Executive Coaching Services

You handle the operation. Your boss and the politics around you take your energy.
I help you master both, so your manager trusts you, gives you room, and hands you more.

See If We’re a Fit

What Executive Coaching Is

Executive coaching for the leader managing up. I work one-on-one with leaders who own results inside a larger company and report to an owner, another senior leader or a CEO. At your level, the operation runs. Your manager is the daily job. You manage a boss who is too hands-off, too controlling, or who swings between the two. You read the politics. You hold off rivals without open warfare. You decode vague feedback like “show up more senior.”

Glenn Gow brings 25 years as a CEO – including five years working directly with portfolio-company leaders in venture capital – to every session.

I help you handle your manager and the politics, build trust with no surprises, and become the strategic leader your boss trusts with more. I run every session myself. We deal with the hardest problems in front of you.

The Challenges Senior Leaders Face Managing Up

For senior leaders managing up, the operation is not the hardest part of the job – the person above you is.

Your manager determines the environment in which you operate. Too hands-off and you guess. Too controlling and you have no room. The hardest boss swings between the two, so you never know how much room you hold. Reading that person is your daily job.

The politics take the time you need for the work. Internal rivals. Parent-company stakeholders who feel entitled to a say. A standing meeting that moves nothing. The biggest apparent fire pulls you off what matters.

The mandate is vague. You must decode the pattern before you act on it.

A strength that carried you stalled. What got you here stops working at the new level. The skill you trusted falls flat, and your confidence takes the hit.

The cost saps your energy. The owner’s mood becomes your mood. Neutral feedback reads as a verdict. You lead from the need to prove instead of from a place of security.

You are reaching for more. Another division. More territory. A seat in the strategy conversation, above the task list. You already operate above your title. That is your value, and your frustration.

Why Managing Up Has A Lack of Good Coaching

Most executive coaching focuses on what happens below you – your team, your operations, your leadership style. That is where the training programs go. That is where the literature sits. The relationship above you – your owner, another senior leader or a CEO – is treated as a given. You are expected to figure it out. Few coaches work this ground because it is harder to teach, harder to systematize, and uncomfortable to name.

Glenn Gow spent 25 years as a senior leader and five years in venture capital helping other leaders succeed. That combination is rare in any coaching practice.

What Changes When This Works

The owner stops hovering. You run your unit with room.
The politics stop draining your time and your focus.
Your team owns problems and runs without you.
You join the strategy conversation, and bigger scope follows.
You get the promotion you deserve.

One of my clients had been fired from several previous jobs. By changing the way he thought about EQ (and not just IQ), we got him the biggest promotion of his career.

One of my clients was failing to fit into her new role culturally. By helping her understand the dynamics of the leadership team, she became a de facto leader amongst her C-level peers.

One of my clients had ownership of a failing division. By moving him from being the smartest person in the room to building and teaching a brand new team, he not only turned that division around, but was rewarded with two others.

How I Coach

I push you. I will not simply agree with you. You will still feel understood.
I give you frameworks you keep. Each one travels into your next situation.
I give you the exact words for the hard conversation in front of you, the one you face this week.
I reframe the stuck situation so you see the clearing that makes you more powerful.

Using my “Define the Game” approach, you will understand exactly what it takes to succeed in the environment you are in. You will no longer wonder why things are happening, you will be the reason those things are happening.

Using my “Keeper Test”, you will rapidly build a superior leadership team and help those leaders greatly improve the quality of the people on their teams.

Using my “Always Selling” mindset, you will move from just doing a great job, to motivating your team to perform at a higher level, get your peers to speak to the value you are bringing to the company and get rewarded by your manager in ways you have always hoped for.

Using my “Lead from the Back” framework, you will move from being the smartest person in the room to teaching / coaching / and mentoring others so they become much less reliant upon you, and perform at much higher levels.

Using my “Demonstrate through Action” model, you will bring new and improved best practices to the group you run and watch others (even your boss) emulate you.

Using my “The Reality of Politics” framework, you will understand how to succeed by using skills you never considered before, enabling you to progress much faster than you anticipated.

Using my “Power and Influence” method, you will gain more power, you will have more influence. You will get more of what you want.

Using my “Psychological Management” perspective, you will cause others to do more of what you want them to do. Further, you will change how you operate with your manager to more effectively meet their needs and get rewarded for it.

Who I Work With

I work with experienced senior leaders who run a group or a division inside a larger company.

