n = 84 people
n = 84 people
n = 99 and 285 conversations
n = 56 and 84 people
What owner CEOs bring to a coach
Figure 1. Themes owner CEOs raised as a real problem
| Theme | Share of 84 owner CEOs |
|---|---|
| Cash, profitability and pricing | 57% |
| Hiring, firing and team performance | 55% |
| Sales, revenue growth and pipeline | 55% |
| Strategy, direction and positioning | 50% |
| AI adoption and automation | 46% |
| Systems, processes and data | 40% |
| Delegation and being the bottleneck | 32% |
| Stress, confidence and mindset | 31% |
| Time, priorities and focus | 25% |
| Communication, influence and managing up | 24% |
| Partner, co-founder or family in the business | 21% |
| Succession, exit and ownership transition | 20% |
| Conflict and difficult conversations | 19% |
| Leadership team alignment and accountability | 18% |
| Culture, engagement and retention | 13% |
| Career move or role transition | suppressed, under 5 mentions |
The picture is operational. The four themes the most owner CEOs raised are cash and pricing, hiring and team performance, sales growth and strategy. AI adoption is fifth, at 46 percent. Stress, confidence and mindset sits at 31 percent, which says it rarely arrives alone: it tends to come attached to one of the operational problems above it.
Delegation and being the bottleneck came up for 32 percent of owner CEOs, seventh of 15 themes, behind six others. It is the theme most leadership writing treats as the first problem of a founder. Our check against full transcripts found delegation coded reliably, so its position is not a measurement gap.
Owner CEOs and executives bring different problems
Figure 2. Owner CEOs compared with executives who are not owners
| Theme | Owner CEOs, n = 84 | Executives, n = 56 |
|---|---|---|
| Cash, profitability and pricing | 57% | 16% |
| Hiring, firing and team performance | 55% | 41% |
| Sales, revenue growth and pipeline | 55% | 21% |
| Strategy, direction and positioning | 50% | 21% |
| AI adoption and automation | 46% | 38% |
| Systems, processes and data | 40% | 38% |
| Delegation and being the bottleneck | 32% | 25% |
| Stress, confidence and mindset | 31% | 29% |
| Time, priorities and focus | 25% | 21% |
| Communication, influence and managing up | 24% | 55% |
| Conflict and difficult conversations | 19% | 14% |
| Leadership team alignment and accountability | 18% | 34% |
| Culture, engagement and retention | 13% | 27% |
The two groups diverge most on cash and pricing and managing up. Cash, profitability and pricing came up with 57 percent of owner CEOs and 16 percent of executives. Communication, influence and managing up is the reverse: 24 percent of owner CEOs and 55 percent of executives, the single most common theme for executives. Separately, 41 percent of executives raised a career move or role transition; among owner CEOs that theme fell under the mention floor and is not shown.
The practical reading: a coach who works with both groups is doing two different jobs. An owner needs a thinking partner on the business. An executive needs help moving people they do not control.
The AI shift
Figure 3. Conversations where the client raised AI
| Period | Conversations | Client raised AI |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 Jul to Dec | 99 | 0% |
| 2025 Jan to Jun | 96 | 9% |
| 2025 Jul to Dec | 131 | 11% |
| 2026 Jan to Jun | 285 | 45% |
| 2026 Jul to 24 Sep | 141 | 43% |
In the second half of 2024, none of 99 conversations had a client raise AI. By the first half of 2026 it was 45 percent, and 43 percent for 1 July to 24 September 2026. Counted by person, 25 percent of the 55 people active in 2025 raised AI at least once; in 2026 it was 55 percent of 142 people, including 62 percent of 58 owner CEOs and 43 percent of 42 executives.
One caution matters here. Leaders ADAPT added AI advisory work in 2026, so part of the rise reflects who came to us, not only what changed for leaders. Within one to one coaching alone, where that effect is weakest, the rise still holds: 0 percent in the second half of 2024 against 36 to 38 percent in 2026.
Coaching sessions compared with discovery calls
A discovery call is the first conversation, before any engagement. A coaching session is the work itself. The two tell different stories: people arrive talking about AI adoption and systems and data, and once the work starts the agenda moves to sales growth, hiring and cash and pricing.
| Theme | Coaching sessions, n = 534 | Discovery calls, n = 218 |
|---|---|---|
| Sales, revenue growth and pipeline | 48% | 21% |
| Hiring, firing and team performance | 37% | 22% |
| Cash, profitability and pricing | 29% | 17% |
| Stress, confidence and mindset | 26% | 11% |
| Strategy, direction and positioning | 25% | 19% |
| Communication, influence and managing up | 23% | 16% |
| Systems, processes and data | 22% | 40% |
| AI adoption and automation | 21% | 46% |
| Delegation and being the bottleneck | 14% | 11% |
| Time, priorities and focus | 14% | 12% |
| Leadership team alignment and accountability | 11% | 13% |
| Conflict and difficult conversations | 11% | 4% |
| Career move or role transition | 11% | 13% |
| Partner, co-founder or family in the business | 8% | suppressed |
| Culture, engagement and retention | 6% | 9% |
| Succession, exit and ownership transition | 4% | 8% |
On average a conversation covered 2.9 themes. Group sessions (128) were coded but are not shown here because several people speak in each one.
