What Does an Executive Communication Coach Do? | SW&A

What Does an Executive Communication Coach Do?

Leadership can be highly visible and surprisingly isolating.

Executives are expected to communicate direction, represent the organization and respond confidently in moments that carry significant consequences. Yet the more senior a leader becomes, the less likely people may be to offer clear, candid feedback.

An executive communication coach becomes a trusted person behind the leader. The coach helps the executive understand how the audience experiences the message, identify habits that may be limiting impact and prepare for the conversations that matter most.

SW&A sometimes describes this role as being a leader’s wingman.

In this episode of What’s Your Story, Sally Williamson talks with SW&A coaches Francie Schulwolf and Lia Panayotidis about what happens behind the coaching relationship and why helping another person succeed requires observation, trust, candor and practice.

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As a leader, your brand, style, message of the company, and the company itself are intertwined. SW&A coaches many leaders and considers themselves the “wingman” for people in leadership positions.

On this episode of What’s Your Story?, Sally talks with instructors Francie Schulwolf and Lia Panayotidis about their experience as The Wingman.

More About Our Guests

Francie Schulwolf: Francie’s focus is on developing strong, confident communicators. With close to twenty-five years of global, corporate experience in advertising, marketing and communications, she is intimately familiar with the demands executives face. This understanding, along with her honest and warm style, create a safe and comfortable environment for individuals to learn and grow.

Lia Panayotidis: As a lead instructor for our style programs, Lia focuses on raising awareness of individual brands and working with people to strengthen personal presence. She creates an insightful learning environment in each program and can make the most vulnerable discussions a little easier. She approaches each program with a natural joy of connection and fifteen years of diverse experience in training and development

Show Highlights:

• As a leader, your brand, style, message of the company, and the company itself are intertwined.
• Sally Williams and Associates coach several leaders and consider themselves the “wingman” for people in leadership positions.
  • Wingman means the person behind the leader who is focused on that individual to become successful.
• Sally has spent several years speaking in front of groups and now uses the tools she learned in leadership and visible roles to help others.
• Coaching is about observing others.
  • There is more joy in watching someone else succeed.
• What is the role of communications as an influencer?
  • Having the ability to get people to deliver on a message they can get behind.
  • Understand every CEO has a different approach and skill set.
  • Being the voice behind the curtain that makes everybody sound really good.
  • Understand how to separate content from style components.
  • Practice and teach others how to become self-aware and develop self-confidence.
• Coaching is all about connections and getting leaders to the next level.
• What is done with the content collected?
  • SWA talks about celebrations and people.
  • SWA learns from each new leader they work with.
• Coaches are trying to figure out what is going on and how to get their leaders/clients to that next place.
  • They work toward figuring out how to help them discover their voice and how to get them there.
• What is frustrating as a coach?
  • Coming into a session and encountering apprehension from the beginning and an unwillingness to be open. When clients have their guards up from the start.
  • Seeing the potential that the coach knows is there and they are matched with resistance.
  • Clients who don’t realize the value of feedback.
  • Leaders who refuse to watch themselves on stage to learn.
• What makes a great coach?
  • Chemistry.
  • Connection.
  • Relationship.
  • Creating a safe zone where clients can try new things.
  • Coaches who are still learning.
• The clients that are remembered are the ones that really made a difference during the training.
• The ones who grew a lot not.
• Leadership is about:
  • learning what is happening in the room
  • Embracing the intent is behind what they are doing
  • Discovering how the listener is doing
• Coaching is taking the love of people and development and putting it together.
• How do you coach mastery?
  • You give them the tools and show them how to master it.
  • Encourage clients to be intentional about practicing.
  • Realize that each person’s goals are different and embrace it.
  • Ask the clients:
    • What do you want for yourself?
    • What do you see for yourself?
  • Success is gauged by audience response.
  • Helping clients realize it comes down to their own desire to master it.

Executive Communication Coach: The Person Behind the Leader

A wingman is focused on helping someone else succeed.

