Tom Kolditz: Coaching improves not only business, but also the lives of those being led
For technology leaders, the real issue is not whether coaching is โgoodโ in principle, but whether it is governed like a capability with measurable outcomes. If coaching is used to support delivery leaders, transformation managers or high-potential successors, the organisation needs clarity on who sponsors it, which roles qualify and what improvement is expected in performance, retention, decision quality or team health.
The articleโs warning about weak standards matters because coaching budgets are often approved as people investment without the same discipline applied to other leadership interventions. That creates a trade-off: wide access can improve culture and inclusion, but loose quality control can waste time and money. The management question is whether coaching belongs in an HR-led benefit model, a leadership pipeline, or a targeted performance intervention for critical roles.
AI-enabled coaching adds another layer of operating-model risk and opportunity. It may extend support to more managers at lower cost, but it also changes the boundary between human judgment, personal development and automated guidance. Leaders should ask where AI is appropriate, what data it can access, how advice is reviewed, and which situations still require qualified human coaching. Without this, scaling may dilute trust rather than expand capability.
The practical next questions are straightforward: How will success be measured over time? Who certifies coach quality? Which population gets human coaching, AI support, or both? For CIOs and transformation leaders, the answer should connect coaching to succession, change adoption and delivery resilienceโnot just to individual development.
Inducted into the Thinkers50 Coaching Legends in 2025, Tom Kolditz is founding director of the Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University. A retired Brigadier General, he led the department of behavioural sciences and leadership at West Point (US Military Academy) for 12 years. Tom describes himself as a highly selective coach, focusing only on leaders in companies that he feels are making the world a better place (75% of which are start-ups). He also consults with universities that are committed to developing studentsโ capacities to lead.
Tomโs biggest achievement thus far has been establishing the concepts of interaction effects โ leadership improvements interacting with one another so the whole is greater than the sum of the parts โ and the time value of coaching leaders: interactions improving leadership many years after the initial coaching experience.
He founded a program at Rice University which has now coached more than 7,000 undergraduate and graduate students and he also helped to build a leader development classification with the Carnegie Foundation, which is offered to all 5,200 colleges and universities in the US.
Thinkers50 asked Tom Kolditz to give his insights into current executive coaching trends and future challenges.
โThe best coaches make major differences in the performance of leaders, improving not only business, but the lives of those being led,โ he said.
His biggest fear is that coaching continues to expand with very little measurement of effectiveness and few performance standards.
โCurrently about 60-70% of coaches know little about leadership, have never led themselves, certainly not as executives, but market themselves extensively, put leadership memes on Tik Tok, and are kept engaged by coaching companies and groups,โ he says. โMany perform โleader-tainment.โ Coaching is more difficult than people think, and measured standards are almost nonexistent.โ
He believes that using AI to support coaching can deliver the benefits of coaching to people who could otherwise not afford it, and that the industry should have some level of continuous coaching for leaders at all levels.
โUniversities should have coaching available to all students โ only about 30-40% will participate, even if it is free,โ he says. โAt the executive level, AI can be used for a continuance of development following one-on-one coaching.โ
Tom is keen to see AI help scale leader development as well as the certification of โtriple competenceโ executive coaches with 1) professional coach training; 2) graduate-level education in a particular field such as psychology or business; and 3) experience as an executive level leader.
Enjoyed this article? Sign up for our newsletter to receive regular insights and stay connected.