Presumably the people who are actually any good at this are off running their own businesses etc.

So who are you left with? A small of number of retired ex-executives who might ‘coach’ people because they enjoy and a huge number of grifters?

Or maybe it's more like a lawyer/consultant. In many situations, you know what needs to be done, but you'll run it by the lawyer because the lawyer has a lot more data and has seen this game many times before. So you are relying on their bank of information and pattern matching ability.

> Presumably the people who are actually any good at this are off running their own businesses etc.

Some of the good coaches are multi-exit former CEOs. They use coaching as a way to angel invest and still be involved in early companies.

I'm sure there are plenty of inexperienced coaches with poor results... but I know at least a handful that are great.

I used an executive coach years ago, suggested and paid by the company. I would say he was definitely helpful (and maybe even necessary).

I don’t see any shame or other negative quality about it, but to P’s point, I also very rarely have any reason to talk about it.

> people who get coaching maybe just don't talk about it openly?

Ding ding ding.

I'm sure there are plenty of scammers and generic self help people, but a good exec coach is invaluable. You can get help and feedback on things as a CEO that are really difficult to get from your own company, leadership team, or investors — because the coach works for you, and the explicit goal is to make you better. Think how to better manage, how to raise, dealing with personality issues, org structure and pivots.

Try doing that with your board or investors (what if they think I'm bad at my job and fire me, or don't invest in my next round?) or your team (what if they lose faith in me?). A confident, experienced leader might not need this sort of help, but I highly recommend it for newly funded startup CEOs past 5 people.

Yeah, it's like a paid mentor. Ideally the coach/mentor has seen a lot of situations and can advise based on those experiences.