The Blog
We find ourselves here again; the end of another year! So here are our annual musings, to wrap up the year. And it’s been a big one for us at Coachable. If we were hooting our own horn, we’d say “it’s been our best year yet”, and in many respects, it has. But it’s also been a year of learning a few tough lessons, as well as a couple of pretty big personal right hooks (actually, make that right and left hooks).
We interviewed our founders, Liz Whitney and Ally Jones, to get their (very honest) reflections on year three at Coachable.
Liz: Improvements. Third year in and whilst life has thrown us some interesting challenges, we’ve still found the energy to keep pushing for better in what we’re doing. We’ve been improving the business, our programmes with Emerge and Further getting make-overs, our systems with automation and digital platforms, our marketing and even how we work. Sometimes rather scrappily at first, but always with the intention of improving the experience for either our clients or our team. That’s meant investing in some rather unsexy stuff, but it means we can increase our impact in a sustainable way. And we’ve both been through home-renovations in our spare time…so this has definitely felt like the theme of the year on a personal front too.
Ally: Team work. We’ve both been put through the wringer this year. With Liz’s partner breaking her back in January, and me having major surgery in September, it’s been a lot. Thankfully we’ve both made a good recovery, but working together as a team to continue to deliver excellence for our clients, look after our health and squeeze in a holiday has been testament to having each other's backs and having strong communication. Our team of coaches have continued to receive outstanding feedback (a perfect 10/10 on our recent open programme!), which has enabled us to “work on the business” more as we grow and mature. None of that would be possible without our team and their dedication to their profession.
Liz: We’ve got more ideas than we know what to do with, so it’s always a case of choosing the ones we think are going to have the most impact. The 3rd book is going to kick off the year with a bang, and that may well dictate whatever we do next. We’ve fully automated our 360 tool now, and we’re exploring how it can be customised for bespoke questions - alongside executive coaching this could be an exciting new proposition for executive teams, who let’s face it - don’t get nearly enough feedback on their leadership.
I’d actually really like to be partnering with a cool company who wants to design an exceptional leadership programme - because that’s where I personally get a lot of my excitement from year to year. I love the creativity of creating something bespoke.
Ally: There’s so much we want to do! And I’d love to tell you everything now, but that leaves nothing to the imagination. However, we’re launching our third book in the new year, which we hope will be a game changer for teams responsible for designing and delivering leadership programmes. We’ve also developed our Advanced Coaching programme, designed to help organisations further embed a coaching culture; I’m excited to see how this lands next year.
Liz: Ah, the question on everyone’s lips. AI is a fabulous tool which when used appropriately, can support leaders in reducing the cognitive load of trying to remember the right way to do everything. We’ve already explored creating our own ChatBot which includes our frameworks, favourite content and best practice from our programmes. Building that into our experience in a way that makes sense for our learners is the next step (and protects our IP - the harder part!).
Ally: I’m glad Liz has commented on this above as our unofficial CTO, because being candid, I’m on the fence with the role AI plays in coaching. For me, coaching (and leadership development) is a uniquely human experience. And I feel sad at the prospect of human development being reliant on technology. I can say with confidence that AI will not replace our coaching offerings, nor make much of (or any) an appearance in our live sessions in 2026. We also love offering our clients a high touch, personal experience. Whilst it might be more efficient to have an entirely streamlined and “off the shelf” experience, we get most satisfaction and joy when we create genuine impact and for me, that still involves some of the magic only a human can bring! However, we are enjoying experimenting with where we can leverage AI to make our internal processes more efficient and support us as we scale.
Liz: As co-founders we have to wear many hats. Ally calls me the CTO as I take on the website and any tech systems related projects, something I quite enjoy learning and playing with, but this year I have learnt my limits.
Trying to embed a new coaching platform whilst onboarding 8 coaches and designing user journeys for multiple coaching paths all at once (whilst setting up andrunning leadership programmes) was waaaaay beyond my limits.
It meant we didn’t really get the best out of our new system for 6 months as we didn’t quite trust it was working properly. Eventually, we hired a specialist in that system to help us design all the flows, train us, onboard the coaches and write our documentation. Now we use it as the backbone of our coaching programmes and it’s made such a difference to the level of transparency and oversight we have. Lesson learnt: Delegate to a subject matter expert. You can’t do everything.
Ally: That it’s a tough market out there and we’ve seen the impact the economy has had on our clients, which has seen some of the brilliant People teams we’ve collaborated with being made redundant. Seeing someone lose their job is always shit (and yes, I needed to swear there). And of course, when redundancies are on the rise, this has a knock on effect on how much organisations invest in leadership development.
Reducing “spend” in L&D is a cycle we see whenever the markets are tough, but I’m always disappointed to see it happen. Especially when the cracks start to show and the impact of not investing in people is visible. I’m preaching to the choir when I say the risk of not investing in leadership development is significant and has a long-term and far-reaching impact that significantly outweighs the impact investing in leaders would have.
The lesson? The cycle is yet to be broken!
Liz: I’ve had quite a few ‘proud moments’ this year. We’ve really grown as a business and worked hard to make that happen, not just for us but for the team around us. Our rather lofty moon shot goal is to make 100,000 Coachable leaders in the next 10 years. Whether that’s through our books, programmes or by creating internal programmes and coaches. So I’m proud when we do anything that supports that goal. Especially when we finish a programme, see the NPS scores and hear from those leaders the impact we’ve had, and they share something they’ve actually changed in what they are doing. Because that’s the real reason we’re doing this. Less shitty bosses all round.
Ally: Soooo many things! The leaders who prioritised their development alongside competing priorities. Our coaches who knock it out of the park with their impact scores. Our programmes that continue to have far reaching and organisational-wide impact, and being shortlisted for Education Business of the Year for it. Having our best financial year yet (and again being shortlisted for two growth awards). And for how we supported each other as founders through what’s been a tough personal year.
It’s been bloody great.
Liz: Well, assuming that the AI bubble doesn’t burst, we can expect more about how to use AI as a leader. More AI tools. And probably a lot more questionable uses of AI, data breaches, privacy concerns, sloppy creativity and an over-reliance on outsourcing parts of leadership which should not be done by AI. Leadership is an intrinsically human role. Humans create connection and resonance. Robots are for efficiency. Let’s not get those two things confused. I’ll get off my soap box now.
With the pace of change that’s happening at the moment, I’ve seen first hand how many leaders are close to burnout. Resilience and the ability to 10x your impact is a competitive advantage for both individuals and companies, and I believe coaching is the most effective way to offer the level of support, reflection and behaviour change needed to make it happen. More leaders being offered coaching on the point of promotion would be a welcome change given the expectations on them.
Ally: Great question. I think we’ll continue to see a focus on developing the human-side of leadership (psychological safety, navigating difficult conversations, leading through change etc), but tied in with digital fluency (yes AI). We’ve seen it over the last few years, but I think we’ll continue to see a shift towards coaching cultures, and the expectation that leaders know how to coach to support teams that are operating in ambiguity and complexity.
As ever, our biggest thanks goes to our wonderful clients who trust us to support their leader’s growth and professional development. There are plenty of bigger fish out there, so we are genuinely truly grateful for the trust in our partnerships, and hope that you’re as proud of our impact as we are.
However you’re spending the festive period, we hope it’s a relaxing and enjoyable one for you. Here’s to a successful 2026 for you all.
Executive Coach, Forbes Coaches Council member, Board advisor and facilitator.
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