Dr. Corrie Jonn Block, PhD, DBA

The Amateur CEO: Is Coaching as Much of a Performance Differentiator for Executives as It Is for Athletes?
Forbes
June 23, 2026

Imagine telling an Olympic athlete to compete without a coach.

You'd laugh.

Yet companies do exactly that with their CEOs every single day.

If you're an executive who believes you've outgrown coaching, you've probably just identified the biggest obstacle to your own performance.

Olympians have coaches.
Formula 1 drivers have coaches.
Navy SEALs have coaches.

The world's best athletes wouldn't dream of competing without one.
Yet somehow, some CEOs believe they're the exception.

Why?

Is the boardroom less competitive than the Olympics?
Are billion-dollar decisions easier than championship finals?
Or is it simply easier to protect your ego than challenge your thinking?

The research is uncomfortable.

The performance gap between coached and uncoached executives closely mirrors what we see in elite sport. The science is there. The meta-analyses are there. The evidence is there.

The most dangerous executive isn't the one who doesn't know.

It's the one who believes there's nothing left to learn.

​12 Reasons Artificial Intelligence Will Make You Obsolete
Linkedin
April 13, 2026

As of early 2024, the International Monetary Fund estimated that almost 40% of global employment is exposed to AI, and in advanced economies, it’s about 60%. If you’re reading this from a nice office, a Zoom-safe background or a business-class lounge, you are not “safe.”

Your Future Self Is Watching
Corrie Block
February 27, 2026

Every decision you make today is shaping the leader you’ll have to live with tomorrow. That voice in the back of your mind? The one

The Rise of the Fireproof Leader
Corrie Block
February 24, 2026

We live in an era obsessed with optimisation; peak performance, productivity hacks, AI tools, and mental toughness routines; but here’s the reality: all the metrics in the world can’t prepare you for the moments that test your core.

AI Can’t Coach Your Conscience
Corrie Block
February 10, 2026

Machine intelligence is rewriting how we decide, but not why we decide. And that’s the part no algorithm can touch.

When Leadership Feels Lonely
Corrie Block
January 13, 2026

Everyone talks about the rewards of leadership, the influence, the purpose, the vision, but no one talks about the cost.

The Silent Extinction of Original Thought
Corrie Block
December 09, 2025

When everyone’s repeating the same prompts, innovation dies quietly.

Burnout or Breakthrough?
Corrie Block
November 25, 2025

Every leader I know is tired. Not just “need a vacation” tired. I’m talking about the kind of exhaustion that creeps into your ambition, the kind that dulls the fire you used to wake up with.

Fire first. Data second.
Corrie Block
November 11, 2025

AI isn’t changing the world. People using it bravely are.

Why External Speakers Outperform Internal Ones at Corporate Events.
Corrie Block
October 08, 2025

Imagine you’ve been invited to a corporate event. You sit down, ready to be inspired, and then—bam! The speaker is your CFO, delivering the same message you heard last quarter, dressed up in different PowerPoint slides. Now, compare that to a world-renowned industry expert walking onto the stage, sharing cutting-edge insights and engaging stories from outside your company's walls. Which one keeps you awake?

Why External Speakers Outperform Internal Ones at Corporate Events
Corrie Block
October 08, 2025

Imagine you’ve been invited to a corporate event. You sit down, ready to be inspired, and then—bam! The speaker is your CFO, delivering the same message you heard last quarter, dressed up in different PowerPoint slides.

Why External Speakers Outperform Internal Ones at Corporate Events.
Linkedin
October 07, 2025

Imagine you’ve been invited to a corporate event. You sit down, ready to be inspired, and then—bam! The speaker is your CFO, delivering the same message you heard last quarter, dressed up in different PowerPoint slides.

The Myth of Balance
Corrie Block
September 23, 2025

Everyone’s chasing balance.
Work-life balance. Emotional balance. Leadership balance.

It’s become the holy grail of modern success.

The ROI of Executive Coaching: What’s Your Income Potential If You Actually Invested in Yourself?
Corrie Block
July 30, 2025

You’re sitting on a mountain of potential income, but chances are—you’re too distracted, too risk-averse, or too comfortable to climb it

The future belongs to coached leaders.
Corrie Block
July 22, 2025

“You won’t be replaced by AI in future. But you might be replaced by someone who knows how to lead in a world run by it.”
This is no longer the age of steady hands and safe decisions.
This is the age of mental agility, emotional clarity, and radical reinvention.