That idea captures an important part of executive coaching. The coach is not trying to become the visible person in the room. The coach’s attention stays on the leader, the audience and the outcome the communication needs to create.

From the outside, an important executive conversation may appear to involve only the leader. Behind that moment may be hours of message development, audience analysis, practice, feedback and adjustment.

The coach helps the leader consider:

• What does this audience need?
• What is the most important point?
• What could create confusion or resistance?
• How should the message be organized?
• What questions are likely to arise?
• How does the leader need to come across?
• What action or response should follow?
• What would make the communication feel authentic?

The work is not about creating a performance that looks impressive. It is about helping the leader communicate an important idea in a way the audience can understand, trust and act on.

A communication coach succeeds when the leader’s message, voice and impact become stronger.

Executive Communication Coach: What an Executive Communication Coach Helps Leaders Do

Executive Communication Coach: Strengthen the Message

Leaders often begin coaching with substantial knowledge but an unfocused message.

They may be too close to the subject to recognize what the audience needs first. They may include too much background, bury the recommendation or assume that listeners understand context they do not have.

An executive communication coach helps the leader identify:

• The central idea
• The audience’s priorities
• The strongest supporting evidence
• The appropriate level of detail
• The decision or action needed
• The most useful storyline
• The questions that must be answered

The coach does not replace the leader’s expertise. The coach helps organize that expertise around the listener.

A stronger message allows the audience to understand not only what the leader knows, but what the knowledge means.

Executive Communication Coach: Understand Audience Impact

Leaders communicate with intention. Audiences respond to impact.

Those two things are not always the same.

A leader may intend to sound concise but come across as abrupt. The leader may intend to demonstrate command of the detail but overwhelm the audience. A message intended to create urgency may instead create anxiety.

The coach helps the leader examine that gap.

Useful coaching feedback might include:

• “Your recommendation was strong, but it arrived too late.”
• “You answered the question, but the amount of detail weakened the answer.”
• “Your words communicated confidence, but your delivery suggested hesitation.”
• “The story was memorable, but the connection to the business point was unclear.”
• “The audience needs more context before it can support this decision.”

The value of the feedback comes from its specificity. A leader cannot act on “be more engaging” or “show more presence” without understanding the behavior behind the impression.

Executive Communication Coach: Build Self-Awareness

People cannot adjust a habit they do not recognize.

Communication coaching helps leaders see patterns in how they organize ideas, respond to pressure and interact with different audiences.

A leader may discover that they:

• Begin with too much context
• Speak quickly when challenged
• Avoid pausing
• Answer before the question is complete
• Use technical language with nontechnical audiences
• Minimize their strongest recommendation
• Appear defensive when explaining risk
• Lose energy when reading prepared remarks
• Avoid difficult messages until the issue becomes larger

Self-awareness is not the same as self-criticism.

The goal is to understand which behaviors support the leader’s intent and which ones interfere with it. That awareness gives the leader more choices.

Executive Communication Coach: Find an Authentic Leadership Voice

A coach should not make every leader sound the same.

Each executive brings a different personality, communication style and level of comfort. One leader may be naturally energetic and spontaneous. Another may be thoughtful, measured and reserved.

Both can be compelling.

The coach helps the leader strengthen the most credible version of their own communication rather than imitate someone else’s style.

That may involve helping a leader:

• Use stories that feel natural
• Express conviction more clearly
• Simplify overly formal language
• Bring more warmth to difficult messages
• Show appropriate vulnerability
• Speak with greater directness
• Use humor without forcing it
• Make communication more conversational

Authenticity does not mean communicating without preparation. It means preparation supports the leader’s real voice instead of covering it.

The goal of coaching is not to create a different person. It is to help the leader communicate with greater intention and consistency.

Executive Communication Coach: Prepare for High-Stakes Situations

Executive communication coaching is most valuable when it connects directly to real work.

A leader may be preparing to:

• Communicate a new strategy
• Lead an executive conversation
• Announce an organizational change
• Address employee concerns
• Build support for an investment
• Respond to difficult questions
• Give sensitive feedback
• Influence a board or senior team
• Establish credibility in a new role
• Communicate during a crisis
• Connect with employees at a company event

Each situation creates different expectations.

