Coaching a Partner Cohort Through a Growth Inflection Point

The challenge

The firm's Gulf practice had roughly tripled headcount in under five years. A number of recently promoted partners had strong technical track records but had never led teams of this size or owned client relationships at C-suite level; several were, in effect, doing the job before they had been given the tools for it.

At the same time, the practice was heading into a wave of senior partner retirements over the following three years, and leadership had no structured way to build bench strength for succession beyond informal mentoring that varied wildly by office.

What we did

• Ran 1:1 diagnostic interviews and 360-degree feedback for each participant, then matched them with a certified executive coach selected for industry and leadership-style fit
• Built the coaching curriculum around three themes the diagnostic surfaced: leading through influence rather than authority, owning client relationships at C-suite level, and delegation as teams scaled
• Delivered the programme across three cohorts of around 15 people over 14 months, combining monthly 1:1 coaching sessions with quarterly peer learning circles
• Designed a lightweight, cohort-level progress framework against the three behavioural themes, calibrated so firm leadership could see impact without breaching individual coaching confidentiality
• Trained a group of senior partners as internal coaching sponsors so the practice could sustain the programme after the engagement ended