Guest post by Dr. Ankoor Dasguupta
There are two things that shifted in my life in recent few years. Once, when I invested in a coach for myself. Secondly, when I did my PCC from ICF. It is difficult to express the shift to someone as a lot ‘moves inside’ and it is more of a mindset engineering I’d say.
Let me try and first explain with a metaphor – in the high-stakes world of leadership, knowing whether you need a coach or a mentor is a bit like knowing whether your car needs a mechanic or a GPS.
A mentor is like the seasoned driver who’s navigated the road before you—sharing shortcuts, warning you about potholes, and telling you what worked for them. A coach, on the other hand, is your precision GPS—helping you map your unique route, adapt in real-time, and optimize your driving style so you can handle any curve, detour, or storm ahead.
The difference is subtle yet powerful: mentors transfer their experience; coaches help you tap into yours. For senior leaders, who already have years of road time, the question becomes: Do I need directions from someone else, or do I need a sharper lens to see and use my own capabilities? Recognizing the need for a coach often comes when you feel like your growth curve is flattening, your decisions are reactive instead of proactive, or you sense there’s an untapped gear you haven’t yet shifted into.
Laser-focused coaching is not about fixing—it’s about refining. And for leaders on the path to their “next best version,” there are three areas where this precision work changes the game.
1. Sharpening Decision-Making Like a Master Archer
If leadership is a battlefield of competing priorities, decision-making is your bow. A mentor might tell you where they aimed in the past; a coach helps you fine-tune your grip, your stance, and your sight so you hit your target with unerring accuracy—no matter how the wind shifts.
In the C-suite, choices often come with incomplete data, political undercurrents, and significant consequences. Laser-focused coaching brings a bias-free mirror—reflecting how you assess risk, when you rely on instinct versus analysis, and what blind spots could be throwing off your aim.
I’ve seen a CFO, already known for decisive action, shift from making quick, good-enough calls to making fewer, higher-quality decisions that moved the entire organization forward—simply by working with a coach who helped him slow down, frame problems differently, and test assumptions before drawing the bow.
The result? Less rework, more trust from peers, and a reputation for strategic clarity. Over time, this kind of decision-making discipline doesn’t just improve outcomes—it builds an enduring leadership legacy.
2. Elevating Emotional Agility – From Captain to Helmsman
A senior leader is not just the captain of the ship—they are the helmsman navigating storms, tides, and crew morale all at once. Emotional agility is the ability to respond to challenges without capsizing under stress or losing sight of the horizon.
Mentors might share how they weathered a storm before; a coach helps you read your own emotional currents so you can course-correct in real time. This is especially critical when leading through uncertainty, where your calm becomes the crew’s compass.
Laser-focused coaching works here by helping you decode triggers, patterns, and leadership presence—the subtle signals that dictate whether people row harder for you or quietly disengage.
A CEO I worked with discovered that her “command-and-control” responses under stress were an old habit from her early career. Once she became aware of this pattern through coaching, she learned to pause, reset, and choose a response that invited collaboration instead of compliance. Her leadership didn’t just survive turbulence—it inspired resilience across the organization.
And here’s the deeper truth: in today’s hyper-connected, high-pressure world, emotional agility is not just a soft skill—it’s a strategic asset that directly impacts market confidence and organizational performance.
3. Scaling Impact Without Scaling Burnout
Think of leadership capacity as a high-performance engine—it can take you far, but without tuning, even the best engine risks overheating. Many senior leaders try to scale their impact by working longer and harder, forgetting that sustainable speed comes from efficiency, not brute force.
Mentors might suggest productivity hacks or share delegation tips. A coach digs deeper—helping you identify where your unique value truly lies and where you’re holding on to work that could be empowering others instead.
Through laser-focused coaching, leaders often uncover patterns of over-involvement—being the default problem-solver for everything. I recall working with a COO who was spread so thin he described himself as “the air in the room, always needed but never still.” Over time, coaching helped him redesign his leadership approach—setting clearer boundaries, trusting his team, and focusing only on decisions and projects that truly required his unique judgment.
The transformation wasn’t just personal. His organization reported faster decision cycles, higher team engagement, and improved bottom-line performance—all while he reduced his weekly hours. This balance—impact without burnout—is the ultimate long game for senior leadership longevity.
Reflection: The Unfinished Masterpiece
For senior leaders, laser-focused coaching isn’t a luxury—it’s the wind tunnel where you test, refine, and strengthen your leadership under controlled conditions before taking it into the real world.
Mentoring may offer the map of where others have been, but coaching builds the muscle, precision, and adaptability to navigate where you’re going—especially when the terrain is uncharted.
The truth that I believe in is that, your “next best version” is not a final destination. It’s more like a sculpture—each coaching conversation chips away at the unnecessary, sharpens the edges, and reveals the leader you were always meant to be.
And the most compelling part? The masterpiece is never truly finished. The question is—are you willing to step back into the studio and keep refining? Because that’s where transformation lives. So, maybe ask yourself “What’s stopping me from taking the leap to invest in a certified coach?”
Written by Dr. Ankoor Dasguupta, ICF accredited Professional Certified Coach (PCC). If you would like to speak to Dr. Ankoor Dasguupta, he is available for a 1 on 1 consultation on Sprect.