Case study: Co-CEO of a global company
Coaching for renewed purpose, sustainable leadership, and preparing for major career progression
Outcomes
Purpose and identity beyond professional role as CEO, creating a steadier emotional baseline and calmer confidence.
Alignment of habits and actions with his values (health, family, service, integrity, growth), shaping a healthier, more satisfying balance of priorities.
Cleaner responsibility and influence in key relationships, improving communication, shared ownership and long-term sustainability without losing care or standards.
Less anxiety, overthinking and guilt, resulting in better judgment and decision-making.
More intentional leadership systems (delegation, boundaries, calendar design), meaning more time for strategic work, health and family.
A clear five-year direction enabling consistent action across three viable paths.
“I feel more like myself again, with a better sense of what the next part of the story should be.”
The Organisation
A values-led, privately owned group operating multiple brands globally, with more than 30 years of continuous trading. The company’s competitive edge is its product and its culture. Senior leaders carry both commercial responsibility and hands-on accountability for delivery, people, culture and brand reputation.
My Client
As Co-CEO of the group, my client works in close partnership with long-term business partners. Colleagues describe him as energetic, hands-on, loyal, values-driven, commercially astute and relentlessly resilient.
His core values centre on health and vitality, family, service, integrity and growth. When he’s at his best, he leads from the front in a way that feels natural: investing in relationships, mentoring people, designing memorable experiences, and staying physically fit. In that state, work feels meaningful and energising, and his home life and community roles benefit too.
The Challenges
The business was performing, but internally he felt off-centre and increasingly uncertain about what the next phase of his career and life should look like. Beneath strong external performance was a hum of anxiety, overthinking and emotional fatigue.
He was caught between several credible futures with real opportunity, but long-standing patterns around responsibility, care and being needed made stepping back or delegating feel like failure. His health and wellbeing were suffering.
“I’ve lost my sense of purpose… I’m just forever busy. And I love being busy… but at the minute, I feel a bit empty, bored, lonely. Low.”
Our Coaching
A six-month engagement with fortnightly 60–75 minute sessions (flexed around travel), pre-coaching alignment process, plus WhatsApp support between sessions for live dilemmas and reflections.
Our work centred on four linked outcomes:
Identity beyond role: separating self-worth from being the always-on CEO, and building a sense of identity strong enough to hold multiple credible futures.
Confidence and decision-making: turning a high-stakes crossroads into a structured decision process and staged experiments.
Cleaner responsibility and relationships: shifting from over-functioning to clear ownership, shared accountability and influence.
Energy and rhythm: rebuilding health as foundational, and designing a sustainable cadence across work, training, family and recovery.
Key Shifts
1) Identity and values as a foundation
At the start, much of his self-image was fused with the always-on CEO role: carrying the load, staying indispensable, and fearing that stepping back would mean losing purpose.
Over time, we separated his identity from his job title and rebuilt a steadier sense of self-worth that could hold multiple futures (CEO, chair, a new chapter) without threat. We clarified what genuinely mattered for the next 5–10 years across work, health, family, contribution and adventure, and used that as the foundation for the vision.
As he tested a more strategic way of leading, he gathered evidence that he could add value without doing everything himself.
2) Confidence and decision-making through structure
Early on, he was looping on “CEO vs chair vs retire?” with heightened sensitivity to ageing and mortality. The internal pressure made every option feel heavy.
We turned this into a more structured and expansive decision process: exploring what an ideal vision for each potential path looked like, three viable role configurations with explicit trade-offs, and a set of non-negotiable principles (health baseline, family time, financial security, scope for contribution).
We mapped the options with pros, cons and prerequisites, then shifted from “one big decision” to a staged sequence of experiments - small, testable moves that reduce fear and increase clarity.
3) Cleaner responsibility, stronger influence
He arrived with a strong, caring instinct and a high sense of responsibility. The shadow side was over-functioning: carrying more emotional and practical weight than was sustainable, and feeling unable to fully hand things over.
We untangled healthy responsibility from reflexive load-bearing, then designed experiments in delegation and shared ownership. The goal wasn’t less care, it was cleaner responsibility, clearer expectations, and boundaries that didn’t collapse under pressure.
In parallel, we explored how older family patterns around conflict and loyalty were still shaping his sense of obligation. As these became conscious, he made cleaner choices in the present, leading more through influence than endurance.
4) Emotion, energy and operating rhythm
His description of being “forever busy” yet “empty, bored, lonely, low” created an emotional tension: work expanding to fill every gap, while exercise and recovery were consistently deprioritised.
Over the engagement, we rebuilt health as foundational and used external commitments to interrupt unhelpful work patterns. We leveraged what worked for him uniquely - hiring a PT, working with a physio, and integrating movement with connection rather than treating it as another isolated task.
He set clearer rules around work while travelling, tracked links between habits and mood dips, and built a more sustainable rhythm across work, hobbies and home. Underneath it all was a clear intention: protect the physical baseline because it shapes mindset, decision quality and the capacity to relate well.
By mid-way through our work together, he described sessions as an anchor: a place to step out of autopilot, reconnect with himself, and recalibrate.
“This feels more like how I roll now. It’s nice.”
Where is he now
A steadier inner landscape with a lighter baseline mood, more genuine gratitude, and a calmer acceptance of ageing.
More calm, confidence and enthusiasm about his crossroads, supported by a better story about his next chapter that isn’t dependent on being the ‘always-on’ CEO.
A more sustainable leadership and wellbeing system that includes more deliberate delegation, healthier habits, and a stronger ability to say no to low-leverage commitments.
A practical five-year direction: three viable paths (evolve current role, shift towards chair/advisory, or create space for something new) with concrete tests to validate each before committing.
