15-07-2025
Leadership Coaching: Preparing Clients For The Boardroom
Dr. Keith D. Dorsey is the author of The Boardroom Journey, dedicated to empowering leaders to secure their first or next board seat.
When Pamela Maynard, Chief AI Transformation Officer for Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions, secured her first corporate board seat, she did so as a seasoned operator with a proven track record in transformation and global leadership. But what distinguished her impact likely wasn't just her résumé—it could have been her adaptability. From the outside, she seemed to approach the boardroom not as an extension of the C-suite, but as a different arena entirely. Curiosity, context and restraint—not just command—may have defined her contribution.
Her trajectory underscores a broader pattern I've seen in working with executives across sectors: Becoming a director isn't a promotion. It's a pivot. And for many high-performing leaders, it's a pivot they don't recognize—until someone helps them see the shift that's required.
What Coaches Might Miss
Executive coaching can help leaders influence better, communicate clearly, build culture and manage change. It can equip them to lead organizations from within. But few coaching engagements prepare a leader for what it means to govern one from the outside.
That's not a criticism—it's an observation. Governance requires a mental shift. It calls for a different stance: from driving execution to overseeing it. From building alignment across a team to exercising judgment with peers. From having answers to asking the right questions.
And those transitions don't just happen because someone's ready. They happen when someone's guided.
How To Know When It's Time To Shift The Conversation
Certain cues in coaching should signal the beginning of a new kind of conversation. You might hear things like:
• 'I'm ready to contribute beyond my company.'
• 'I'm being approached about advisory or nonprofit board roles.'
• 'I don't want another big job—but I still want to lead.'
These statements aren't exit signs. They're inflection points.
What often follows is uncertainty: What does a board even do, day to day? How do I position myself for something I've never done? Do I wait to be invited, or is there a process?
That's where coaching should shift from leadership development to governance orientation.
Why The Boardroom Requires A Different Lens
Some key distinctions that often need to be surfaced with clients:
• Influence Over Authority: In the boardroom, power comes through framing, questions and credibility—not direct control.
• Strategic Altitude: The best directors think across the long arc—capital strategy, succession, risk exposure—not quarterly tactics.
• Governance Fluency: Knowing the role of the board, the responsibilities of directors, and the difference between oversight and interference is foundational.
These aren't about skills—they're about orientation. Which means they have to be developed with intentionality.
How To Help Your Clients
Without becoming governance experts, executive coaches should prepare clients for board service. Consider these approaches:
• Introduce the topic early. Don't wait until your client is leaving the C-suite. Start planting seeds as soon as they hit senior leadership.
• Expand the language. Help clients translate their operator résumé into a governance value proposition: What risks can they help a board mitigate? What perspectives do they offer?
• Focus on presence. Coach the client on when to lean in and when to step back. The boardroom rewards restraint as much as insight.
• Normalize the uncertainty. Many clients feel unsure about how board appointments happen. Give them permission to explore without needing all the answers.
Conclusion
Most leaders will spend 25 to 30 years building their executive careers and potentially another 10 to 15 in board service. That second arc deserves preparation, not improvisation.
Most executives won't say they feel unready for the boardroom. But many are navigating silent hesitation, especially when the role feels undefined or the stakes feel higher than what they're used to. As Marissa Mayer, former CEO of Yahoo, founder and CEO of Sunshine, and board member at AT&T and Walmart, admitted, 'I always did something that I was a little not ready to do. I think that's how you grow. … Sometimes that's a sign that something really good is about to happen.' That's where coaches can do their best work: not by offering certainty, but by helping clients find clarity in ambiguity.
This insight isn't just for leaders. It's for those who coach them. Growth in the governance arc doesn't happen when clients feel most confident—it happens when they're willing to stretch. Your job is to help them recognize that moment. And stay with them through it.
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