What one-to-one coaching is
One-to-one executive coaching is a recurring, confidential working relationship between a leader and a coach, usually over several months. Sessions are often weekly or every other week, in person, by video or a mix. For leaders dealing with burnout, the work is concrete: workload, boundaries, delegation, decision fatigue and the habits that leave no room to recover. A coach doesn't do the job for you or tell you what to decide. They help you see the patterns, design changes and hold yourself to them.
What sessions usually cover
- The calendar. Where your time actually goes, which meetings need you, and how to protect time for thinking and recovery.
- Delegation. Decisions and tasks you're holding that someone else could own, and how to hand them over without losing control of outcomes.
- Boundaries. After-hours messages, travel, weekends, and how to set expectations with your board, your boss or your team.
- Decision load. Reducing the number of decisions that route through you, and making the ones that remain with less friction.
- Recovery. Building real breaks into the week and the year, not just hoping for a quiet month.
- Conversations. Preparing for the hard ones: with a board, a co-founder, a team member or your own family.
How long it takes
Many engagements run for a few months to a year, often with an agreed number of sessions and a review point part way through. Some coaches work in fixed packages; others month to month. Ask how they structure it, and what happens at the review.
Confidentiality
Ask any coach exactly what stays between you. If your employer is paying, ask what, if anything, the coach reports back: many coaching agreements share only attendance or broad goals, never the content of sessions. Get it in writing before you start. Requests through this directory are never shared with your employer.
Choosing a coach
Look for experience with leaders at your level and in your kind of organization, and ask how they work with someone whose main problem is sustained overload. A short introductory conversation tells you a lot: do they listen, ask good questions and speak plainly? Ask what a typical engagement looks like and what changes their clients usually make in the first months. Fit matters more than credentials.
What coaching is not
Coaching is an educational and professional service. It isn't healthcare and can't stand in for a doctor or mental health professional. A good coach will say so, and will suggest you see one if what you describe goes beyond workload and pace: persistent low mood, trouble sleeping for weeks, or thoughts of harming yourself. If you're in danger, use the crisis line at the foot of this page.
Working with a coach alongside your job
Coaching works best when you protect the sessions themselves. Schedule them at a time you won't cancel, away from your inbox, and come with one or two real situations from the past week. Try the agreed changes between sessions and notice what happened. Leaders who see coaching as one more meeting to squeeze in tend to get less from it than those who guard it as protected time to think. Keep a short running note of what you agreed to try, and read it before each session.
The directory's part
ExecutiveBurnoutPros introduces you to one independent executive coach serving your area. It doesn't take part in the engagement or recommend one coach over another.