Leadership Coaching vs Executive Coaching: What's the Difference?
In the world of professional development, the terms "leadership coaching" and "executive coaching" often get used interchangeably.
But are they really the same thing? As Meraki People, specialists in organisational health for mid-sized service-based businesses (£15-50m turnover) across the UK, we're here to cut through the confusion and explain the key differences in plain English.
The Core Difference: Who It's For and What It Focuses On
Let's start with the basics:
Leadership coaching is for anyone in a position where they guide, influence, or direct others. This could be team leaders, department managers, or even project coordinators. It focuses on building the fundamental skills needed to effectively lead people.
Executive coaching specifically targets senior leaders and C-suite executives. It addresses the complex challenges unique to those at the top of an organisation, including strategic decision-making, organisational vision, and high-level stakeholder management.
Leadership Coaching: Building the Foundation
Leadership coaching typically covers:
Team communication and motivation across multiple departments
Strategic delegation and empowerment in complex team structures
Conflict resolution in matrix organisations
Setting clear expectations in high-pressure service environments
Providing effective feedback for performance improvement
Building cohesion across specialised teams
Managing performance in professional service contexts
These skills are essential for department leaders and directors responsible for significant portions of your business operations. A good leadership coach helps these key people develop strong leadership identities and practical tools for optimising team performance in service delivery environments.
Executive Coaching: Navigating the Top
Executive coaching often addresses:
Market positioning and organisational direction in competitive service industries
Board, investor, and key client stakeholder relationships
Leading through scale-up challenges, acquisitions, or digital transformation
Executive presence and personal brand in industry contexts
Sustainable performance under the pressures of P&L responsibility
Complex strategic decision-making with implications for 50-500+ employees
Succession planning and leadership team development
Executive coaches work with your C-suite, board members, and business owners to navigate the complex challenges of guiding a substantial mid-sized business to the next level of growth and maturity.
The Impact and Results: Different Scales
The impact of each type of coaching typically plays out on different scales within your mid-sized organisation:
Leadership coaching usually delivers tangible improvements in departmental KPIs: improved service delivery metrics, better staff retention, enhanced interdepartmental collaboration, and stronger operational efficiencies within specific business units. In businesses of your scale, this often translates to six or seven-figure bottom-line impact.
Executive coaching typically impacts organisation-wide metrics: successful market repositioning, breakthrough growth initiatives, streamlined organisational structure, improved investor relations, and stronger overall business valuation. For mid-sized businesses, these outcomes often determine whether you plateau at your current size or successfully break through to the next tier of growth.
Overlap and Commonalities
Despite these differences, there's significant overlap:
Both focus on personal and professional growth
Both use similar coaching methodologies and frameworks
Both aim to improve self-awareness and emotional intelligence
Both require confidentiality and trust
Many of the fundamental skills developed in leadership coaching remain relevant at the executive level, just applied in different contexts and at larger scales.
Group Coaching: Amplifying Impact Across Your Organisation
While one-to-one coaching delivers personalised development, group coaching offers unique advantages for mid-sized businesses looking to develop leadership capabilities at scale:
Group Coaching for Emerging Leaders
For businesses in the £15-50m range, developing your next generation of leaders is critical for sustainable growth. Group coaching for emerging leaders:
Creates a shared leadership language and framework across departments
Builds cross-functional relationships that break down operational silos
Accelerates development through peer learning and accountability
Offers cost-effective development for high-potential talent
Identifies future leadership potential across your organisation
Strengthens your succession pipeline for key positions
Creates leadership consistency across geographically dispersed teams
This approach works particularly well for mid-sized service businesses where collaboration between specialised teams is essential to client delivery.
Group Coaching for C-Suite and Board Dynamics
At the top of your organisation, group coaching addresses unique challenges:
Aligns executive thinking on strategic priorities and organisational direction
Improves board effectiveness and governance maturity
Builds trust and psychological safety in high-stakes decision-making
Resolves historical tensions or power dynamics in leadership teams
Integrates new executives into established leadership groups
Enhances collective problem-solving on complex business challenges
Improves stakeholder management and communication consistency
For mid-sized businesses navigating growth transitions, acquisition integration, or preparing for exit, collective coaching at the top level often delivers breakthrough results that individual coaching alone cannot achieve.
Which Is Right for Your Mid-sized Business?
For established service businesses in the £15-50m turnover range, both leadership and executive coaching are vital but serve different purposes within your organisation.
Consider:
Organisational layer: Leadership coaching works well for department heads and team directors, while executive coaching is essential for C-suite and board members
Business challenges: Are you facing expansion challenges, operational efficiency issues, or strategic pivots? Different levels of coaching address different aspects of these challenges
Talent development pipeline: How are you preparing your high-potential directors for executive positions? A structured coaching approach can bridge this gap
Growth trajectory: Businesses approaching the upper end of mid-market size face different leadership demands than those at the lower end
The Bottom Line: It's About What You Need
At Meraki People, we believe effective coaching should be tailored to the specific challenges facing mid-sized service businesses, not rigidly defined by conventional frameworks. We understand that at the £15-50m turnover level, your organisation has unique needs that don't always match standard coaching approaches.
What matters is finding a coaching partner who understands the specific dynamics of service businesses of your scale—someone who can help both your executive team and emerging leaders develop in ways that drive measurable business outcomes.
For businesses like yours navigating the challenges of scale, professionalisation, and competitive service markets, the right coaching interventions at multiple levels can be transformative. It's about finding support that addresses your current challenges while preparing you for the next phase of growth—without unnecessary jargon or complicated frameworks getting in the way.
Ready to explore how a structured coaching programme could benefit your leadership pipeline? We'd love to discuss your specific business context and how our approach to both leadership and executive coaching might support your growth ambitions. Because for mid-sized service businesses, effective coaching isn't just about developing individuals—it's about building organisational capability that delivers bottom-line results.