The headlines are relentless:
AI is rewriting industries.
Geopolitics are redrawing maps.
Climate disruption is rewriting supply chains.
And your team? They’re exhausted, overstimulated, and unsure whether leadership is even still worth following.

If you’re leading right now, you’re already leading through chaos.
The only question is: Are you adapting fast enough?

In Chief Executive Coach, I challenge a dangerous assumption at the top: that leaders can “figure it out” on their own. That because you’ve made it to the C-suite, you’ve outgrown the need for growth.

That mindset? It’s a relic.
And like the dire wolves, those prehistoric predators who looked like grey wolves but couldn’t evolve fast enough to survive, leaders who resist coaching will become obsolete.

Because here’s the truth:
You are no longer just a strategist.
You are an emotional thermostat for your team.
You are the signal in a sea of digital noise.
You are the filter between human potential and algorithmic overwhelm.

Coaching isn’t optional anymore. It’s operational.

It’s the system upgrade that helps you:
Filter pressure into clarity.
Turn uncertainty into decision velocity.
Transform fatigue into focused momentum.
The best leaders today aren’t the ones with all the answers.
They’re the ones who ask better questions, faster, and with more self-awareness than ever before.

And the ones who thrive?
They’re the ones who don’t just lead their teams, they lead themselves first.

A coach isn’t there to fix you.
A coach is there to refine the edge you didn’t know you had.

So ask yourself:
Are you clinging to past wins, or building the mental infrastructure for tomorrow’s reality?
Are you leading like you’ve arrived, or like you’re just getting started?

Because in this new world?
The future won’t be built by the loudest voices.
It will be built by the most coachable minds.

Lead like an athlete; Why discipline will outrun disruption.
Corrie Block
July 15, 2025

“In the age of distraction, discipline is a revolutionary act.”
Motivation is exciting.
Discipline is eternal.

Meaning is the new metric
Corrie Block
July 05, 2025

“The real resignation isn’t loud; it’s silent. It’s the soul quietly exiting the Zoom room.”

The authenticity paradox; Lead with soul, not just strategy.
Corrie Block
May 25, 2025

“The future will belong to the leaders who are strong enough to be seen, and wise enough to know when.”
Let’s tell the truth: leadership is lonely.
It’s not the kind of lonely you can admit in public, it’s the existential kind.
The kind that hits when the cameras are off, and the team is looking to you for certainty you don’t have.

In Chief Executive Coach, I explore what I call the Authenticity Paradox, the razor’s edge every modern leader is now walking.

Because today, everyone’s watching.
And in a world obsessed with “authentic leadership,” the pressure to be open, vulnerable, real, is mounting. But here’s the paradox:
Show too little, and you seem robotic. Show too much, and you lose the room.

It’s not just about emotional intelligence anymore, it’s emotional precision.

Add to that the return-to-office culture wars, remote work rifts, and a workforce navigating burnout, grief, and global trauma, and you’ve got leaders operating in unprecedented complexity. This isn’t business as usual. This is a spiritual marathon disguised as a job title.

And most leaders?
They’re exhausted from pretending they’re not exhausted.

That’s where coaching steps in, not as a fix, but as a refinement.
A high-trust space where leaders can process fear without losing face. Where clarity replaces noise, and power is found not in control, but in congruence.

Because the best leaders today don’t have all the answers.
But they know how to ask the right questions.

Here’s what coaching reveals:
That power doesn’t come from the boardroom. It comes from alignment.
That vulnerability isn’t weakness, it’s accessibility, when applied with intention.
That people don’t follow your LinkedIn posts, they follow your consistency.
In an era where everyone has a platform but few have presence,
your ability to self-regulate, self-inquire, and self-evolve is your edge.

So ask yourself:
Are you holding the room… or hiding in it?
Are you leading from a script… or from your soul?

Because the future won’t be built by those who perform leadership.
It’ll be built by those who embody it.

View more at my Ted Talks online.

Coaching is not a luxury, it’s your survival strategy.
Linkedln
April 22, 2025

AI is rewriting job descriptions before your job description hits “Save.” Economic storms are no longer if, they’re when. The next cultural wave or climate emergency? Already on the horizon. And here you are, expected to lead through it all like the rules haven’t changed.

How to Combat Workplace Burnout for Remote Workers
Corrie Block
March 14, 2025

Remote work has revolutionized the modern workplace, offering flexibility and convenience. However, it also presents unique challenges that can lead to burnout.

