By Arun Agrahri ·
How does your coach see what you do between executive coaching sessions?
Between executive coaching sessions, your coach learns what you did in four ways. You tell them, your colleagues tell them, your package includes contact between calls, or a record of the work shows them. The coaching guides we read lean on the first two. Each way misses something, and you can set up three of them this week.
Best for: founders and executives who pay for their own coaching and want their coach to see more of the weeks between sessions.
Four ways your coach learns what happened.
Two of the four depend on what you remember to send.
| Way | What it shows | What it misses | Who does the work |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you tell them | Your reading of the week, in your words | What you didn't notice, or chose to leave out | You, before each session |
| What your colleagues tell them | How a change lands with the people around you | Anything since they last gave feedback | Colleagues, when someone asks them |
| Contact built into the package | A moment while it's fresh | Anything you don't send | You, if the package includes it |
| A record of the work | What was said and done | Context, and how people felt | A recording or software; you choose what to share |
What you tell them
You keep notes after a session and arrive at the next one with an update. ExecOnline's coaching guide tells clients to "Prepare updates and lessons learned for your next session." Envisia lists "journaling, experiments, or practice assignments" as the work between sessions.
Self-report is cheap and quick, and it passes through your memory and your mood on the day you write it. A habit you can't see in yourself won't make it into the update.
What your colleagues tell them
Colleagues see how you behave in the meetings they share with you. Marshall Goldsmith's stakeholder-centered model has you pick a behavior, involve the people around you and then follow up: "Every couple of months, go back to the people you've involved."
Goldsmith reports 86,000 mini-survey responses from 11,480 managers. Leaders who kept following up with colleagues showed "striking improvement." Leaders without that ongoing dialogue improved by an amount that "barely exceeded random chance." The pattern held with an external coach, an internal coach or no coach at all.
Colleague feedback is slow. It comes every couple of months, after people have had time to notice a change.
Contact built into the package
Some packages include messages between calls. ExecOnline says its coaches "are generally available during scheduled sessions," and sends questions in between to its platform or support team. The City of Albuquerque's coaching contract includes "Unlimited email communication" between six calls held every two weeks. Contact reaches your coach while a moment is fresh, but only for the moments you think to send.
A record of the work itself
The fourth way is evidence: a meeting recording, a transcript, a document, a list of what you promised and to whom. A record shows what was said in the room, including the parts you'd leave out of an update. It can't show context or how anyone felt, and recording a meeting needs everyone's consent.
Sources checked 19 October 2026.
What you do between sessions.
The change happens in your own meetings, between sessions with your coach.
DIPAC's guide puts it this way: "The sessions are scaffolding. The building happens in between." Academic Search's coaching FAQ says the same: "The real work of executive coaching occurs between coaching sessions."
That work comes in three kinds.
Practice one behavior in real meetings. If you're working on listening, your next staff meeting is the test.
Do what you agreed to. Your coach will ask about the commitments from the last session and the ones you made to colleagues.
Write down what happened. A two-line note after a meeting is easier to bring to a session than a week rebuilt from memory.
What a coach misses between sessions.
I saw it as a manager, and Preston saw it as a CEO.
Over the last ten years (2016–2026) I've managed more than 100 direct reports across three startups where I hired and scaled the teams, coaching them in weekly 1:1s and quarterly OKR reviews. I could see that people were busy. I couldn't see the two things that mattered: whether they were working on the most impactful thing, and whether they were doing it the best way.
Preston Silverman founded a Y Combinator-backed edtech company and ran it as CEO for more than eight years, through its exit, hiring and managing the team himself. Since then, Preston and I have advised founders and executives across edtech, and we saw the same gap from the other chair.
An executive coach sees less of your week than a manager does. A manager works in the same company. A coach often hears about your work once or twice a month, in a session, and works from what you bring.
What between-session contact costs and includes.
