NEWS: Our CEO, Professor Sattar Bawany has been named alongside Dr Marshall Goldsmith and Tony Robbins as the top 15 exceptional executive coaches who have had a major influence in the field of leadership development and coaching.
C-Suite Executive & Transition Coaching
“Executive coaching is a concept that has moved from the world of sports to the executive suite and is designed as a means to help senior executives manage a constantly changing business environment and refine their leadership skills. But coaching is not limited to senior levels. Increasingly, people all over the world, at all levels, utilize executive coaches to help them achieve their full potential. The process focuses on the participant’s goals, reinforces learning and change, and increases self-empowerment.”
– Sattar Bawany, Transforming the Next Generation of Leaders (2019)
Introduction To Executive Coaching
Executive coaching is a concept that has moved from the world of sports to the executive suite and is designed as a means to help senior executives manage a constantly changing business environment and refine their leadership skills. But coaching is not limited to senior levels. Increasingly, people all over the world, at all levels, utilize executive coaches to help them achieve their full potential. The process focuses on the participant’s goals, reinforces learning and change, and increases self-empowerment.
Effective coaching is a major key to improving business performance. Executive coaching focuses on the qualities of effective leadership and improved business results. It is comprised of a series of structured, one-on-one interactions between a coach and an executive, aimed at enhancing the executive’s performance in two areas:
- Individual personal performance
- Individual organizational performance
When executives are first confronted by being coached, they are not always clear about how best to use their sessions and are quite unaware that it is they who set the agenda; in fact, some executives expect executive coaching to be like a one-on-one tailored training program where the executive coach initiates the agenda. Executive coaching teaches the beneficiary (coachee) to minimize, delegate, or outsource non-strengths by changing ineffective behaviors or ineffective thinking.
The upfront purpose of executive coaching is to develop key leadership capabilities or focus required for their current role. But it can also be used as an instrument to prepare them for the challenges of the next level. The whole coaching experience is structured to bring about effective action, performance improvement, and personal growth for the individual executive, as well as better results for the institution’s core business.
An executive coach only has one item on his agenda—the client’s success. This means going where it might hurt and keeping a client accountable for achieving their goals. Coaching helps people grow personally and as professionals. This growth allows them to commit completely to the success of an organization. When professional coaches work with organizations, they can turn performance management into a collaborative process that benefits both the employee and the organization.
Introduction To Transition Coaching™
Figure 1: The Transition Coaching Framework
While many executives are familiar with executive coaching and may even have enlisted the help of external coaches at some point, few understand the right type of coaching approach required to address the challenges faced by leaders in transition situations. Many newly placed executives fail within their first two years in the position for reasons ranging from their inability to adjust to a new role and develop strong relationships, to a lack of understanding of the business imperatives. What new leaders do during their 90 days in a new role greatly determines the extent of their success for the next several years.
What if there was a proven process to support new leaders in their role while significantly increasing return on investment and ensuring a positive economic impact for the organization? One such process is Transition Coaching™, an integrated and systematic process that engages and assimilates the new leader into the organization’s corporate strategy and culture to accelerate productivity.
Transition coaching encompasses the goals of executive coaching but focuses on a specific niche, the newly appointed leader (either being promoted from within or being hired externally). Leadership transitions are among the most challenging situations executives face. Take the case of a leader who might enter a new position thinking he or she already has all the answers; or just the opposite, the leader might lack a clear understanding of what to expect from the role. The goal of transition coaching is to reduce the time it takes for new leaders to make a net contribution to the organization and establish a framework for ongoing success (See Figure 1).
Those promoted from within will have to be mindful that a smooth and effective role-to-role transition is critical to the organization’s business performance. The organization depends on leaders to execute and meet objectives and has placed its bet that internal candidates are better valued and have less risk. Organizations understand that successful transitions ensure future capability.
An unsuccessful transition can negatively impact an organization through poor financial results, decreased employee morale, and costly turnovers. So rather than risk this sink-or-swim gamble, organizations can improve the assimilation process through transition coaching.
Transition coaching is also recommended when organizations assign managers to the role, for the first time, of leading digital transformation projects. If organizations use the right transition strategies, the leader will not only help prevent failure but also create additional value by accelerating the new leader’s effectiveness. Transition coaching engages the new disruptive leader in the organization’s corporate strategy and culture to accelerate performance.
The A.D.A.M.™ Coaching Model
Figure 2: The A.D.A.M.™ Coaching Model
The A.D.A.M.™ Coaching Methodology (See Figure 2) developed by the Centre for Executive Education (CEE) consists of a proven four-step process that is firmly grounded in leadership development best practices.
Assess:
- A series of psychometric assessments and information gathering from various stakeholders’ interviews including the immediate manager of the leader being coached (known as the coachee) will be conducted.