The illusion of success: are you winning or just keeping score?
Linkedln
February 27, 2025

From an early age, we are wired to chase accumulation, more titles, more money, more status. We define success by outward markers, measuring our worth by how far ahead we are, rather than how deeply fulfilled we feel.

Yet, repeatedly, executives at the top admit to the same realization: They climbed the ladder only to realize it was leaning against the wrong wall.

The executive’s greatest blind spot: are you coaching yourself into a corner?
Linkedln
February 25, 2025

Executives hire financial advisors, strategy consultants, and performance analysts. Yet, when it comes to their own personal growth, many operate under the illusion that success at the top is a solo journey. It’s not.

Beyond Career Happiness — The Pursuit of Fulfilment
Corrie Block
January 31, 2025

When it comes to career fulfilment, many of us aim for happiness as the ultimate goal. However, Dr. Corrie Block challenges this conventional wisdom.

Work-Life Balance
Corrie Block
January 24, 2025

Finding a work-life balance is a topic that’s just as much at the forefront of our lives today as it was last year and the year before

Setting and Achieving Goals with a Business Coach
Linkedln
November 19, 2023

Today’s business world is dynamic and fast-paced, so high-level managers face some crazy challenges in maximizing their personal and professional performance. To unlock their full potential and achieve remarkable success, many managers are turning to a powerful resource: a business coach.

Chief Executive Coach
Corrie Block
February 17, 2025

Why traditional executive coaching is broken; and how to fix it. The neuroscience behind elite decision-making and high performance. How to shift from a “listener” to a high-impact executive coach. The biggest mistakes leaders make; and how to avoid them. How to build a coaching culture that fosters accountability and innovation.

Love @ Work
Passionpreneur Publishing
December 15, 2023

Love@Work challenges the norms of our professional environments, where the most powerful human connection, love, is often conspicuously absent.

Love@Work is more than just a concept; it’s a movement.

This book demystifies the process that leads an employee through the stages of feeling heard, understood, valued, and loved in the workplace.

It highlights the benefits to the organization along each step, and lays out a blueprint for organizational leaders to follow in order to curate the experience of Love @ Work for themselves and their teams.

Dr. Block’s perspective is not limited to theoretical concepts but extends to practical implementation.

His journey as an expert in Business Strategy, Organizational Behavior, and Leadership uniquely positions him to lead discussions on this innovative concept.

Dr. Block believes in the transformative power of love in the workplace and aims to explore how embracing this connection can reshape organizational culture, leadership, employee engagement, and redefine success.

Dr. Block’s vision for this topic is to inspire, provoke thought, and initiate meaningful change in workplaces across the globe.

Business Is Personal
Passionpreneur Publishing
June 04, 2021

After years of working in strategy and employee engagement, founding 7 companies of my own in media, education, consulting, and even textiles, and after working in more than a hundred companies as a strategist, I finally figured out the most profitable thing a company could do is to engage with their employees’ personal strategy.

And I was running strategy and employee engagement programs for large companies like World Bank, ADNOC, Inifiniti, and Microsoft.

IT WAS A HUGE SUCCESS

My client companies were totally transformed.

I achieved:

+19.7% improvements in leadership proficiency +18.0% improvement in management performance

+18.7% better corporate communications

+23.7% improvements in empowerment

+27.4% higher values-driven leadership

+22.2% improvements in personal life efficacy

The ROI on my executive coaching was more than 788%! But I was only training a few hundred employees a year. And there were literally millions of people that needed this information. I KNEW I COULD IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE FOR MILLIONS OF PEOPLE, I HAD TO MAKE THIS KNOWLEDGE AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE. So I wrote my notes and stories down. And I published the book to give the strategic advantage of meaningful work-life to EVERYONE that wanted it.

If you want to live a more meaningful life at work, recognize what has ALWAYS BEEN TRUE: Business is Personal.

Spartan CEO
Passionpreneur Publishing
May 15, 2020

A Spartan CEO, as depicted in Dr. Corrie Block’s book, is a resilient and strategic leader who combines the determination and discipline of ancient Spartans with ethical leadership and innovative thinking. They excel in guiding their teams through challenges, fostering adaptability, and making decisions for sustainable success, embodying strength, vision, and integrity in their leadership approach.

