What Does Your Choice of Coaching Company Say About Your Values?

In Times of Complexity, Even Your Supply Chain Tells a Story

When it comes to developing your people, your choice of coaching company isn’t just a procurement decision. It’s a signal - internally and externally - about what your organisation truly stands for.

We are living in a moment of profound tension: between the pressures to deliver and the imperative to transform; between business-as-usual and the regenerative future we know we need to move toward. HR and L&D leaders are at the centre of this tension - navigating it daily.

And here’s the truth: how you develop your leaders tells a story. One that cuts through values statements and marketing campaigns. One that is as revealing as an X-ray.

The coaching industry is booming - and, like every industry, it’s not immune to commodification. Too often, scale is confused with success. Coaches are onboarded like gig workers. Data is sold as insight. And the ultimate goal? Not transformation, but retention, optimisation, efficiency.

I know this because I went through it. A few years ago, I onboarded with BetterUp. From the outside: sleek tech, compelling language - purpose, clarity, transformation. But inside? It felt like being an Amazon driver. Transactional. Disposable. The gap between message and model was wide - and telling.

When I shop at my local greengrocer, I know where my money goes. I look the owner in the eye. But in the supermarket, I see the system more clearly - workers as cogs, food as product, speed over care.

So what about coaching? What about your suppliers?

From Resources to Regeneration

If you’re serious about regeneration - about developing the kind of leaders and cultures that will thrive in a post-linear, post-extractive world - then the companies you partner with matter.

Regeneration isn’t just about content or intention. It’s about the model. The relationships. The system behind the scenes.

This shift isn’t cosmetic. It’s paradigmatic.

A regenerative coaching company isn’t just helping individuals feel better. It’s supporting them to lead differently - to rewire the assumptions that drive extraction and performance-at-all-costs, and to lead from a deeper, more systemic place.

These companies work like forests: interconnected, alive, dynamic. Change isn’t a project - it’s a living process. And the story a leader tells about their goal, the risks they’ve taken, and the systems they’re shifting - that’s the seed from which more change grows.

That’s the work.

So - What Should You Look For?

If you’re ready to choose differently, here’s a checklist to help you assess whether a coaching supplier is aligned with a regenerative approach:

1. Revenue Transparency

   Ask: How is the money distributed? How much does the coach receive? What does the company keep, and why?

   
   

2. Associate Contracts

   Request to see the associate contract. Is it respectful? Fair? Does it support development, or control it?

   
   

3. Evidence of Values

   Don’t settle for nice-sounding words. Ask for verifiable evidence. How do they live their values? What’s their track record?

   
   

4. Coach Development

   Are coaches treated as gig workers or as part of a living system? What do they offer beyond performance metrics — e.g., community, reflection, storytelling?

   
   

5. Diversity and Neurodiversity

   Are there different voices at the table? Are neurodiverse coaches not just welcomed but centred in how they work?

   
   

6. Contracting Process

   Is the conversation truly co-creative - or just transactional? Are goals emergent, systemic, developmental?

   
   

7. Storytelling as Core Practice

   Is storytelling embedded in the process - not just as communication, but as a way to surface deeper change and invite others in?

   
   

This Is About More Than Coaching

It’s about the kind of world your organisation is helping to build.

Are you working with coaching suppliers who see leadership development as part of a living, tangled, complex forest of change? Or ones who are still selling tidy solutions to messy problems?

This is the moment to ask:

What paradigm are you buying into?

And what story is your supply chain already telling - whether you know it or not?