- The primary objective is to determine how the coachee’s performance links to current business goals.
- An assessment of individual skills, styles, values, and leadership effectiveness forms the basis of the action plan.
Discovery:
- Meetings are scheduled to review the assessment data.
- The coachee will be provided with feedback based on the results of the assessments that have been undertaken.
- Development objectives are discussed between the coachee and the coach to link the feedback received with the agreed-upon business goals and professional objectives.
Action Plan:
- The coachee will implement the Development Plan by taking well-defined action steps and regular feedback during scheduled monthly coaching sessions with the coach which enables the coachee to move toward measurable goals.
- “Shadowing” or observation of the coachee at work (as needed and if appropriate).
- Specific actions are taken to develop the key skills and knowledge agreed to in the development plan.
Measure:
- A full evaluation of the coaching process and engagement based on the agreed success metrics at the beginning of the assignment yields objective measures of business results and professional outcomes for both the organization and the coachee.
- Periodically, and after the coaching program, the coachee and the coach will discuss progress against the plan and determine action plans as appropriate.
- A final tripartite coaching meeting will be held, where the results of the coaching engagement will be presented to the sponsor.
The G.R.O.W. Coaching Model
Figure 3: The G.R.O.W. Coaching Model
The GROW model is deservedly one of the most established and successful coaching models adopted globally by professional coaches and internal managerial coaches. It is popularized by the late Sir John Whitmore in his best-selling book, Coaching for Performance.
The GROW model, with the acronym standing for (G)oals, (R)eality, (O)ptions, and (W)ill, highlight the four key steps in the implementation of the GROW model. By working through these four stages, the GROW model raises an individual’s awareness of their aspirations, a greater understanding of their current situation, the possibilities open to them, and the actions they could take to achieve their personal and professional goals. By setting specific, measurable, and achievable
goals, and a realistic time frame for their achievement, the GROW model successfully promotes confidence and self-motivation, leading to increased productivity and personal satisfaction.
Ask Your Master Coach Series
In a world where disruption is the only constant, where AI is rewriting the rules, and where geopolitical and economic shocks ripple across markets daily, even the most seasoned leaders find themselves navigating uncharted territory.
At the Disruptive Leadership Institute (DLI), we recognize that C-Suite leaders need more than frameworks—they need real-time wisdom, grounded insights, and bold strategies that adapt to relentless change.
That’s why we’ve launched the “Ask Your Master Coach Series”—an exclusive opportunity for you to pose your most pressing leadership and organizational questions directly to our Master Coaches. These are seasoned leadership advisors who’ve helped global CEOs and boards thrive through disruption, reinvention, and crisis.
For further details, visit here.
Complimentary Coaching Session for CEOs and C-Suite Leaders
Unlock your full leadership potential with a complimentary 30-minute one-on-one executive & transition coaching session designed exclusively for CEOs and C-Suite leaders. In this confidential session, gain strategic clarity, enhance decision-making resilience, and navigate today’s complex challenges with confidence. Discover how top leaders future-proof their leadership in disruptive times.
Spots are limited—reserve yours today to experience the transformative impact of high-level executive & transition coaching.
👉 Book Your Complimentary Session Now by emailing us at [email protected] or via WhatsApp at +65 9002 3848.
For further details, visit here.
Customized And Scalable Corporate Coaching Solutions


Apart from the C-Suite Executive Coaching and Transition Coaching services, we offer a comprehensive suite of solutions-focused corporate coaching services and support that are customdesigned to help leaders at all levels develop and master the relevant competencies, skills and behaviors that are required to navigate successfully in today’s complex, disruptive, digital-driven and ever-changing business environment.
While each executive coaching engagement is tailored to the leader’s (coachee) unique situation, our ‘A.D.A.M.™’ methodology is anchored in adult transformational learning and behavior theory, active and experiential learning, and guided practice. We partner with relevant stakeholders to identify a leadership coaching plan that is outcomes-focused and measurable.
Our suite of corporate coaching programs includes the following:
- Virtual Coaching: Our proven expertise in executive coaching translates online. Available anytime, virtual coaching provides leaders access to support and development, even outside of traditional business hours. This is increasingly a preferred option by organizations right now to support their leaders to manage immediate challenges and explore solutions to critical questions that will shape the post-pandemic “new normal”. Virtual, not impersonal where we offer an individualized virtual coaching experience that gets results, yet maintains a human touch and personalized feel.
- Group & Team Coaching: In Group Coaching, our coach will facilitate the uncovering and utilizing the knowledge of a group of leaders who have been brought together by a common theme or set of challenges. The coach will help them use this collective knowledge to achieve their individual goals. Whereas in team coaching, the coach role involves the art of facilitating and challenging an existing team to maximize its performance and build high performance and strengthen productivity. When team coaching is embedded into teams, they learn to hold each other accountable, become self-managed and able to thrive in the challenging disruptive workplace of the future.
