The Leadership Pipeline — and Where Sprint Coaching Goes to Work
Every step up this ladder asks a leader to let go of what made them successful before. Here is what that shift looks like at each level, and the specific behaviors a coaching engagement is built to work on.
Sprint Coaching is not a training program. It's a focused, one-to-one coaching experience that runs three to four months. Each leader works with a seasoned coach to name the specific behavior that's holding them back at their current transition, and to practice a new way of working, in real time.
No generic framework. No one-size-fits-all curriculum. Just honest reflection, practical experiments, and real accountability.
Not every level calls for the same engagement. For brand-new managers, we pair Sprint Coaching with a foundational training program built for that first leap. For business leaders and group executives, we recommend a longer-form Executive Coaching engagement, built for that scope and tenure.
Manager
Getting results yourself → getting results through others
Behaviors we coach
- Letting go of doing the work yourself, and trusting others to do it
- Talking three ways: up to your boss, down to your team, across to peers
- Planning and setting priorities for a team, not just for yourself
- Building an actual team, not just being a good teammate
- Having the harder conversations: feedback, accountability, expectations
Senior Individual Contributor
Deep technical expertise → cross-functional influence and collaboration
Behaviors we coach
- Coaching managers to coach their own people, instead of stepping in yourself
- Letting go of technical expertise as your main source of value
- Choosing and developing the right managers
- Speaking up in strategy conversations, not just carrying out the plan
Manager of Managers
Managing people → managing through other managers
Behaviors we coach
- Coaching managers to coach their own people, instead of stepping in yourself
- Letting go of technical expertise as your main source of value
- Choosing and developing the right managers
- Speaking up in strategy conversations, not just carrying out the plan
Function Leader
Developing managers → developing a whole function
Behaviors we coach
- Thinking of the function as a system: talent, process, capability, not just this quarter's output
- Translating the function's work into terms the rest of the business understands
- Standing up for the function's point of view without just defending turf
- Connecting the function's priorities to what the company actually needs
Business Leader & Group Executive
Competitive advantage → Building the leaders and organization that carry it forward
Behaviors to coach
- Valuing every function equally, not just the one you came up through
- Looking outward at the market and competition, not just inward at operations
- Asking "will we make money doing this," not just "can we do this"
- Holding a long-term view while still delivering short-term results
What's usually really going on when someone gets stuck
These show up at every level, at every transition. They rarely look like one big failure. They show up in specific, repeatable moments: a conversation avoided, a decision made too fast.
This is exactly where a focused coaching engagement goes to work: one leader, one seasoned coach, one specific behavior, practiced until it's real.