New CEO in India: Choose Coaching for the Decisions Your First 100 Days Demand

What to look for in a first-100-days executive coach

Your first 100 days as CEO are not a race to change everything. They are a chance to understand the business, establish your mandate and build confidence in how you lead. If you are looking for an executive coach for a new CEO in India, start with the decisions and relationships you need support with—not a generic leadership programme.

Your context matters. An incoming CEO in a family-owned company may need to clarify authority with owners. A founder becoming CEO may need to stop being the default decision-maker. A professional CEO joining an investor-backed business may face competing expectations about growth, cash and organisational change.

Look for a coach who asks about these differences rather than treating India, or the CEO role, as a single experience.

Check practical fit before committing

Use an introductory conversation to explore:

• Relevance: Can the coach explain how they would help you work through a live leadership challenge, without promising a particular business result?
• Challenge and support: Will they question your assumptions as well as help you manage pressure?
• Confidentiality: What stays private, particularly if your company or board funds the engagement?
• Boundaries: When are they coaching your thinking, and when are they offering advice?
• Working arrangements: Can sessions fit Indian Standard Time, your preferred language and the pace of your transition?
• Review points: How will you assess whether the work is useful?

If local market experience matters to you, ask directly what experience the coach can substantiate. Coaching is not a substitute for qualified Indian legal, regulatory or financial advice.

Days 1–30: Understand before you announce

Start by clarifying what you have actually been appointed to do. Ask your chair, owners or board: “What must be different in a year, and what authority do I have to make that happen?” Record areas of agreement and unresolved expectations.

Then listen across the organisation. Speak with leadership team members, employees close to customers and delivery, and relevant external stakeholders. Ask consistent questions:

• What is working that I should protect?
• Where do decisions stall?
• What problem do people avoid discussing?
• What would you need from me to do your job better?

Separate observations from interpretations. “Three functions require CEO approval for routine spending” is an observation. “Nobody takes ownership” is an interpretation that needs testing.

A useful coaching agenda at this stage is to examine where your previous role or preferred leadership style might be shaping your conclusions too quickly. Urgent safety, compliance or cash issues cannot wait for a listening exercise; address them with the appropriate specialists.

Days 31–60: Make choices and clarify ownership

Turn what you have learned into a short list of priorities. For each one, define the problem, the accountable leader, the next decision and the evidence you will use to review progress.

Avoid making every concern a transformation initiative. Distinguish between:

• Immediate action: A material risk or time-sensitive commitment.
• Further investigation: An important issue where evidence is incomplete.
• Deliberate deferral: Work that should wait while the organisation focuses.

Clarify decision rights with your leadership team. What can each leader decide independently? What requires consultation? What must come to you or the board? In owner-involved businesses, make these boundaries explicit rather than assuming your title settles them.

Coaching can provide space to prepare for these conversations, test your reasoning and notice where you are taking work back instead of helping others own it.

Days 61–100: Establish a rhythm you can sustain

By day 100, aim for a credible way of leading—not a claim that every problem is solved.

Create a simple review rhythm for business priorities, leadership commitments and emerging risks. Explain what you have learned, what you are changing and what will remain stable. Where your view has changed, say why.

Review your own behaviour too. Are you making decisions at the right level? Can colleagues disagree with you? Does your calendar reflect your priorities, or everyone else’s requests?

Choose a few observable signs of progress: clearer decision ownership, fewer repeated escalations, or more consistent follow-through on leadership commitments. These are review prompts, not guaranteed coaching outcomes.

Who Jessica Hill Holm is—and where she may fit

Jessica Hill Holm, of Hill Holm Leadership, is an Executive Coach & Advisor whose focus includes People & Culture and building and transforming innovation-driven companies alongside CEOs and founders.

That focus makes her worth considering if your CEO transition involves organisational change, leadership team ownership or the people implications of business decisions. It is a reason to explore fit, not proof of India-specific expertise or a guaranteed transition result.

You can review her LinkedIn profile and use a discovery conversation to ask how her support would relate to your mandate, stakeholders and immediate priorities.

Explore Jessica’s 1:1 executive coaching

Bring one real challenge: an unclear board expectation, a decision you keep postponing or a leadership responsibility you need to hand over.

Book a free 30-minute discovery call to explore Jessica’s 1:1 executive coaching and discuss whether the fit and working arrangements suit you. Or talk to her AI advisor on this page right now to begin exploring your questions. Keep sensitive company and personal information out of the chat.