- Managerial Coaching: We offer a range of options to develop the leader’s coaching competence and leveraging coaching as a performance management tool, create a shift from a ‘command and control’ approach to a more effective, engaging and inspirational leadership style resulting in better communication, reductions in crises and conflict, meaningful employee engagement, more productive work performance and improved business results. By immediately applying the learned concepts with direct reports, peers and colleagues an an-organization wide coaching culture emerges.
- Coaching Certifications Programs: Internal Coach Certification is a rigorous and rewarding 3-6 month experiential learning program that is customized to the needs of the organization. This intensive and highly experiential learning program promotes a coaching culture by equipping an internal team of leaders with a robust set of coaching skills allowing them to coach internal leaders in short term engagements. The participants will learn to coach well, integrate those skills into their “day job” and recognize opportunities for development in others and develop the skills to improve talent retention and loyalty scores resulting in strengthening the leadership pipeline with enhanced productivity and profitability.
- Reverse Mentoring Programs: We partner with organizations to design and implement the conventional mentoring programs for high-potential employees which remains one of the greatest resources available for their development them. In recent years, we have uncovered
that the success of digital transformation within organizations, is sometimes less about the organization and the market as a whole than it is about the people who adopt data and leverage technology for better business results. Reverse mentoring or also known as “upward mentoring” is a great way for senior leaders as the primary learner to learn data and technology skills from younger team members, many of them digital natives, to advance their skills and improve outcomes for the organization.
Introducing our Certified Master Executive Coach (CMEC)
Professor Sattar Bawany serves as the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Disruptive Leadership Institute LLC (DLI), an independent advisory firm headquartered in New York, with a global footprint in leadership development, executive coaching, and board advisory services. He also leads the firm’s Boards & CEOs Advisory Practice worldwide, guiding a team of elite consultants comprising former board members, CEOs, and senior executives from across diverse industries.
Under his leadership, DLI is uniquely positioned to provide trusted, high-impact advisory solutions to boards and C-suite executives. The firm offers expertise on complex governance matters, including management buyouts, board evaluations, dual-class share structures, succession planning, and special committee advisory work. Each engagement is treated as distinct, with tailored strategies that align with clients’ strategic goals and fiduciary responsibilities, delivered with agility, discretion, and deep industry insight.
Professor Bawany brings a rare blend of global executive leadership, academic scholarship, entrepreneurial acumen, and consulting experience. His career spans over 35 years across prominent multinational human capital, management consulting, and executive education firms. He has successfully led strategic initiatives and major client engagements, maintaining strong boardroom and C-suite relationships across sectors and geographies. His impact is evident across industries as he empowers organizations and leaders to thrive in an era of constant change. Through his work as a C-suite leadership master coach, management consultant, board advisor, and keynote speaker, he has become a pivotal figure in the transformation of business leadership for the digital economy.
His excellence in leadership development and coaching has earned widespread recognition. In October 2023, CEO Weekly magazine named him among the Top 15 Exceptional Executive Coaches globally, alongside luminaries such as Dr. Marshall Goldsmith and Tony Robbins. In July 2013, he was honored as one of the “Top 10 Best CEOs from Singapore” by CEO Insights Asia. In November 2019, Professor Bawany received the “Executive of the Year for Human Resources Consulting” award at the Singapore Business Review (SBR) Management Excellence Awards.
An accomplished author, Professor Bawany has written extensively on crisis leadership, disruptive change, and the future of work, contributing thought leadership through his books, articles,white papers, research reports, and global keynotes. With his visionary approach, Prof. Bawany continues to shape the next generation of transformative leaders and trusted boards globally.
For his complete Profile, visit here.
Our distinguished team of highly experienced and seasoned senior-level executive coaches, each possessing a proven track record of enhancing leadership performance and fostering enduring organizational excellence, has earned widespread recognition for their transformative impact on leaders across diverse industries. Our clients consistently express appreciation for our panel of coaches’ insightful coaching style, deep expertise in leadership development, and unwavering commitment to empowering executives to lead with authenticity, resilience, and strategic clarity.
Many of our clients’ testimonials highlight our panel of coaches’ ability to rapidly build trust and rapport with their coachees, creating a safe and reflective environment for personal growth. Executives from multinational corporations, government agencies, and non-profit organizations have described our coaches’ coaching styles and approaches as “life-changing,” noting that it not only enhanced their leadership capabilities but also strengthened their emotional intelligence and decision-making skills. A common sentiment shared by clients is that our coaches possess a rare ability to ask the right questions—those that provoke deep introspection and inspire meaningful change.
The original and complete Testimonials, extract of which is appended below, can be found here.