AI isn’t coming for leadership roles, it’s coming for leaders without clarity, courage, or conscience. The real challenge isn’t about keeping up with the tools; it’s about staying human enough to use them wisely. The next generation of leaders will win not by mastering code, but by mastering connection.

The Amateur CEO: Is Coaching as Much of a Performance Differentiator for Executives as It Is for Athletes?
Thinkers360
June 29, 2026

The Amateur CEO: Is Coaching as Much of a Performance Differentiator for Executives as It Is for Athletes?

(Hint: yes, it is)

This article was originally published in Forbes at: https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbescoachescouncil/2026/06/23/the-amateur-ceo-coaching-as-performance-differentiator-for-executives-as-well-as-athletes/ 

Take any world-class athlete and strip away their coaching staff. No performance psychologist, no tactical advisor, no one to review film with on Monday morning after the Sunday night upset. How long before results slip? Nobody would even suggest the experiment… because it would be absurd. Yet we run that exact experiment with executives every single day, and wonder why executive performance remains the number-one organizational bottleneck.

I get it, you’re offended already because I’m calling your uncoached executives amateurs. Well, what if I was following the science on this? Would you be brave enough to have a look at it with me? 

A review of meta-analyses and peer-reviewed studies reveals a mountain of evidence showing that coaching functions as a comparable performance differentiator for executives and athletes alike. So why is coaching mandatory for athletes but optional for executives? I honestly don’t understand this and I welcome your help. Don’t we want them both to win? Don’t investors, employees, and the executives themselves all benefit when leaders perform better?

Come with me. I want to show you something.

The Core Parallel: The Numbers Match

The most compelling evidence is that meta-analytic effect sizes for athletic and executive coaching fall in the same moderate range:

Domain	Effect Size	Source	Sample
Sport psychology interventions	d = 0.51 (moderate)	Lochbaum et al., PLOS ONE (2022)	30 meta-analyses, 16 constructs
Executive coaching (RCTs only)	g = 0.59 (moderate)	de Haan & Nilsson, AMLE (2023)	37 RCTs, n = 2,528
Workplace coaching (all studies)	g = 0.43–0.51	Nicolau & Candel (2023); Wang et al. (2022)	20 studies, n = 957
Coach education → athlete outcomes	g = 0.38–0.47	Li et al., IJSSC (2025)	k = 193, N = 180,658
Executive coaching → goal attainment	g = 1.29 (large)	Wang et al., JWAM (2022)	k = 20, n = 957

Both athletic and executive domains consistently land in the 0.4–0.6 range for overall performance effect. In plain language: coaching moves the needle by about the same amount whether you’re preparing for the Olympics or the boardroom.

How Much of the Outcome Is the Coach?

University of Chicago researchers Berry and Fowler found that coaches explain 20–30% of the variation in team success across Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, and college sports. That’s not a trivial number. What it means is that swapping a below-average coach for an above-average one in the NBA is worth roughly 14 extra wins per season.

On the corporate side, Gallup’s research shows that managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement, and engagement is the closest corporate equivalent to wins and losses. More engaged employees are 17% higher performing and 21% more profitable, with 41% less absenteeism and 59% less turnover. Both findings confirm the same thing: the person leading the team is the single most impactful variable in performance outcomes. 

Of course the sports team and its captain always has a coach. So why not in business?

The Gap: Coached vs. Uncoached

When you index baseline performance at 100, the improvement pattern is strikingly parallel:

Athletes with sport psychology support perform roughly half a standard deviation better than those without. That’s like moving from the 50th to the 70th percentile of performance.
Executives who receive coaching report a 70% increase in individual performance, 50% in team performance, and 48% in organizational performance, according to ICF survey data. (Worth noting: these are self-reported figures from coaching clients, which makes them directionally powerful even if the exact percentages should be taken with a grain of salt.)
The Multiplier Nobody Can Ignore

Here’s where it gets really interesting. The landmark Olivero, Bane & Kopelman study in Public Personnel Management, found that management training alone improves executive productivity by 22%. But add coaching on top of that training and productivity jumps to 88%. That’s a four-times multiplier from the same people, in the same organization.

This mirrors what we see in athletic coaching, where structured psychological skills training delivers effect sizes of g = 0.83 compared to uncoached controls. Training gives you knowledge. Coaching gives you application. The gap between the two is where performance lives.

If you want to know where the expanded margin of your company is really hiding, try the shadow of your executive’s ego. 