A change announcement requires context and empathy. An executive recommendation requires focus and business relevance. A difficult feedback conversation requires clarity and listening. A new leader may need to communicate direction while still acknowledging what they are learning.

The coach helps the leader understand what the moment requires and adapt accordingly.

Executive Communication Coach: Turn Feedback Into Repeatable Skills

One successful conversation does not create mastery.

Coaching should help the leader recognize an effective approach and use it again in other situations. That requires practice, reflection and continued application.

A coach might help a leader practice:

• The opening of an important meeting
• A concise executive recommendation
• Likely questions and responses
• A difficult piece of feedback
• A customer or employee story
• A strategic message
• A clear request for action

Practice makes the behavior more available when pressure increases.

After the real conversation, the leader and coach can evaluate:

• What worked?
• Where did the audience respond?
• Which questions were difficult?
• What changed during the conversation?
• What should the leader repeat?
• What needs further practice?

The long-term goal is independence. Strong coaching helps leaders build the judgment and self-awareness to coach themselves.

Executive Communication Coach:What Makes an Executive Coaching Relationship Work?

Executive Communication Coach: Trust

Leaders need to know that coaching conversations are confidential and focused on their development.

Without trust, the leader may protect an image instead of working on the real challenge.

Executive Communication Coach: Candor

A coach must be willing to say what other people may hesitate to say.

Candor should be direct but constructive. The goal is not to judge the leader. It is to explain how a behavior affects the audience and help the leader choose a stronger approach.

Executive Communication Coach: Chemistry

A leader and coach need a productive working connection.

Chemistry does not require identical personalities. It requires mutual respect, open communication and enough comfort for the leader to try something unfamiliar.

Executive Communication Coach: Curiosity

Strong coaches do not arrive with the same answer for every leader.

They ask questions, listen and seek to understand the person, organization and situation before recommending a change.

Executive Communication Coach: Willingness

Coaching cannot create change without the leader’s participation.

The leader must be willing to consider feedback, practice new approaches and reflect honestly on what is and is not working.

Resistance is not unusual. Communication is personal, and feedback can feel uncomfortable. A strong coach creates enough safety for the leader to work through that discomfort without avoiding it.

Executive Communication Coach: What Executive Communication Coaching Is Not

Executive communication coaching is not:

• Writing a generic script for the leader to memorize
• Teaching every executive to use the same style
• Correcting superficial behaviors without understanding their effect
• Providing encouragement without honest feedback
• Replacing the leader’s expertise or judgment
• Manufacturing a leadership persona
• Focusing only on one isolated event

The work should be individualized and connected to business outcomes.

A useful coaching engagement helps the leader understand how communication affects credibility, alignment, decisions and relationships.

Executive Communication Coach: How SW&A Coaches Content, Style and Situation

SW&A evaluates communication through three connected dimensions: Content, Style and Situation.

Content is what the leader says. It includes the main idea, organization, evidence, storyline and requested action.

Style is how the leader comes across. Voice, pace, energy, presence, listening and body language shape the audience’s experience.

Situation includes the audience, setting, stakes and desired outcome.

A leader may have strong content but deliver it without enough conviction. Another may have an engaging style but lack a clear point. Both may communicate differently depending on whether they are speaking with employees, peers, customers or senior executives.

Coaching helps leaders bring all three dimensions together.

Coaching Begins With the Listener

Leaders often evaluate communication based on whether they said what they intended to say.

Coaches also consider what the listener understood, remembered and felt prepared to do.

That listener perspective changes the questions:

• Was the main point clear?
• Did the audience understand why it mattered?
• Did the leader provide the right amount of context?
• Did the communication build confidence?
• Was the requested action specific?
• Could the audience repeat the central message?
• Did the leader respond to what was happening in the room?

The audience’s response is one of the strongest measures of communication effectiveness.

Like what you hear? Hear more episodes like this on the What’s Your Story podcast page!