Leadership Lab: 9 Tips for Fully Benefiting From an Executive Coach

The role of a biopharma executive is not for the faint of heart. You’re steering multimillion-dollar pipelines, navigating regulatory minefields and leading global teams and high-stakes launches—all while dealing with external fluctuations outside of your control. So how do you find time to improve your leadership skills amid all the chaos?

As we explored in the last installment of Leadership Lab, the top biopharma executives use executive coaches. As a follow-up, I spoke with three top-tier coaches who specialize in biotech and pharma leadership: Angela Justice from Justice Group Advisors, Kathleen Polscer from Coaching in the Pearl and Brian Thomson from Brian Thomson Coaching and HR Consulting. They helped me develop a list of the nine most powerful ways you can extract the full value from executive coaching.

Just as is the case for any relationship, the best coaching relationships are rooted in open and honest communication. Your growth is directly related to the truth you bring to your interactions. Opening up about fears and challenges is not a sign of weakness but a strategic advantage. Unlike internal stakeholders, the coach has no agenda other than your personal growth and success, which makes them the safest place to admit uncertainty, confront blind spots and explore bold goals. Simply put, if you filter what you share, you’ll limit how far you can go. Transparency unlocks transformation.

Another way to get more out of your experience with your executive coach is to set clear, time-bound goals. Clarity fuels focus. When objectives are specific and measurable, your coach can help you design targeted strategies, track progress and adjust in real time. Time-bound goals also create urgency and prevent drifting away from real progress. Avoid seeking abstract or vague outcomes. Be concrete with what success looks like. With the help of your executive coach, goal setting will turn a reflective exercise into measurable progress.

Working with an executive coach is most beneficial when you approach it with an open mind and a genuine willingness to change. Even the most seasoned leaders have blind spots, and coaching often reveals new strategies, perspectives or behaviors that might feel unfamiliar at first. Being open to trying new approaches—whether it’s adjusting your communication style, rethinking decision-making processes or embracing feedback—can unlock higher levels of leadership effectiveness. Growth requires vulnerability and experimentation.

Executive coaching is not a quick fix. It’s a developmental journey that requires time, honesty and consistent effort. To see real results, you must be fully committed to the process—from showing up prepared and engaged in sessions to doing the work in between. Your greatest gains come from applying insights, tracking progress and reflecting regularly. If you’re truly invested, then coaching becomes a powerful tool for sustained growth, sharper decision-making and greater relationships across the organization. Your commitment is the catalyst that makes change possible.

One of the most valuable traits you can bring to the coaching process is a proactive hunger for feedback from your team. Rather than waiting for that input to surface organically—or worse, avoiding it—actively seek it out with curiosity and humility. The executive coach can drive curating this candid feedback and will serve as a mirror that reflects both strengths and opportunities to grow. Seeking feedback also signals to your team that growth is a priority at every level of leadership.

Collecting feedback without acting on it is a missed opportunity. Executives who quickly translate insights into action show their coach—and their team—that they’re serious about growth. Acting on feedback, even in small but consistent ways, also reinforces new habits and sets a visible example of adaptive leadership. The speed of implementation can often determine the depth of transformation, and those willing to take quick, intentional steps are the ones who reap the greatest benefits from the coaching process.

Between coaching sessions, you should set aside quiet time to think critically about recent experiences—what went well, what didn’t and why. Revisit key insights or challenges discussed during the last session. Assess the results of any action steps you’ve applied. Some executives find that journaling can be an especially helpful way to process observations, find patterns or identify emotional responses. Others record voice memos on their phone and listen to them during long commutes. Ultimately, your reflection periods will be meaningful and will transform coaching from a series of meetings into a continuous cycle of learning, action and growth.

Breakthroughs don’t happen in a single session. They’re the result of accumulated effort over time. To fully benefit from your executive coach, consistency is key. That means showing up to sessions fully present, doing the work between meetings and staying engaged even when the pressure of your role threatens to take over. When you inevitably have to cancel a coaching session, reschedule as closely as possible to the originally planned time. Don’t allow long periods of time to creep in between appointments—that will wreck consistency and diminish positive results.

Eventually, your time with your executive coach will end. All the coaching will be wasted if you don’t hold yourself accountable after they’re gone. The frameworks, practices and principles that they taught you are now yours. The way to real transformational growth is to continue to put into use all that you’ve learned.

Executive coaching isn’t about “fixing” anything. It’s about amplifying everything you already bring to the table. In an industry where the stakes are high and the pressure is relentless, it’s one of the smartest investments you can make. When you fully engage with the right coach, you don’t just become a better executive—you become a transformational leader.