For Individuals
Executive Leadership Development
Our coaching programs are tailored to your unique goals, beginning with the powerful question: “What would you like to get better at?” Together, we clarify your objectives, the strategies you already use, and the long-term outcomes you want to achieve. As you work with your coach, you can expect to connect your day-to-day challenges with your broader objectives. After each session, you’ll leave with practical strategies and tools to address immediate issues while building toward lasting results. Typical benefits include greater self-awareness and confidence, a deeper understanding of leadership, and the ability to bring your authentic voice to every interaction. Your organization will also benefit from a leader who creates positive impact for individuals and teams alike.
Sample Client Experience -- Developing new ways of leading
Each client’s journey is unique, but the following story offers a glimpse into how ExCo2 coaching helps leaders see situations in new ways and develop both judgment and skill in developing and applying a wider range of leadership responses.
The Situation
Jean-François had been promoted quickly. At 35, he was a mid-level executive known for leading a team able to deliver complex economic analysis and advice under tight deadlines. To broaden his experience, he was given new responsibilities in operational program delivery. After two months in the new role, his boss raised concerns about feedback from colleagues. While they recognized Jean-François’s intelligence, many found him difficult to work with. His technical expertise in economics didn’t translate easily into leading a national program that required collaboration across regions and departments. His boss suggested that he work with a coach to strengthen his ability to collaborate, mobilize others, and achieve results through managing a large organization.
How Coaching Helped
In their first meeting, Jean-François and his coach clarified the objective of their work together, what he was currently doing to achieve it and how he wanted to be able to do it in the future. These discussions became the foundation of a personalized coaching program that guided their sessions.
At the end of each meeting, his coach would suggest a specific practice to try in day-to-day situations. For example, at the end of one session his coach invited him to spend a few minutes before one work meeting a day, identifying both his own interests and those of the other person, then framing the discussion in a way that showed he understood their perspective. After each daily practice, he was to reflect on what he noticed and record his observations. His coach asked him to review his notes at the end of the week to draw insights and identify how they could be applied in future.
What Changed
Over five months, meeting every two to three weeks, Jean-François began to see situations differently. He found himself pausing to consider not only the interests of others, but also his emotions when making decisions—something that initially felt uncomfortable but soon became second nature. He came to see emotions as valuable information that helped him better anticipate and understand the emotions of others.
By the end of the nine-month coaching program, Jean-François could clearly describe what coaching had done for him. Through cycles of practice, reflection, and dialogue, he had expanded the range of ways he could engage others. His colleagues and staff noticed the difference—and his boss did too.
Interview Preparation and Career Development
Many clients come to us to define long-term career goals, identify the right short-term opportunities, or prepare for a specific role. Others want help presenting themselves with confidence—whether in an interview or in everyday conversations about the value they bring. ExCo2 has helped clients at all levels secure opportunities that are the right fit.
Our support can include:
- Clarifying the value you bring to organizations
- Developing and communicating your leadership competencies
- Practicing and refining responses to likely interview questions
- Using strategies to handle the unexpected, stay centred under pressure, and project both confidence and authenticity
Sample Client Experience -- Strategies for advancing a career
Each client’s journey is unique, but the following story offers a glimpse into how ExCo2 coaching helps leaders strengthen self-awareness, communicate their value, and prepare confidently for new opportunities.
Clarifying Goals and Readiness
Susan had been a Director in a federal department for four years. With at least a decade before retirement, she wanted to explore her next professional chapter. A colleague suggested that she speak with a coach. After an introductory call, she began a series of eight coaching sessions to clarify her career direction and assess her readiness for more senior roles.
Working with her coach, Susan reviewed the government’s key leadership competencies. She was asked to describe, in her own words, what she does when demonstrating each competency, how she does it, and why she does it the way she does. The process helped her see her strengths more clearly and articulate her leadership approach with greater precision and self-awareness.
Building a Narrative and Expanding Opportunities
When no suitable competitions were open, Susan and her coach turned their attention to identifying opportunities through networking. In the past, Susan had simply circulated her résumé. This time, she learned to start from a different place — clarifying the kind of work she enjoyed most and the value she brought to an organization.
Together, they crafted a professional narrative she could use in conversations with potential contacts. Her coach reframed networking not as “selling herself,” but as helping others understand where her interests and abilities aligned with what organizations needed.
Preparing with Confidence
As Susan’s clarity and confidence grew, she began preparing for interviews. She practiced structuring answers that demonstrated the required leadership competencies, refining her approach through feedback and rehearsal.
When a competition opened, her coach simulated “mock board” interviews under realistic conditions. The earlier sessions served as building blocks — giving Susan both the substance and composure to perform well.
Lasting Results
By the time of her interview, Susan felt fully prepared. Regardless of the outcome, she was proud of how she presented herself and confident she had made a strong impression. More importantly, she noticed that what she learned about leadership competencies was influencing how she led her team every day — with greater intention, clarity, and purpose.
Transition Coaching
ExCo2 supports clients as they step into new roles, adapt to different organizational cultures, or navigate life transitions. Coaching provides both a practical space to set objectives and a confidential relationship in which to process emerging challenges, thoughts, and emotions.
Sample Client Experience -- Finding a new sense of purpose
Context
David had built a successful international career as a management consultant, and for the last three years had been managing partner for his company’s Canadian office. He knew he was at the peak of his career. Yet, in his first meeting with his coach, he admitted that he was tired or the constant pressure to generate revenue — regardless of the professional challenge or salary increases it might bring.
Challenge
Like many accomplished executives, David had a complex relationship with work. He had a strong drive to succeed and took genuine satisfaction in leading and developing teams. But he also recognized that it was time to make room for a successor and to create a life that allowed space for his other interests — parts of himself that his work had long displaced.
Coaching Process
Through their conversations, David and his coach traced the origins of his beliefs about work and responsibility to his early upbringing. He began to see that his drive to succeed had, in part, been a lifelong effort to prove that he was not like his father — to show his mother, and himself, that he would take responsibility and achieve success. This insight raised a deeper question: Who would he be without the work that had defined him for decades?
Results
The coaching conversations helped David become more at ease with caring less about what others thought and more about what he deeply needed. Together, they defined the conditions that would allow him to confidently transfer responsibility to a successor he was mentoring. As his energy returned, David began exploring new interests, meeting people in fields that inspired him and gathering ideas about how he could continue contributing in ways that nourished, rather than depleted, him. As his coach described it, this was a process of increasing inner knowing, one that made actions possible that had seemed unimaginable only months before.
Testimonials
“Through our sessions, Ian consistently demonstrated deep listening, thoughtful questioning, and a genuine commitment to my development. Ian helped me clarify my leadership values, strengthen my decision-making, and enhance my communication with key staff members, senior management, and stakeholders. I particularly appreciated Ian’s ability to tailor coaching strategies to my unique context and goals.
Thanks to Ian’s guidance, I have become a more confident, intentional, and effective leader. I would highly recommend him to any executive seeking to elevate their impact and lead with greater clarity and purpose.”
Director General,
Public Health Agency of Canada