The Costliest Corner Leaders Cut: Themselves

Across Indian boardrooms, family businesses and fast-growing ventures, a quiet paradox still plays out. Many accomplished leaders — sharp, disciplined and otherwise unhesitating when it comes to investment — quietly assume that coaching should come cheap. Almost as if it were a peripheral luxury, or worse, a few hours of borrowed wisdom easily replaced by the latest bestseller, an alumni lunch or a sundowner chat at a networking event.

It is an assumption rarely voiced, yet it shows in budgets, in hesitation, and in the quiet surprise when presented with the true cost — and commitment — that serious coaching demands.

These are often the very leaders who will invest crores in marketing campaigns, celebrity associations, or high-profile sponsorships — sometimes justified as brand building, sometimes for the quiet bragging rights they bring. We spend freely on moments that draw visible applause: milestone events, the curated holiday, or the right watch on the wrist. We pay specialist lawyers and doctors for time measured in half-hour blocks, and rightly so, for the depth of expertise they bring.

We retain investment bankers for months to advise on a single deal that may or may not materialise and accept their fees as the cost of wise counsel. We engage architects to reimagine a weekend home, valuing their perspective as much as their design. We hire personal trainers to shape an hour of our day, knowing discipline can fade without external accountability. We turn to image consultants, stylists and interior designers, because how something appears can matter as much as what it is. Yet when it comes to the unseen architecture of our own judgement, resilience and thinking, we often hesitate, hoping that seniority alone will suffice.

We sign the cheques without blinking when it comes to tuition fees or enrichment classes for our children. In cities like Mumbai and the National Capital Region, it is common for high school tuitions alone to run into lakhs each year, because parents instinctively understand the price of falling short. Add to that education consultants to craft profiles and detox counsellors to address everything else. Yet when it comes to investing in ourselves — not for degrees, but for the harder work of refining self-awareness, sharpening judgement and building the emotional steadiness leadership demands — we pause. Consciously or otherwise, we question if it is truly worth the time, the money, or the vulnerability.

At first glance, it might even seem reasonable. After all, what is coaching but conversation? A few hours across a year. Advice, perhaps. Honest feedback, sometimes tough. And surely, if it works for one CEO, can’t the same approach be handed to another? Is that not what networking and experience-sharing are for?

Yet how mistaken that notion is — and what it reveals about how even the most successful among us view their own growth.

Why this paradox? Perhaps because we mistake positions for preparation. Ownership for insight. The act of reaching the top feels like evidence of being fully ready, beyond the need for guidance. Or perhaps it is easier to show a certificate from a pedigreed institution than to admit we have sat across from someone whose sole purpose is to challenge us — an admission that feels too much like imperfection.

Yet what remains unsaid is how success can quietly breed its own illusion of immunity. The glow of recognition, the buffer of wealth, and the echo chambers that form around authority can slowly dull curiosity. We risk assuming past victories will shield us from future storms, or that inherited privilege automatically brings wisdom. It does not.

A good coach cannot do the work for you. They cannot run your P&L, calm family tensions or pivot your legacy business. What they can do is hold up a mirror, ask the questions others hesitate to ask, and help you see the blind spots you have carried for years. They help you make meaning of your own experience rather than copy someone else’s. They help you find clarity when every voice around you has an opinion, and courage when polite nods might otherwise keep you static.

What emerges is not a dramatic reinvention, but something quieter and more lasting: steadier judgement, calmer crisis response, a presence that inspires real followership, and the ability to renew oneself before the market, the family or the board insists on it.

And that is why professional coaching cannot be — and should not be — seen as a marginal cost. It is not a badge, nor a club membership, nor a line on an HR budget. It is part of the private, sometimes uncomfortable, always essential work of staying relevant and resilient. HR can help facilitate this, but must never become part of the conversation or see coaching as a lever of influence, for what passes between coach and coachee rightly belongs only to them. After all, what else is a coach if not a confidential, leadership–business–psychiatrist of sorts, holding up a mirror few others dare to?

And who, after all, will ask the tougher questions of the boss, when it is usually the leader who questions everyone else? That is precisely why a CEO coach becomes essential, offering that mirror in a space where applause has no place and pretence has little use. The danger of ignoring this is not just personal stagnation. The cost often appears years later in brittle organisations, strategies that fail to adapt, or families caught unprepared when succession suddenly turns from distant plan to urgent need. Almost unnoticed, the reluctance to challenge ourselves hardens into an inability to evolve what we lead.

A good coach who knows her or his worth will not compromise on the value the potential coach places on their expertise — whether that is seen in fees, respect or time. Yet many Indian leaders wrongly assume a coach is just another subservient employee, or worse, treat the relationship as something to showcase within their network for quiet boasting rights.

If we, as senior leaders, do not model this mindset of investing in our own growth — because it is essential — how do we expect it to cascade into our teams and organisations? The paradox of leadership is that the higher we rise, the lonelier the work of self-reflection becomes. Which is precisely why the need for external, professional challenge and support becomes greater, not lesser.

In a business environment where volatility is the only constant, the real question is what the true cost is of not investing in ourselves. And that, in the end, is a far greater cost to bear.

Srinath Sridharan is a corporate adviser and independent director on corporate boards. He is the author of 'Family and Dhanda'. X: @ssmumbai.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of NDTV Profit or its editorial team.