Helena MarshExecutive coach
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Accepting three principals — Q4 2026

Executive coaching for founders, first-time CEOs and the leaders behind them. One hour a fortnight, twelve months, and a measurable change in how your team experiences you.

Book a chemistry callHow it works
  • 1,400+coaching hours
  • 86executives coached
  • PCCICF credentialed
She is the only person who tells me the truth before the board does.
CFO — Series C fintech

Principals I have worked with lead at

What I believe

Helena Marsh — coaching since 2009

Not a fit: anyone looking for a cheerleader.

See how the work runs

How the work runs

  1. 01Listen

    Before we meet I interview six to ten people around you. You get the unedited themes — what they say when you are not in the room.

  2. 02Choose

    We pick two or three behaviours that would change the most if they changed. Not ten. Not a personality transplant.

  3. 03Practise

    Fortnightly sessions built around real meetings in your diary: the board paper, the hard conversation, the offsite you are dreading.

  4. 04Measure

    Short 360 pulses at the start, midpoint and end. The people around you tell us whether it worked. We adjust until they say yes.

Ways to work together

Every engagement starts with the same chemistry call and the same question: what would have to be different a year from now?

First-time CEOs & new MDs

The First Hundred Days

Land the role before the role lands on you.

14 weeks£9,600
The First Hundred Days

A focused engagement for the first quarter in a bigger seat: reading the board, resetting the team you inherited, and deciding what you will be known for.

  • Six 90-minute sessions
  • Stakeholder map & 360 interviews
  • Board-readiness rehearsal
  • Messaging between sessions
£9,60014 weeks
Start here
Founders & sitting executives

The Principal Year

One hour a fortnight. Twelve months. A different room.

12 months£2,400 / month
The Principal Year

The core engagement. We work on the three or four behaviours that decide how your team experiences you, and we measure them — before, midway and after.

  • 24 fortnightly sessions
  • Three 360 pulse surveys
  • Two shadowing days
  • Quarterly sponsor check-in
  • Unlimited short calls
£2,400 / month12 months
Apply for a place
Executive teams of 5–9

The Leadership Bench

Coach the team that has to carry the strategy.

6 monthsFrom £38,000
The Leadership Bench

Team coaching for the layer below the CEO: how you disagree, how you decide, and what happens in the room after the CEO leaves it.

  • Team diagnostic
  • Four off-site days
  • Individual sessions for each member
  • Operating-rhythm redesign
From £38,0006 months
Talk it through

Evidence

Every engagement is scored by the principal's own team, before and after. These are their numbers, not mine.

  • 92%of sponsors renew or refer
  • +31average shift in team trust score
  • 14 yrsof fortnightly rooms
CFO — Series C fintech

From the numbers person to the second voice in the room.

Promoted from finance director eight months before an IPO process. We worked on presence with the board and on letting a strong team be strong.

+41
team trust score, 12 months
9 of 9
direct reports retained
VP Engineering — public SaaS

Promoted twice in eighteen months.

Technically brilliant, politically invisible. We built a way of being heard in rooms where the loudest voice usually won.

2
promotions in 18 months
+27
engagement, 140-person org
Founder & CEO — climate hardware

A founder who stopped being the bottleneck.

Forty people, every decision through one inbox. A year later the exec team runs the week and the founder runs the next three years.

62%
fewer decisions escalated
2.3×
revenue, same headcount
Chief Executive — hospital trust

Leading eleven thousand people through a merger.

Two cultures, one winter. The work was about tempo: what to decide this week, what to refuse to decide, and how to say both out loud.

11k
staff through the merger
−18%
senior turnover

In their words

Names are shortened at clients' request. References are available after a chemistry call.

05 voices
She is the only person who tells me the truth before the board does.
Priya N.CFO — Series C fintech01 / 05
Six months in, my exec team stopped managing me and started arguing with me. That was the point.
Tomas R.Founder & CEO — climate hardware02 / 05
I came for a promotion plan. I left with a different way of running a room.
Dana K.VP Engineering — public SaaS03 / 05
Helena does not give advice. She asks the question you have been avoiding for a year, then waits.
Sir Alan W.Chair — national charity04 / 05
The 360 was brutal and she made it useful. My team noticed the change before I did.
Marguerite L.COO — retail group05 / 05

About

Before coaching I ran operations for a 900-person business and sat on two boards. I know what Monday morning feels like after a bad Friday board meeting — and I know most of it is fixable.

  • ICF Professional Certified Coach
  • MSc Organisational Psychology, LSE
  • Hogan & LVI 360 accredited
  • Supervised practice since 2011
Helena MarshThe longer story

Insights

All insights
Teams
September 2026 · 6 min

The meeting after the meeting

If the real conversation happens in the corridor, your meeting is theatre. How to move the truth back into the room.

Read
Transitions
August 2026 · 8 min

Your first ninety days are not a plan

New CEOs arrive with a deck. The ones who last arrive with questions and a very short list of promises.

Read
Self-awareness
July 2026 · 5 min

Feedback travels upward slowly

The more senior you are, the older your information about yourself. A practical way to shorten the delay.

Read
Judgement
June 2026 · 7 min

Deciding what not to decide

Tempo is a leadership tool. Some decisions improve with a week; some rot. Telling them apart is the job.

Read

Before you ask

Anything else, ask on the chemistry call — that is what it is for.

Twenty-five minutes, no charge. You tell me what is going on, I tell you how I would approach it, and we both decide whether there is a fit. About half of calls end with a referral to someone better suited.

Most engagements are sponsored by the company; around a third are paid privately. Either way the conversations are confidential. Sponsors hear themes and progress, never content.

A mentor gives you their answers. A therapist helps you heal. A coach helps you see how you operate, decide what to change, and practise it under real conditions — with evidence from the people around you.

We agree two or three observable behaviours at the start and run short 360 pulse surveys at the beginning, midpoint and end. You see the numbers move, or we change the approach.

Sessions run in Marylebone or on video — most clients mix both. Shadowing days happen wherever your work does.

I work with twelve principals at a time and open three places a quarter. If the timing is wrong I will say so on the first call and hold a place where I can.

Accepting three principals — Q4 2026

No deck, no pitch. You talk, I listen, and we both find out whether I am the right person for the next year of your working life.

Executive coaching for founders, first-time CEOs and the leaders behind them.

Contacthelena@helenamarsh.co+44 20 7946 0321ElsewhereLinkedInSubstackPodcast
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