You report to an owner, another senior leader or a CEO. Most of your strain comes from above and around you, not from running the operations. You already operate a level above your title. Your company has at least $10M in revenue (or funds raised).

If that describes you, we should talk.

See If We’re a Fit

How It Works

I run every session myself. No junior coaches. No delegating. I keep every session private and confidential. I hold my client roster small, so I stay present for each leader I coach.

You start with a complimentary session. You will leave with concrete next steps, and a clear read on whether working together makes sense. No selling. Coaching.

About Glenn

I am Glenn Gow, The Scaling Executive Coach.

I worked for very large companies (P&G, Oracle, Apple, Google, and Microsoft) and spent 25 years as a CEO. For 17 of those years, I had a coach. I sat in a seat much like yours, and I made the mistakes a leader makes. I also worked out what it takes to get past them.

I spent five years in venture capital, working directly with the leaders of portfolio companies. That experience – watching what investors and boards look for in the leaders they trust with capital – is the second frame I bring to every coaching engagement.

See if We’re a Fit

You run the group. Let me help you handle the manager and the politics around it.

I offer a complimentary session to a small number of qualified leaders. I will focus the session on your highest-priority challenge. You will walk out with a move you make this week. If it makes sense to continue, you and I map the next step.

See If We’re a Fit

Frequently Asked Questions

Executive coaching is a one-on-one professional relationship in which a trained coach works with a senior leader to improve their performance, decision-making, and effectiveness in their role. Unlike training programs or leadership courses, executive coaching addresses the specific challenges a leader faces right now – the difficult conversation they need to have this week, the political situation above them that is draining their focus, the decision they are not yet confident making.

The purpose is to produce visible change in how a leader operates. A good coaching engagement ends with the leader making different decisions, having different conversations, and getting different results – in ways that are attributable to the work done in sessions with your coach.

Executive coaching serves senior leaders who are accountable for results inside a larger organization – people who run a unit, a function, or an entire company and report to an owner, another senior leader or a CEO.

The leaders who benefit most are not underperformers. They are high performers who have reached a level where the challenges are no longer operational – they are political, relational, and strategic. The operation runs. The harder job is managing the person above you, holding your ground with peers and rivals, and being seen as ready for more scope.

Glenn works with two groups: senior leaders inside larger organizations who manage up to an owner, another senior leader or a CEO, and CEOs who report to a board or investors. The coaching focus differs – but the underlying dynamic is the same. The higher you go, the more consequential the relationship above you becomes.

Mentoring is typically a longer-term, informal relationship in which a more experienced person shares general advice, perspective, and encouragement. It is valuable – but it is not targeted to the specific challenge in front of you this week.

Executive coaching is structured, goal-oriented, and time-bounded. Every session has a focus. Every session ends with a move the leader makes before the next session. The coach is not sharing their own story – they are working on yours.

A mentor can tell you what they would do. A coach helps you work out what you are going to do – and then holds you to it. Glenn will push back. He will not simply validate what you already think. That is the difference between support and coaching.

Therapy addresses psychological health, past experiences, and emotional patterns that affect a person’s wellbeing. It is clinical work, and it is important – but it is not what executive coaching does.

Executive coaching is forward-facing and performance-focused. Sessions deal with professional decisions, political dynamics, leadership behavior, and organizational challenges. The past is only relevant when a past pattern is creating a present problem.

If a leader is dealing with a clinical mental health concern, a therapist is the right resource. If a leader is performing well and wants to perform better – or is navigating a situation they do not know how to handle – that is what executive coaching is for.

Every engagement starts with a complimentary session. You bring your highest-priority challenge. Glenn focuses the session on that challenge and you leave with a concrete next step – something you can act on before you speak again. That session also tells both of you whether working together makes sense.

After that, sessions are one-on-one with Glenn directly. No junior coaches. No intake forms handed to someone else. Most leaders come in with whatever is most urgent at that moment – Glenn calls this “coming in hot”. The issue consuming you right now is usually the right place to start, because it reveals the pattern underneath it.

Within a session, Glenn listens for the pattern behind what you describe. He will tell you what he sees. He will give you the exact words for the conversation you need to have. He will push back when your instinct is wrong and validate when it is right. The session ends with a clear action.

Executive coaching is not a fixed program with a set end date. The length of an engagement depends on what you are working on and what you are trying to achieve.

Some leaders work with Glenn through a specific inflection point – a difficult stakeholder situation, a transition to a larger role, a period of organizational change. Others build an ongoing relationship because the challenges keep evolving and the value of a consistent outside perspective compounds over time.

