Four Boards, One Coach: The Conflict Rule Nobody Enforces
Coaching two executives competing for the same job is a declared conflict at every major accreditor. It is also, quietly, routine.
NEW YORK, 24 AUG — Every code of ethics in the field requires disclosure. None of them define to whom. The coach discloses to the client; the client is the executive; the executive has no interest in the disclosure travelling further.
In a succession process this produces a specific, familiar situation: one coach holding confidential material from two or three candidates, and a board that does not know it.
Coaches who work at this level describe managing it by refusal — declining the second engagement. Buyers describe something else: a small number of coaches who are specifically valued for knowing everyone in the room.
No accreditor contacted for this piece has removed a credential over a succession conflict. Two could not say whether a complaint had ever been filed.
- ethics
- conflicts
- boards