Peeping through the keyhole into the confidential world of leadership coaching

Mukherjea is the founder of Marcellus Investment Managers, a capital-allocating firm that aims to simplify wealth creation. He is also the bestselling author of three books—The Unusual Billionaires, Coffee Can Investing: The Low-Risk Road to Stupendous Wealth, and Diamonds in the Dust: Consistent Compounding for Extraordinary Wealth Creation. Meanwhile, Lueneburger is a Master Certified Coach (MCC) with the International Coaching Federation. She holds a PhD in business from the University of St Gallen, Switzerland, and has a global coaching and advisory career of over 15 years

In this exclusive interview, the two talk about their book, why they think of executive coaching as a partnership, why it is not necessary for a coach to have the same profile as the client to be of value, how Unfiltered is Lueneburger’s gift to emerging coaches, and why Mukherjea thinks hiring her was the best mistake he has made in his career.

We believe this is truly a pioneering book. To the best of our knowledge, the coaching relationship, explored in this way from both sides of the figurative ‘boardroom desk’, has not been written about in a book before. The nature of leadership coaching is highly confidential. The sensitivity of the issues that executives discuss with their coaches makes it hard to open the doors and pull back the curtains to reveal the process of executive coaching. As co-authors, we are striking out to change this. We plan to go against the tide by sharing our individual narratives as leaders and coaches and disclosing our development through our professional partnership. By providing both sides of the ‘story’, we hope to offer a well-rounded account of the coaching partnership.

Above all, we are keen to ensure that readers understand that executive coaching is a partnership, and that only by studying both versions of the ‘story’ can we truly appreciate the multiple layers of analysis that make for effective coaching. What makes this book unique is that this is not a sanitised case study where the client remains anonymous. This is a real account of a real coaching journey – one that hopes to let others test drive as to whether coaching is for them. And it hopes to offer beginner as well as seasoned coaches ways to benchmark and expand their practices.

Saurabh: In the closing months of 2016, I requested my erstwhile employer to let me run the entire firm rather than just the brokerage-cum-wealth management subsidiary. They appointed an executive search firm to assess me. To my chagrin, the executive search firm suggested that I hire a coach to address the deficits in my skill sets. Among the coaches that I met, Ana Lueneburger came across as the most easygoing — I hired her thinking she would give me the least homework. A month into the coaching relationship, however, I realised that I was wrong — Ana is highly perceptive, focused, and driven, and she made me work hard on becoming a better leader. As I explain in the book, hiring Ana was the best mistake I have made in my career.

Ana: When Saurabh convinced me to collaborate on this book, I was all in. First, my dream all those years ago as a rookie coach was to be a fly on the wall in a professional coaching room. So, this would be my invitation to give emerging coaches what I once wished to have. Of course, not all the decisions we make in life are entirely altruistic, especially those that take away a large portion of our time, like writing this book.

In daring to write alongside Saurabh, I felt that I would also learn more about myself and my practice. This ‘indirect education’ would help me grow as a coach and maybe even become wiser as a person. The book’s final chapter reflects on what we have produced. We decided to save it for last and only to write it once we had read each other’s preceding chapters. On reading Saurabh’s observations of me, joy and gratitude filled my heart.

There was also a part of me that dreaded for him to find out that I am not the perfect sage who has all the answers but a fallible human prone to some of the same anxieties that she addresses in her clients. I wondered if the revelation of this ‘other side’ of my character might affect our working relationship forever. The short answer is: it has not. Saurabh and I continue to partner and writing the book has deepened our connection as well as our ability to do good work together.

Saurabh: It was in the summer of 2021 post the third or fourth set of COVID-19 lockdowns when after an invigorating chat over a cup of coffee in a café in London, we decided to write Unfiltered. We wanted to write a book that did not yet exist (although we wished for it to have existed when we started out decades ago), a book that opened the doors shielding leadership coaching conversations and better informed our decisions on where to spend our time, what gives us purpose, and how to be the best version of ourselves.

Openly sharing our real-life journey rather than staying at the level of sanitised and, often anonymised case studies, we set out to answer the questions we know leaders ask themselves in making the decision to be coached. These are questions such as “What does a coaching process actually feel like?”, “What really happens in a coaching session?”, and “Is this truly worth my time?” An unexpected side bonus of pushing our personal boundaries was that we emerged from the experience with several new insights.

Saurabh: The penultimate chapter of Unfiltered takes you inside a typical coaching session in which Ana poses a series of probing, Socratic questions and I try my best to answer them. As I answer these questions, new mental pathways open up for me and I discover both blind spots in my persona and missing skill sets in my armoury. We then discuss both of these and identify areas for further reading and thinking. Ana also gives me practice assignments that require me to go out in the real world and apply the new skills I am learning.

Ana:  This book could not have been written had it not been for Saurabh’s courage as the client who openly shared his journey. As for myself, I cherish authenticity and generosity. When I first started out as a coach 15 years ago, I was yearning for an honest account of what it looks like behind the closed doors of confidentiality that shield the coaching room. We have tried to pry those doors open. Yes, there were moments that felt highly uncomfortable, such as sharing my cardiac arrest at 27 or a moment of self-doubt when I offer a given intervention to the client. But what I have shared has ultimately felt liberating and joyful. After all, I have shared with the intent of supporting learning and growth, and we hope it is received in this spirit.

Saurabh: I have benefited from coaching in three different ways:

A) It has helped me identify blind spots in my persona, i.e., issues with me that I wasn’t aware of.

B) It has helped me identify weaknesses in my skillsets and with Ana’s help, I am also able to develop toolkits to rectify those weaknesses.

A) It has made me more self-aware of the conversations that are taking place not just inside my head but also in the minds of other counterparties that I am dealing with in business life.

Ana: Coaching is a high-stakes matter—it is costly, time intensive, requires for a leader to open up, and can emotionally be challenging if it goes wrong. Not only for the leader since leaders are multipliers and their actions impact their teams, the organization, and the bottom line.

Understanding how to select the right coach and what good looks like when it comes to coaching is crucial for its impact. In the book, we devote the entire first chapter to help get that choice right. So as caveats, make sure that the coach you engage is experienced, trained, and has integrity. Most important of all, be certain that there is ‘chemistry’ between you and the coach, as your relationship is core to coaching success. After your first analytic screening of the coaches you interviewed, ask yourself—in your gut, which coach feels right to you?

Ana: Here are the top five:

Myth 1: We are enlightened Buddhas who know it all.

Like all human beings, we are works in progress. The key is to not lose sight of that and to remain curious, admit when we don’t know something, also to our clients, and embrace growth which brings uncertainty and change.

Myth 2: We only ask questions.

In the executive coaching space, my clients also want to hear what I think, how I might approach a certain problem, and what I advise them to do. If done in a non-prescriptive fashion, this can be a real value-add to clients, and sometimes, affirm them in their own views.

Myth 3: You have to have the same profile as the client to be of value.

The opposite is often the case. If we have the same profile, we risk having the same views, we look to inspire from a place of sameness which is challenging and we tend to share the same blind spots. What clients often want and deserve is a fresh perspective, someone who quickly spots and points out what they can’t see, and someone who challenges so they can grow.

Myth 4: It’s about the credentials, tools, and shiny objects.

Credentials and a good reputation are table stakes in my opinion. Tools are useful, but they cannot replace the impact that comes from establishing a trusting, strong rapport between client and coach. With that as a foundation, anything is possible.

Myth 5: We are here to fix people.

I do not see myself in the business of fixing people. I am here to help leaders become the best version of themselves, starting out from a place of possibility. This is where leaps happen.