The ROI Tells the Same Story

Executive coaching ROI: A widely cited MetrixGlobal study found a 788% return on investment at a Fortune 500 company. The ICF/PwC Global Coaching Client Study (2024) reports a more conservative (and arguably more reliable) median of 5–7x the investment, with 86% of organizations reporting positive returns.
Athletic coaching: In competitive sports, “even a small beneficial effect on performance derived from a psychological intervention may prove the difference between success and failure.” And the measured effect (d = 0.51) is actually larger than the effect size for healthy eating and exercise interventions (d = 0.31). 

Read that again. 

Coaching has a bigger measurable impact on athletic performance than diet and exercise. And we’re still treating executive coaching like a expense, an L&D luxury item, or a punishment for remedial performance?

Perhaps it’s time we strengthened our corporate wellness programs, boardroom mindfulness sessions, and executive meal plans with something the data says works better… good executive coaching.

Tell Me Again, Why Aren’t We Doing This?

No elite athlete would compete without a coach, yet a Stanford-Miles Group survey found that nearly two-thirds of CEOs don’t receive any outside coaching or leadership advice, while 100% said they were open to it. The demand is there. The evidence is there. The gap is a failure of organizational competence, not of available science.

Here’s what the research shows:

The effect sizes are comparable: moderate (g ≈ 0.5) in both athletic and executive domains.
Coaching explains a significant portion of performance variance in both arenas: 20–30% in sports; 70% of engagement variance in the workplace.
The “training alone vs. training plus coaching” gap is massive: from a mere 22% to a staggering 88% for executives, mirroring how psychological skills training outperforms no-intervention controls for athletes (g = 0.83).
Both domains show that the coach-performer relationship itself is a key mechanism driving outcomes.
The data doesn’t just suggest a comparison here, it shows, rather compellingly, that coaching occupies the same evidence tier as a performance differentiator regardless of whether the arena is a stadium or a boardroom.

If you wouldn’t send an athlete to the Olympics without a coach, don’t send your executives to compete in the market without one either. Unless, of course, you’re not that bothered about winning.

References

1. Lochbaum, M., et al. (2022). Sport psychology and performance meta-analyses: A systematic review. PLOS ONE, 17(2), e0263408. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0263408

2. de Haan, E. & Nilsson, V.O. (2023). What can we know about the effectiveness of coaching? A meta-analysis based only on randomized controlled trials. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 22(4). https://journals.aom.org/doi/10.5465/amle.2022.0107

3. Nicolau, A. & Candel, O.S. (2023). The effects of executive coaching on behaviors, attitudes, and personal characteristics: A meta-analysis of randomized control trial studies. Frontiers in Psychology. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10272735/

4. Wang, Q., Lai, Y., Xu, X. & McDowall, A. (2022). The effectiveness of workplace coaching: A meta-analysis of contemporary psychologically informed coaching approaches. Journal of Work-Applied Management, 14(1). https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/jwam-04-2021-0030/full/pdf

5. Li, C. et al. (2025). Coach education and athlete outcomes. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/17479541241283442

6. Berry, C. & Fowler, A. (2019). Do coaches matter? Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago. https://news.uchicago.edu/story/how-much-do-coaches-impact-success-sports

7. Gallup (2015). Managers account for 70% of variance in employee engagement. https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/182792/managers-account-variance-employee-engagement.aspx

8. Olivero, G., Bane, K.D. & Kopelman, R.E. (1997). Executive coaching as a transfer of training tool: Effects on productivity in a public agency. Public Personnel Management, 26(4), 461-469.

9. MetrixGlobal (2023). Executive coaching ROI study. As cited in Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertamatuson/2023/06/16/unlocking-potential-how-executive-coaching-transforms-organizations/

10. ICF/PwC (2024). Global Coaching Client Study. https://highperformanceorgs.com/executive-coaching-roi/

11. American University (n.d.). The ROI of executive coaching. https://www.american.edu/provost/ogps/executive-education/executive-coaching/roi-of-executive-coaching.cfm

12. Psychologische Interventionen im Sport (2023). Effects of psychological interventions on competitive athletic performance. Sports Medicine. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10933186/

13. Stanford GSB & The Miles Group (2013). Executive coaching survey. https://suzipomerantz.com/executiveexcellence/stanford-executive-coaching-study-reveals-most-ceos-want-coaching/

14. How coach leadership behavior influences athletes’ performance (2025). Frontiers in Psychology. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11794316/