Published offers price contact very differently, and three of the six below don't say whether they include it.
| Offer | Price | Scheduled calls | Between sessions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commit Action, Accountability Coaching | $199/month, monthly billing | Weekly 20-minute calls | SMS and WhatsApp support included |
| Boss as a Service, Super Procrastinator | $100/month, monthly billing | 1 hour of calls per month; flexible cadence | Morning and evening check-ins, Monday to Saturday |
| Jennifer Bellingrodt, Psy.D., Executive Coaching | $1,000 prepaid for four sessions | Four weekly 60-minute sessions | Between-session support not specified in the cited PDF |
| Kerri Burchill, PhD, Senior executive: six-month coaching package | $6,997 for six months | Sessions, duration and between-session support: not specified in the cited PDF | Ask the provider what the package includes |
| Jess Todtfeld / Success in Media, Executive Presence Coaching | $1,000–$15,000 stated engagement range | Virtual sessions or in-person intensives; scope by quote | Follow-up and between-session review depend on scope |
| KNP Communications, Private Executive Presence Coaching | Not published on the cited page | One-to-one coaching; cadence not specified | Between-session support not specified on the cited page |
Terms from each provider's page or rate sheet, checked 19 October 2026. Confirm current terms with the provider. Download all eight offers and the sampling method (JSON).
Two of these offers sell the contact itself. Commit Action's $199 plan pairs a weekly 20-minute call with "Unlimited SMS and WhatsApp checkins & support from your coach." Boss as a Service's $100 plan promises "Daily check-ins, morning & evening. Mon–Sat." Success in Media puts "follow-up sessions and between-session review" at the higher end of its $1,000 to $15,000 range.
The other three sources say nothing about contact between sessions. Silence on a rate sheet tells you nothing either way, so ask before you sign.
How to give your coach a better view.
You can start the first three steps this week.
1. Pick one behavior. Choose the one thing you and your coach are working on, such as letting people finish before you answer, so everyone knows what to look for.
2. Name two colleagues who see it. Tell them what you're working on. Every couple of months, ask them Goldsmith's question, "How can I be better?", and pass the answers to your coach.
3. Send a five-line update the day before each session. Write what you tried, where it worked, where it didn't, one commitment you kept and one you missed.
4. Share one meeting, with everyone's consent. Pick a meeting where the behavior comes up, tell the room you're recording, and send your coach the recording or transcript.
5. Agree in writing what your coach keeps. Decide how long they store what you share, and what stays yours.
Where GameTape fits.
GameTape is one of the four ways: a record of the work.
Every method above depends on someone remembering to write or ask. No coaching layer runs through every work hour. Preston and I built GameTape for that gap.
GameTape is a Mac app. It observes supported work on your Mac as text and records the meetings it detects during your work hours. You can stop taping at any time to skip a meeting. Each morning it hands you a debrief that shows where your time went, and it keeps a ledger of the commitments it caught.
You read the debrief, and GameTape gives your coach no access to it. You choose what to bring to your next session, such as a meeting where you talked over someone or a promise that slipped. GameTape costs $95 a month, on top of what you pay your coach.
A record can't replace a coach. A coach can question how you read a meeting and rehearse the next one with you.
A promise with enough detail to review.
In the meeting: “I will send Acme the pricing doc by Thursday.” The useful details are the action, the recipient and the deadline.
Ledger · Illustrative
Scheduled
Send Acme the pricing doc by Thursday
At the next review: Check that Acme received the document. Editing the draft does not count as sending it. If the record shows no delivery, ask what happened.
Straight answers.
It depends on the package. Commit Action's $199 plan includes unlimited SMS and WhatsApp check-ins, and the City of Albuquerque's coaching contract includes unlimited email between sessions. ExecOnline says its coaches are generally available during scheduled sessions. Ask before you sign, and get the answer in writing.
It varies by coach and package. Academic Search says a leader and coach typically meet once or twice a month for 60 minutes. The City of Albuquerque's program runs six calls, one every two weeks, over three months. Agree on the cadence with your coach at the start.
Some do. Navalent describes coaches drawing on 360-degree feedback and stakeholder interviews. In Marshall Goldsmith's model, you go back to the colleagues you involved every couple of months and ask for suggestions. Ask your coach whether they speak to colleagues directly or rely on what you bring.
Yes, if everyone in the meeting agrees. A recording shows your coach what was said, including the parts you'd leave out of an update. Agree how long your coach keeps the file. One meeting where your coaching goal comes up is enough to start.
No. GameTape is a $95/month Mac app that hands you a morning debrief from your observed work and recorded meetings. You read it and choose what to bring to your coach. A human coach can question how you read a situation and rehearse the next conversation with you.
Bring the week to your next session.
Take one moment from tomorrow's debrief to your coach. Preston and I built GameTape to review our own work.
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