name it, plainly.
The conversation usually starts on the outside and works inwards. That follows the Three Layers of Leadership™: behaviour and performance on the outside, beliefs and narrative in the middle, identity and values at the core.
A leader who keeps rewriting their team's work has a behaviour problem on the surface. Underneath it sits a belief about what happens if they let go, and that belief is where the session earns its fee.
Near the end, you set one commitment for the weeks ahead. You set it, and I note it. Next session, I ask what happened.
What happens between sessions?
This is where most of the change happens, and it happens out of my sight. You try the commitment in a real meeting, notice what it cost and what it produced, and bring that back. A commitment that failed is still useful material. Often it's the most useful kind, because it shows exactly where the old habit holds on.
That's why sessions are spaced out, usually about a month apart, so each one has real material to work with. How many sessions executive coaching takes explains how the length is set.
What won't a leadership coach do?
I won't tell you what to decide. You're the one who has to carry the decision on a bad Tuesday, so it has to be yours.
I won't report to your sponsor on what you said. I won't keep you in coaching longer than the work needs. And if something surfaces that belongs with a therapist, I'll say so and help you find the right door.
I spent nineteen years in uniform, from the age of eighteen, seventeen of them as a regular. That helps me understand the weight a leader carries. It gives me no licence to hand you my answers.
How do you know leadership coaching is working?
Early on, look at the sessions themselves. You arrive with your own agenda. You start catching the pattern a moment before I name it. Your commitments either get done, or you can say exactly what stopped you.
Later, look at other people. Your team brings you decisions where it used to bring you problems. The conversation you'd been avoiding has happened, and nothing collapsed. The Four Altitudes give you a way to check how far a change has travelled: self, team, organisation and the field beyond. Change that holds shows up at more than one of them.
Watch for the warning signs too. Sessions feel good, but nothing is different between them. The coach talks more than you do. You're collecting tactics and leaving the belief underneath untouched. You bring the same topic every time and it never moves.
If you notice any of these, say so in the next session. A good coach would rather hear it in week three than at the end.
Where does coaching fit in leadership development in Singapore?
Coaching works on one leader at a time. Leadership development builds capability across a team or an organisation. Strong programmes use both: development for the group, so everyone shares a language, and coaching for the few leaders whose decisions carry the most weight.
If you're an HR or L&D lead weighing the two, start with where the gap sits. A gap across the group calls for a programme. A gap in one person's judgement or steadiness calls for coaching.
What does leadership coaching cost at Men-Kind?
Private coaching, paid for yourself, is SGD 350 for a single session, SGD 1,000 for three or SGD 1,800 for six. Sponsored coaching, paid by your employer, is SGD 1,500 for three sessions with a CliftonStrengths profile, or SGD 3,000 for six with CliftonStrengths and Values Navigator profiles.
Sponsored packages also include goal-setting with HR and a closing review with the sponsor. Six sessions add a mid-point check-in.
All packages are valid for 12 months. The executive coaching page sets out how an engagement is built. If the fee is a stretch, say so on the call.
If you'd like to see where the work would focus before you talk to anyone, take the free Whole Life Wheel. It takes three minutes. When you're ready, book a free 30-minute Clarity Call. If coaching is the wrong tool for you, I'll tell you.
