Your First 100 Days as a UK CEO: Choosing an Executive Coach

What to look for in a coach for your first 100 days

Becoming CEO changes both the decisions you own and the relationships around you. Former peers may now report to you. The board wants clarity, employees want direction, and customers still expect delivery. Your first 100 days are an opportunity to establish how you lead—not a deadline for fixing everything.

If you are looking for an executive coach as a new CEO in the United Kingdom, start with the work you need help doing. A useful coaching relationship should support your judgement, not replace it or add another voice telling you how to run the business.

Look for these qualities:

• Relevance to your transition. Ask how the coach would approach an internal promotion, an external appointment or a founder taking on a more structured CEO role.
• Constructive challenge. You need space to think honestly, alongside questions that test your assumptions.
• Clear boundaries. Establish when you are receiving coaching and when someone is offering advice. Neither replaces legal, financial or specialist employment advice.
• Practical working arrangements. Check availability around UK working hours, meeting format and how sessions could fit your first few months.
• Explicit confidentiality. If your company funds the work, agree what, if anything, is shared with the chair, board or People team. Ask how session notes and personal information are handled.

For a UK appointment, familiarity with your particular board and organisational context matters more than generic claims about understanding British business. Ask about relevant experience and any qualifications or professional memberships that matter to your buying criteria; do not assume them from a job title.

Start by clarifying your mandate

Before creating a detailed 100-day plan, speak with your chair or relevant board representative about what you have been appointed to achieve.

Ask: What must be protected? What needs to change? Which decisions are mine, and which require board involvement? What would meaningful progress look like after three months?

Write a one-page working mandate covering priorities, constraints, decision authority and unresolved questions. Share it for discussion rather than treating it as settled. Coaching can help you prepare for that conversation and examine conflicting expectations, but agreement needs to happen with the people who hold those expectations.

A practical rhythm for the first 100 days

Treat the following as a flexible sequence. A turnaround, urgent cash issue or major operational problem may require action before a listening phase is complete.

Days 1–30: listen and test assumptions. Meet your leadership team, key employees, customers and board members. Ask consistent questions: What is working? Where do decisions stall? What should I understand before changing anything? Distinguish evidence from interpretations, including your own.

At the end of each week, note what you have learned, what remains uncertain and which decisions cannot wait. Avoid letting the most confident voice become your only source of truth.

Days 31–60: choose and align. Turn what you have learned into a small set of priorities. Make trade-offs explicit: what will receive attention, what will wait, and why? Clarify ownership within your leadership team rather than becoming the default approver for every decision.

Use coaching time to rehearse difficult conversations, challenge your reasoning and notice where discomfort is delaying a necessary decision.

Days 61–100: establish a sustainable operating rhythm. Review progress with the board and leadership team. Set a manageable cadence for decisions, performance discussions and communication. Explain what has changed in your understanding, rather than defending an early view simply because it was yours.

Choose a few observable signs of progress: clearer decision ownership, agreed priorities or fewer unresolved leadership disagreements. These are review points, not guaranteed coaching outcomes.

Who Jessica Hill Holm is—and where she may fit

Jessica Hill Holm, of Hill Holm Leadership, describes her work as building and transforming innovation-driven companies alongside CEOs and founders. Her positioning combines Executive Coach & Advisor with People & Culture.

That focus may be relevant if your CEO transition involves organisational change, leadership relationships or balancing innovation with clearer accountability. It provides a reason to explore fit—not proof that any particular coaching approach is right for you.

You can review her LinkedIn profile before speaking. Use an initial conversation to ask about her approach, relevant experience, availability for UK-based clients and how she distinguishes coaching from advisory input.

Explore Jessica’s 1:1 executive coaching

Bring one live challenge from your first 100 days: an unclear board expectation, a decision you keep postponing or a leadership relationship that needs attention.

Book a free 30-minute discovery call to explore Jessica’s 1:1 executive coaching and assess the fit together. Alternatively, talk to her AI advisor on this page right now to begin exploring your questions. Keep confidential company or personal information out of that initial AI conversation.