Leader As Coach

“With its potential to establish, fine-tune or rebuild the competencies needed to remain effective in the workplace, coaching has become one of the most powerful strategic and tactical tools in the leader’s repertoire.”

Professor Manfred Kets de Vries, Founder, KDVI

Equipping leaders with the coaching mindset, skills and frameworks to unlock the potential of their people and multiply their impact across the organisation.

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Overview  |  Experience  |  Format  |  Impact  | Case Study

Overview

Today’s leaders are expected to navigate ambiguity without clear answers. Traditional directive leadership falls short in these conditions. What’s needed are leaders who ask powerful questions, help teams think through uncertainty, and build capability rather than dependency. 

But developing individual coaching skills is only part of the story. The deeper prize is cultural: an organisation where coaching is embedded in how people lead, collaborate, and make decisions every day. 

We design bespoke Leader as Coach programmes tailored to your culture and leadership context. When leaders develop strong coaching skills and put them consistently into practice they create a multiplier effect: building psychological safety, distributing leadership, and developing talent across the organisation. The result is greater resilience and adaptability, particularly in moments of change and pressure.

Experience

Our programmes are built around four interwoven dimensions: 

  • Knowledge – Leaders develop a deep understanding of coaching, grounded in research and connected to their personal and organisational reality. 
  • Skills and Experiential Learning – A significant portion of the programme is dedicated to hands-on practice in pairs, trios, and small groups, with structured observation and feedback. Core skills include deep listening, powerful questioning, and coaching across cultural differences. 
  • Reflection – Participants keep a personal journal, revisit their Personal Development Plan throughout, and build the habit of reflective practice that continues beyond the programme. 
  • Network – The programme builds a peer learning community within the organisation, sustained through Learning Circles that embed coaching culture over time. 

Programmes are structured in two progressive phases: 

  • Phase 1 – Immersive Learning. A carefully sequenced arc covering core coaching skills and trust-building, leadership styles and coaching frameworks, and application across different scenarios and cultural contexts. 
  • Phase 2 – Structured Follow-Up. Shorter Learning Circle sessions to consolidate learning, share real workplace experiences, and deepen peer support. 

Format

Programmes can be delivered in person or virtually. We recommend one KDVI coach per six leaders to ensure personalised, high-touch learning and meaningful individual feedback. Cohort sizes, pacing, and format can be adapted for global or multi-site delivery.

Impact

By the end of the programme, leaders have a practical coaching toolkit, clarity on when and how to act as Leader as Coach, greater self-awareness of their communication style, a strong peer network for ongoing support, and the confidence to have more frequent, impactful conversations. 

At the organisational level, this translates into a measurable cultural shift, from compliance to commitment, from isolated expertise to distributed leadership, alongside stronger talent retention, greater learning and agility, and the foundations of an organisation where people and performance thrive together. 

Case Study: Global Energy Organisation, Middle East

200 leaders | 18-month rollout | Net Promoter Score of 83

KDVI co-created a Leader as Coach programme to build internal coaching capability across a global energy organisation, combining a 3-day in-person workshop per cohort with virtual Learning Circles. 

Post-programme evaluation showed statistically significant shifts in behaviour, including increased coaching skills, greater confidence, stronger integration of coaching into daily leadership, and a genuine mindset shift toward the Leader as Coach identity. 

Is Leader as Coach Right For Your Organisation?

If you would like to explore how KDVI could support you building a coaching culture, we would be happy to speak. Please get in touch.

Margot Schumacher:

Senior Associate at KDVI, Adjunct Professor of Leadership Development at TIAS Business School, and executive coach at INSEAD. Margot has coached senior leaders across global organisations following senior roles at Unilever and Kraft Heinz. Since 2010, she has advised multinationals on leadership and organisational development, with a focus on enhancing effectiveness at the top team and board levels. She also serves on the Supervisory Board of Thales Netherlands. Her global perspective is shaped by living and working in Shanghai, Pittsburgh, and London before returning to the Netherlands

Oriane Kets de Vries:

Oriane Kets de Vries is CEO and owner of the Kets de Vries Institute. She leads a global team of coaches, consultants and educators dedicated to developing reflective, emotionally intelligent leaders and cultivating workplaces where people can thrive. In her faculty role, she draws on extensive experience designing and directing leadership programmes for senior executives, contributing her expertise in psychodynamic coaching, organisational culture, and transformational leadership development.

Oriane has served as consultant, coach, and programme director for clients including Pictet, Deutsche Bank, Merck, UBS, Mishcon de Reya, and Engie, and she has taught on open-enrolment programmes with leading institutions such as Cambridge Judge Business School, Oxford Saïd, INSEAD, ESCP, ESMT and CEDEP. Her interests centre on the human side of leadership, particularly identity, creativity, entrepreneurship and gender dynamics. She holds an MBA and Executive MA in Coaching and Consulting for Change from INSEAD, has trained at the Harvard Kennedy School, and brings more than a decade of professional experience in creative and entrepreneurial industries into her work with leaders.

Manfred Kets de Vries:

Manfred Kets de Vries is a pioneering authority in leadership development, coaching, and organisational change. He is a founder and director of the Kets de Vries Institute (KDVI) and served as Distinguished Clinical Professor of Leadership Development and Organisational Change at INSEAD. With academic credentials in economics (University of Amsterdam), management (MBA and DBA, Harvard Business School), and psychoanalysis (trained in Canada), he brings a uniquely interdisciplinary perspective to leadership. His work bridges management theory and clinical insight, establishing him as a global thought leader in executive coaching and transformation. At INSEAD, he founded the Global Leadership Centre and led the flagship programme The Challenge of Leadership for 31 years. He also served as scientific director of Coaching and Consulting for Change, an 18-month Executive Master’s programme that has shaped over 3,000 senior leaders and executive coaches worldwide. He has advised and coached senior executives at global firms including Goldman Sachs, BP, Shell, Unilever, McKinsey, and Volvo. A prolific author of over 60 books and 400 articles, his work appears regularly in The Financial Times, The Economist, and Harvard Business Review. Recognised by Le Capital, Wirtschaftswoche, and The Financial Times as one of the world’s top 50 management thinkers, he is widely regarded for advancing more human-centred approaches to leadership.

Yulia Chupina:

Senior Adviser (Luminary) at Accenture and executive coach with over 12 years of board experience. Formerly a banker and McKinsey consultant, Yulia has led banking transformations in digital, agile, organisational change, and talent development. Her coaching spans the finance, tech, and consumer goods sectors, blending technological insight with emotional intelligence to guide leaders through transformation. Recently, she advised BBVA on agile methodologies and senior talent development. Influenced by thought leaders such as Manfred Kets de Vries and Gabor Maté, Yulia brings an analytical, reflective approach to leadership. She has lived and worked across the UK, Spain, the US, and Russia.

Elizabeth Florent:

Elizabeth has worked closely with Manfred Kets de Vries for many years and has served as a Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow at INSEAD. Her extensive background in leadership development spans organisational consulting, executive coaching, and academic research. She holds advanced degrees in Organisational Development and Clinical Organisational Psychology and is a certified Coaching Supervisor through the Tavistock Institute. Her doctoral research explored experiential domains in executive education, and she has authored or co-authored numerous academic articles, case studies, and books on leadership and organisational dynamics. Elizabeth led the development teams behind KDVI’s diagnostic instruments, including the GELM, OCA™, and ITI. Drawing on her diverse training and global experience, she brings deep cross-cultural insight to her work with leaders worldwide. Originally from California, Elizabeth has made France her home for over 30 years.