Angelika Love& Associates

Executive Coaching

The best performers recognise that they cannot leave their development to chance.

Elite performers – in sport, education, the arts and business alike – know that exposure to challenging environments alone is not enough to maximise growth.

To tap into their full potential, the most effective leaders create space to reflect on what worked, what did not, and what carries over from one challenge to the next. They map the wider ecosystem of relationships that shapes their decisions. And they are deliberate about cultivating self-awareness and practising self-regulation.

Leaders often need to do this while their roles, teams and wider business environments are changing quickly. Yet the environments that most demand growth are often the ones that leave the least room to step back and reflect.

As an executive coach to senior leaders and high potentials, I offer that space. Over now more than ten years, I have had the privilege and the pleasure to be a thought-partner and growth-catalyst for people who need to perform sustainably under pressure – military leaders, business executives, political decision-makers. They decide to work with me because they are looking for someone who connects the dots quickly, who works with deep curiosity, and, as one client once put it, whose approach is both exacting and warm.

Most decisions that reach a senior desk are difficult ones. An outside-in perspective can open up options that are hard to see from inside the system; decisions made under pressure and often on instinct get sharper when someone helps make that instinct explicit. That’s what I am here for! I also know, including from personal experience, that high performance is only sustainable when you come off autopilot and take a genuinely holistic look at what it will take to leverage your potential fully. That is why my clients and I work systemically – considering the leader, her team and the wider organisational context together.

Every coaching journey is unique but usually follows a tried-and-tested rhythm: together, we get precise about your context, the relationships around you, and the patterns – strengths and limitations alike – that shape how you show up. We translate insight into concrete action for you to try out between sessions – so that the change we catalyse actually holds up in real-life conditions, and so you can lead with more clarity, confidence and impact.

Click on the elements below for further details on the key building blocks of my executive coaching practice.

A short conversation to clarify what you are looking for, whether I would recommend coaching as a helpful approach given your situation, and to explore whether we match interpersonally. If we proceed, we agree confidentiality boundaries and next steps. If it’s not a match, I am happy to refer you to other coaches I trust who might be better able to support you.

If you would like to explore whether I could be the right executive coach for you and what a tailored coaching engagement might look like – for yourself or for a leader you are supporting – do get in touch!

Contact

FAQs

“Coaching” is sometimes used as a catch‑all for therapy, consulting work, or mentoring. Each modality has its own benefits, and, throughout their career, the best leaders will draw on different types of support.

Role clarity is an important part of my work. Therefore, here is an attempt to distinguish between these different support modes:

  • Coaching means I create a structured, goal‑directed space for you to reflect, explore and decide at your pace. My job is to help you bring your own resources to bear fully, with greater self‑awareness and personal clarity. My coaching is guided by the International Coaching Federation’s Core Competencies , which emphasise self‑discovery and the coachee’s accountability for their own actions and outcomes.
  • Mentoring often focuses on the mentor’s own personal experience and perspective. Mentors can act as role-models and often give advice on what they would do in any given situation. Many leaders benefit from both mentoring and coaching at different points in their development. Over the course of my career, I have participated in, and benefited from, a number of (reverse) mentoring relationships. Still, it is important to recognise that the role of a mentor (often advice-giving) is distinct from that of a coach (focus on self-discovery). Some of my clients use coaching conversations to gain clarity on what they are looking for in a mentor, and how they can grow their own network of advisors and role-models.
  • Consulting projects usually call for my judgement – a clear point of view, a recommended course of action. In executive coaching engagements, there can be moments where a similarly clear perspective is helpful. When that’s the case, we ensure that role clarity is maintained and that you, as the coachee, stay in the driver’s seat. Your goals and your own insight and experience stay front and center throughout any coaching engagement.
  • Therapy is again different from coaching. Very simply put: therapy is often the right setting when someone is lacking the mental resources they need. Coaching, however, is usually the right setting when those resources are there, and the task is primarily to apply them in a goal-directed way. It is possible to work with a coach and a therapist at the same time – though that requires clear boundaries on what topics get covered where. As a coachee, you take responsibility for your own psychological wellbeing throughout our work together.

I work both online and in person with clients. An in-person setting can be especially helpful early on, and for extended sessions. However, every coaching journey is highly tailored. When we set the terms of our collaboration, we decide together which setup will serve you best.

Every coaching journey is unique. Some may unfold over a few focused sessions, most extend across months or even years, depending on the context and pace of the work. At the outset of any coaching journey, we decide on the initial duration and likely rhythm of the engagement.

I qualified as a Systemic Business Coach after a year-long, ICF-accredited training program and examination at passion for coaching - Academy for the Art of Coaching. I continually expand my toolbox, for example through training in Non‑Violent Communication, group coaching, and a range of psychometric and cognitive testing approaches (for example, Hogan Assessments and Cognitive Processing Profile). I have applied those skills in more than 100 coaching hours.

Quantifying the ROI of executive coaching is not straightforward. Definitions of “coaching” vary widely, and so does the quality of practice. That said, there is now a strong research base supporting the efficacy of coaching, and illuminating the conditions under which it is most likely to lead to meaningful development.

Across studies, coaching is associated with gains in self‑efficacy, goal attainment, and behavioural change. The effects are particularly pronounced when the coachee owns the agenda and does the work between sessions: setting goals, seeking feedback, reflecting, and testing new behaviours in their usual work environment. Research on coaching during periods of organisational or strategic change also finds increases in solution‑focused thinking, change readiness, leadership self‑efficacy, and resilience – in part because leaders practice new behaviours between sessions.

If you would like to look at the evidence directly, here are two useful starting points:

  • Nicolau et al. (2023) – meta-analysis of randomized control trial studies on executive coaching outcomes
  • Grover & Furnham (2016) – systematic review of coaching effectiveness and mechanisms

Confidentiality is key to successful executive coaching engagements. Therefore, where an organisation sponsors a coaching engagement, we clarify boundaries at the outset: what stays strictly between coach and coachee, what (if anything) may be shared, and in what form.

It is important for me to get a good understanding of the expectations of those who sponsor the coaching engagement at the outset, and to understand the wider context within which the executive is operating. Therefore, I usually offer to include a small number of stakeholder conversations in the process: at the outset to clarify expectations and deepen understanding of the leader’s context, mid-way through the engagement as a check-in, and at the end to review progress together – always within the agreed confidentiality boundaries.

Either approach is fine. I find that institutional support can accelerate a leader's development. However, I appreciate that this is not available to all executives who are looking for coaching.

Please get in touch via the contact form. I will then reach out to schedule a first conversation, so we can explore whether I am the right coach for the leader you are supporting, and what a clear way of working might look like.