How this was measured
- Every recorded conversation from 16 June 2024 to 24 September 2026 was reviewed: 2,875 recordings, of which 641 were duplicate captures, leaving 2,234.
- Each recording was classified by type. Only client conversations were kept: 534 coaching sessions, 218 discovery calls and 128 group sessions. Internal meetings, networking, podcast recordings, personal recordings, empty files and every meeting belonging to another business were excluded.
- Each conversation was coded against 16 themes. A theme was marked only when the client raised it as a real problem, not when it was taught or mentioned in passing. Coding used the meeting summary and action items, with the transcript where the summary was thin.
- People were counted with one way hashed keys, never names, giving 199 people across coaching and discovery: 84 owner CEOs, 56 executives who are not owners, and managers, solo founders and career clients. The count may be slightly high where one person used two email addresses.
- Check: 40 conversations from the first edition, drawn at random and stratified by quarter, were recoded blind from full transcripts. Agreement was strong for sales (kappa 0.79), AI (0.82), cash and pricing (0.82), career transition (0.83) and delegation (0.72). The summary method undercounts hiring, time and priorities, strategy and conflict, which the transcripts found two to four times as often. Read every share as a floor, and read those four as clearly low.
- Floors: no cut is published under 30 people or conversations, and no theme with fewer than 5 mentions in a group.
- Updates: new conversations are coded with the same codebook every month and every figure on this page is recalculated. Earlier months are not recoded.
What this data does not show
- These are the clients and prospects of one firm, not a random sample of CEOs. Most run owner led, non tech companies, many under $20M in revenue.
- A few long running clients account for many conversations. The ten most frequent people hold about 39 percent of conversations, which is why the headline figures count people, not conversations.
- Company size and revenue were stated too rarely to cut by, so no size breakdown is published.
- Summary based coding undercounts some themes, as described in the method.
- No quotes, paraphrases, names, companies or industries narrower than non tech appear anywhere in this report or its data files.
Questions this report answers
What do CEOs talk about most in coaching?
Among 84 owner CEOs Leaders ADAPT coached or spoke with between 16 June 2024 and 24 September 2026, the most common topics were cash, profitability and pricing (57 percent), hiring, firing and team performance (55 percent), sales, revenue growth and pipeline (55 percent) and strategy, direction and positioning (50 percent). These are the clients of one firm, not a random sample of CEOs.
How often do CEOs bring up AI in coaching?
In the second half of 2024, none of 99 coaching and discovery conversations had a client raise AI as a real topic. In the first half of 2026 it was 45 percent of 285 conversations. In 2026, 62 percent of 58 owner CEOs raised AI at least once.
Do owner CEOs and executives need different coaching?
In this data they bring different problems. Cash, profitability and pricing came up with 57 percent of owner CEOs and 16 percent of executives. Communication, influence and managing up came up with 24 percent of owner CEOs and 55 percent of executives.
Is delegation the biggest problem CEOs bring to a coach?
Not in this data. 32 percent of owner CEOs raised delegation or being the bottleneck, seventh of 15 themes. The coding method undercounts time and priorities, so read that theme as a floor, but delegation itself coded reliably.
How was the data collected?
Every recorded conversation from 16 June 2024 to 24 September 2026 was reviewed, duplicates removed and non client meetings excluded. Each coaching session and discovery call was coded against 16 themes, counted only when the client raised the theme as a real problem. People were counted with one way hashed keys, never names. The data is updated monthly.
Is any client identifiable?
No. The report shows totals over 30 or more people or conversations, themes only, never quotes. A theme with fewer than 5 mentions in a group is suppressed.
Can I republish these numbers?
Yes. Charts, tables and figures may be republished with attribution and a link to this page. The full data is available as JSON and CSV below.
Cite this report
Leaders ADAPT (2026). What CEOs Bring to Coaching, 2026 Report (updated 25 September 2026). https://www.leadersadapt.com/what-ceos-bring-to-coaching/
Source line for charts: Leaders ADAPT analysis of anonymised coaching and discovery conversations with 199 leaders (534 coaching sessions and 218 discovery calls), June 2024 to September 2026, coded by theme. Themes only, no quotes.
Charts, tables and figures may be republished with attribution and a link to this page. No permission request is needed. Download the data: CSV. For a cut that is not published, write to andreas@leadersadapt.com. Requests that would fall below the floors will be declined with the count.
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