Executive coaching
Leading at a senior level, with a brain that works differently
You lead. You deliver. And it’s probably costing you more than the people around you realise. Here’s how coaching can help — no diagnosis required, and no pressure to commit before you’re ready.
Senior roles, and brains that don’t run on the standard settings
WHO IS THIS FOR
You might be an executive, a director, a partner, a founder or a senior manager. You might have had a diagnosis for years, or be newly diagnosed in mid-career and rethinking how you’ve been working. Or you might have no diagnosis at all — and you don’t need one to benefit from coaching.
What my clients share is a brain that doesn’t run on the standard settings, and a sense that keeping it all going is costing more than it should.
WHAT WE WORK ON
The themes that come up most often
Every engagement is different. These are the themes leaders bring most often:
- Keeping up senior performance without relying on masking or overworking
- Managing your attention and energy across meetings, priorities and interruptions
- Communication and influence — stakeholders, boards, difficult conversations
- Delegating and leading through others, rather than doing everything yourself
- Leading neurodivergent team members, and building ways of working that suit different brains
- Big transitions — a bigger role, a new organisation, or leading differently after a late diagnosis
We agree the focus together. I won’t hand you generic strategies — my job is to ask the questions that help you find what works for how you actually think and work.
HOW IT WORKS
Online, 1 to 1 — and it starts with a conversation
Sessions are one-to-one and online, so it doesn’t matter where you’re based — I work with leaders across the UK and internationally. We start with an introductory conversation to see how it feels. No commitment, no pressure. If we go ahead, we agree the scope, length and focus together at the start.
SPONSORED COACHING
If your organisation is paying for your coaching
Many executive coaching engagements are paid for by the organisation rather than the individual. I’m familiar with how this works in practice — including three-way contracting, where you, your sponsor and I agree the objectives of the coaching at the start, with review points along the way.
One thing I want you to know from the outset: what you say in our sessions stays between us. Your sponsor only receives updates if we’ve agreed it together — updates on themes and progress against the objectives, never the content of our conversations.
If you work in HR or L&D and you’re exploring coaching for a leader in your organisation — or you’d like to arrange coaching with your employer’s support — do get in touch. And if you’re a UK employee, you may be able to fund coaching through Access to Work, whatever your seniority.
MY BACKGROUND
I know senior roles from the inside
Before I became a coach, I spent my career in senior leadership roles — at AstraZeneca, at Cancer Research UK, and at UCL Business. I know what senior roles feel like from the inside: the accountability, the visibility, and the pressure to look composed while you’re holding a great deal together.
I’m a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation, with around 1,000 hours of coaching experience, and I hold a PhD in developmental neurobiology. I’m also neurodivergent myself. You won’t need to explain the basics to me — and you won’t need to mask in our sessions either.
FAQs
Questions leaders often ask me
Do I need a diagnosis to work with you?
No. Coaching isn’t a clinical service, so you don’t need a diagnosis — many of my clients are self-identified or still exploring. I’ve written more about this in my article on coaching without a diagnosis.
Is coaching confidential if my employer is paying?
Yes. What you say in our sessions stays between us. Where your organisation is sponsoring the coaching, we agree at the start what will be shared — usually themes and progress against the agreed objectives — and you’re involved in that agreement at every step.
How is executive coaching different from mentoring or consultancy?
A mentor shares their experience. A consultant tells you what to do. A coach does neither — my role is to help you think clearly, honestly and without judgement, so the strategies you leave with are yours, built around how your brain and your organisation actually work.
Do you only coach neurodivergent leaders?
Neurodivergent leaders are my specialism and most of my practice. But specialising in how different minds work has a useful side effect: I’ve learned never to assume how anyone thinks. If you’re not neurodivergent — or you lead people who are — coaching with me still starts from how you actually work, not from a standard template. Get in touch and we can talk about whether I’m the right fit.
NEXT STEP
Ready to talk it through?
If you’re thinking about coaching for yourself, book an introductory call. It’s a conversation, not a commitment. If you’re exploring coaching for someone in your organisation, email me and we’ll arrange a time to talk.
Dr Alexa Smith PCC · alexasmith.co.uk · Based in the UK, working online in the UK and internationally