---
title: Why Coach the Executive Team, Not Just CEO - Linus Murphy
description: Coaching only the CEO leaves the system untouched. When—and
  why—executive team coaching becomes the higher-leverage move.
url: https://linusmurphy.com/articles/why-coach-the-executive-team-not-just-the-ceo/
language: en-GB
type: article
author: Linus Murphy
author_url: https://linusmurphy.com/about/
published: 2026-06-24
modified: 2026-06-24
---

[Team & Culture Performance](https://linusmurphy.com/team-culture-performance/)

# Why Coach the Executive Team, Not Just the CEO

By [Linus Murphy](https://linusmurphy.com/about/) • 24 June 2026

![Round dark-wood table ringed by empty grey executive chairs](https://linusmurphy.com/images/articles/why-coach-the-executive-team-not-just-the-ceo.webp)

Coaching only the CEO leaves the system untouched. A sharper chair with the same silent table is still a single point of failure. I run a dedicated [executive team coaching](https://linusmurphy.com/services/executive-team-coaching/) track because I have led and upgraded leadership groups while scaling—and because I have watched expensive 1:1 work die in the first meeting after the offsite.

The commercial case is not “team building.” It is decision speed, shared ownership and a culture that does not require a hero.

## The one-hero tax on growth companies

Growth companies worship the founder or the operator who can still personally rescue the week. The tax arrives later: every exception comes back to that person, the bench never learns irreversible calls, and the board still has one throat to choke.

I have been that hero. It feels like love for the company. It is a design failure. When I work 1:1, I am often working the aftershock of a team that will not decide. [CEO coaching](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/why-ceo-coaching-beats-generic-leadership-training/) can sharpen the chief executive. It cannot make six people tell each other the truth.

Founders in the [title-to-OS shift](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/founder-to-ceo-transition-nobody-briefs-you-for/) hit this immediately. They hire “A-players” and keep the real meeting in their head. The team performs alignment. The company stays a solo act with a payroll. Hiring is a design job too, and I cover [how to get good people around you, from scorecard to first month](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/getting-good-people-around-you/get-good-people-around-you/), separately.

## What team coaching changes that 1:1 cannot

Team coaching changes the room: how asks are framed, how dissent is used, who owns the follow-through, and what happens when someone misses.

In a 1:1 I can help a CEO see that they snatch the wheel. In the team I can watch them do it, and watch the table invite it. That is a different data set. It is why [self- and team-awareness](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/why-self-team-awareness-pays-board-level-dividends/) has to become a practice, not a personality score.

Team coaching also builds artefacts the company can keep: decision rights, a working scoreboard, a rule for late surprises, a way to run [a hard conversation](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/difficult-conversations-ceos-keep-postponing/) without turning it into a trial. 1:1 work produces a person who knows those things. Team work produces a table that uses them.

I do not promise a high-performing leadership team. I do insist on inspectable behaviour in the room we are actually in. The guide sets out how [high-performance teams are built as an operating rhythm](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/building-winning-teams/build-high-performance-teams/), not a talent mix.

![Top-down view of six equal chairs around a round oak table](https://linusmurphy.com/images/articles/why-coach-the-executive-team-not-just-the-ceo-figure.webp)

*If the real meeting still happens after this one, you are coaching the wrong unit.*

## Conditions that must be true before you start

Do not buy team coaching as a mood.

The CEO must want a team that can disagree with them in the room. If they want a chorus, we will waste a quarter.

There must be a live enterprise problem—not a desire to “bond.” Integration after a hire, a stalled decision, a culture that cannot travel, a founder who will not step back.

The table must be the actual table. If the real power sits with an unofficial deputy or a chair who is not in the work, we will coach a theatre company.

Confidentiality has to be contracted. What stays in the room, what the board will hear, what a 1:1 with the CEO will not be used for. I will not run a team process that is secretly a performance review.

If those conditions are false, start with [1:1 executive coaching](https://linusmurphy.com/services/executive-coaching/) and an honest brief. Team work on a dishonest brief makes things worse.

## Decision table: 1:1 only vs team coaching vs both

| Symptom | 1:1 coaching alone | Add team coaching when… | Success signal (leading) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CEO cannot land a board ask | Presence and judgement work | The execs still cannot narrate the same thesis | One sentence the table repeats without notes |
| Founder still runs every exception | Identity and decision rights | Owners exist on paper and not in the week | Severity rule used without the CEO |
| Nice meetings, late truth | Personal blind-spot work | Dissent is punished by status | A named downside in the minutes |
| Two functions at war | Private conversations | The conflict is the company’s bottleneck | A joint scoreboard and a kill date |
| Culture dies in the new country | CEO standard-setting | The table cannot hold the standard without the founder | Local lead runs Friday’s call |

Most serious engagements use both. The CEO still needs a private place to think. The team still needs a public place to practise. [Isolation is not solved by adding more 1:1s](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/lonely-at-the-top-designing-support-for-ceos/).

## Cadence and artefacts of a serious team engagement

I want a rhythm the company can feel.

A working session on a live decision, not a classroom. A monthly look at how the table actually ran—talk time, late surprises, decisions recycled. Artefacts: decision rights, a one-page scoreboard, a rule for [psychological safety that is not niceness](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/psychological-safety-at-the-executive-table/), and a written standard for [accountability as the company scales](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/build-an-accountability-culture-that-scales/).

Between sessions the CEO and I may still meet. That 1:1 is not a back-channel for punishing someone who spoke. If I cannot keep that line, I will not take the work.

Pressure decisions belong in this cadence. A team that cannot run [four gates under load](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/how-ceos-decide-better-under-pressure/) will keep sending the irreversible calls back to the chief executive—and then wondering why the chief executive looks spent.

## How this supports culture that scales

Culture is what the exec table does when the CEO is on a plane. If that table only works when I am coaching the individual, you have bought a temporary personality. If the table can hold a standard, name a miss and recover a decision, you have bought a company.

That is the higher-leverage move past a certain scale. Not because teams are fashionable. Because one hero cannot travel.

Go deeper in the guide

Talent, players versus pretenders, and loyalty: [Getting good people around you](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/getting-good-people-around-you/).

## Closing

Coach the chief executive when the chief executive is the constraint. Coach the table when the table is. Most companies past product-market fit need both, and they buy the first because it is quieter.

If you want to test which unit is the real brief, [book a confidential 30-minute conversation](https://linusmurphy.com/contact/).

## Questions I am asked

**Why isn’t coaching the CEO alone enough?**

Because a sharper chief executive with the same silent table is still a single point of failure. CEO coaching can sharpen the chief executive; it cannot make six people tell each other the truth.

**What needs to be in place before team coaching starts?**

The CEO must want a team that can disagree with them in the room, there must be a live enterprise problem, the table must be the actual table, and confidentiality has to be contracted. If those conditions are false, start with 1:1 executive coaching and an honest brief.

**Should we choose 1:1 coaching or team coaching?**

Most serious engagements use both. The CEO still needs a private place to think, and the team still needs a public place to practise.

![Portrait of Linus Murphy](https://linusmurphy.com/images/portraits/linus-headshot.jpg)

**[Linus Murphy](https://linusmurphy.com/about/)**

Elite executive coach