The results of executive coaching are specific to what you bring to it. But the pattern across Glenn’s clients is consistent: leaders who were already performing well find they make decisions faster, stop losing energy to the dynamics around them, and start operating from a strategic position rather than a reactive one.

One of Glenn’s clients had been fired from several previous jobs. By changing the way he thought about EQ (and not just IQ), the client got the biggest promotion of his career.
One of Glenn’s clients was failing to fit into her new role culturally. By helping her understand the dynamics of the leadership team, she became a de facto leader amongst her C-level peers.
One of Glenn’s clients had ownership of a failing division. By moving him from being the smartest person in the room to building and teaching a brand new team, he not only turned that division around, but was rewarded with two others.

What coaching does not do: it does not produce results without your effort between sessions. The move you commit to at the end of each session is the work. Glenn holds you to it.

Executive coaching is a financial commitment. The question every leader asks before starting is whether the return justifies the cost.

The data is consistent. A survey by the International Coach Federation found that 96% of participants reported noticeable performance improvements after working with a coach.

Research cited in the Harvard Business Review found that companies where senior leaders received regular one-on-one coaching experienced revenue growth rates nearly twice those without such programs.

Metrix Global reported an average return of $7.90 for every dollar invested in executive coaching.

The more direct measure: what is the cost of the problem you are not solving? A leader spending too much of their energy managing the relationship above them – and losing ground to rivals as a result – is already paying a price. That price does not show up on an invoice, but it is real.

See If We’re a Fit

Most executive coaches have a background in organizational psychology, HR, or leadership training. Glenn’s background is different: 25 years as a CEO, 5 years in venture capital, a Harvard MBA, and early career work at companies including P&G, Oracle, Apple, Google, and Microsoft. He sat in the seat his clients are managing up to – which means he understands what the person above you is watching for, what earns their trust, and what costs you theirs.

For 17 of his 25 years as a CEO, Glenn had his own coach. He knows what it feels like to be in a session with someone who pushes back honestly and still leaves you capable of executing. That is the standard he holds his own coaching to.

After his CEO career, Glenn spent five years in venture capital, coaching the leaders of portfolio companies directly. That gave him a second frame of reference: what investors and boards look for in the leaders they back. If you report to a board or investors, Glenn has been on the other side of that relationship.

Glenn coaches a small roster of leaders personally. Every session is run by Glenn. He does not delegate to junior coaches. The trade-off is availability; the benefit is that the person you speak to in the first session is the person you work with throughout.

TESTIMONIALS

Take Their Word For It

Glenn’s coaching has made a huge difference in how quickly and confidently we’ve been able to grow.

Rick Jones

CEO, Workreels

Glenn provided me with new insights that have helped me and the company tremendously.

Simon Law

CEO, LoginID

His advice helped me raise $3 million.

Darren Marble

Co-CEO Crush Capital

I’ve been working with Glenn Gow for about two years now, and I can say without a doubt that Glenn has made a massive impact to who I am today as a CEO. Everything that a CEO could possibly want comes from Glenn.

AJ BRUNO

CEO of QuotaPath

The value per minute you provide is astronomical.

Sameer Ahuja

President GameChanger

Under Glenn’s guidance, LeanDNA achieved exceptional business outcomes, including being named one of Inc. Magazine’s fastest-growing private companies three years in a row.

Richard Lebovitz

Founder and CEO, LeanDNA

It’s simple: our sessions get results.

Ziv Binyamini

CEO, Fortellix

I’m learning a lot from Glenn. He’s helped me determine what’s really important so I can make better, more timely decisions to steer my company to where I want it to go.

ROB LEWIS

CEO of Radical Imaging LLC

Glenn proved his value in every coaching session.

Olin Hyde

former CEO LeadCrunch

Every coaching session we had with Glenn was extremely valuable.

Jeff Strnad

CEO Door USA

Glenn helped me get to a place where I am no longer involved in the day-to-day operations of the company.

Andrew Luan

CEO Experience First

Strategically, you help me see things that I may miss or am not thinking about.

You keep me honest, and you help me continually think, why not? Let’s go do this. How do we solve this problem?

ERIC MEIER

CEO of OwlHealth

I feel I have superpower eyesight with you in my corner.

Michael Kashida

CEO Treedom

You help me be a better businessman, a better leader and a better person.

Eric Meier

CEO, Owl Health

Glenn deeply cares about our success.

Srinivas Akella

CEO, Wootcloud