Step 1: Map the year you actually work
Before you call any coach, sketch your last twelve months on one page. In Pinehurst, the shape of that year often follows the resort calendar. Pinehurst Resort describes itself as dating to 1895 and says the U.S. Open has chosen it three times as host, and many local businesses ride the same waves of visitors. If you work at Sandhills Community College, whose Pinehurst Campus sits on 240 acres along Airport Road, your peaks may land at semester starts and budget deadlines instead.
Mark the weeks that ran hottest, the weeks you got real time off, and the points where you felt yourself running on fumes. That map becomes the first thing you share with a coach.
Step 2: Name what you want to change
Pick two or three concrete goals. Examples: leaving work by a set hour most days, handing off a recurring task you've held too long, or taking one full weekend a month with your phone off. Vague goals make it hard to tell whether coaching is helping. It can also help to ask one or two people you trust at work what they notice when you're stretched too far; their answers often point to the habit worth tackling first, and they give you a baseline to look back on later.
Step 3: Be clear on what coaching is
The coaches listed here offer non-clinical coaching on workload, boundaries, leadership habits and recovery time. If what you're carrying feels heavier than a work problem, talk with a doctor or a mental-health professional first. A coach should be willing to tell you when something sits outside their lane.
Step 4: Shortlist from the listings
Choose two or three coaches whose descriptions match your situation. Look for experience with the kind of organization you lead, whether that's a seasonal hospitality business, an academic department or a small firm. Note whether each meets in person in the Sandhills or works mostly by video.
The directory doesn't check credentials, so ask directly about training and background.
Step 5: Hold short introductory calls
Use the same questions for each coach so you can compare fairly:
- How do you structure the first month?
- How often do we meet, and for how long?
- What does the engagement cost in total, and what is the pause or cancellation policy?
- If my employer pays, what do you share with them, if anything?
- How will we know whether this is working?
Write down your impressions right after each call, while the details are still fresh.
Step 6: Time the start date to your calendar
Don't start the week before your busiest stretch. Starting four to six weeks before a peak gives you time to set up habits before the pressure arrives. Ask your coach to plan a lighter check-in rhythm through peak weeks, then a fuller review afterward.
Step 7: Put recovery days on the calendar
Coaching tends to work better when rest is planned, not squeezed in. Two settings near Pinehurst work well for that. Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve, a state preserve in Moore County, has old longleaf pines over trails through wiregrass and about 7 miles of hiking on its main tract, per NC State Parks. It's roughly a fifteen- to twenty-minute drive from the village.
For a full day out, Raven Rock State Park in Harnett County has a 150-foot rock formation above the Cape Fear River and about 26 miles of trails. Expect about an hour or a little more each way. These drive times are approximate.
Closer still, the 32-acre Sandhills Horticultural Gardens on the college's Pinehurst Campus can serve as a walking break on a workday.
Step 8: Review at the three-month mark
Go back to the goals from Step 2. Has anything shifted: fewer late nights, a task handed off, a real day away? Talk honestly with your coach about what's moving and what isn't. Adjust the plan, change the meeting rhythm, or decide the engagement has done its job.
Step 9: Keep the gains through the next peak
Before the next busy season, schedule one session to plan for it. Decide in advance which boundaries you'll hold, which tasks you'll hand off, and which recovery day you'll protect. Write those decisions down and share them with the people who work closest with you, so the plan doesn't live only in your head.