Why peer coaching for global executives is a secret weapon

It started in a WhatsApp group. Three of us—women running very different companies across Malaysia, Saudi, and Singapore—had been swapping voice notes after investor calls and board reviews. One night, I typed: “Okay but can we do this properly? Like…peer coaching, not just venting?” That one message changed how I think about leadership support forever. And if you’re a founder or C-suite leader navigating across regions, I need to tell you why.

Peer coaching sounds soft. Sounds like something HR would quietly push into your calendar next to the corporate wellness webinar. But when done right—and I mean intentionally designed, time-protected, safe-room-right—it’s one of the most strategic tools you can build into your leadership system. Especially if you're leading across geographies where vulnerability isn’t always culturally or politically safe. Especially if you’re the final escalation point in a stretched team. Especially if your company’s trajectory outpaces your own clarity.

Let me explain.

Back when I was running my first venture-backed business, I thought growth came from doing more. More strategy, more team rituals, more expert advisors. I had a CEO coach, an exec team, and a high-performing board. But when I hit a wall during our Series B push, none of those were the right format to help me unpack what was really going wrong: I was burning clarity trying to carry everyone’s expectations while pretending I was fine. I didn’t need advice. I didn’t need a therapist. I needed a mirror that could think at my level—and reflect without power dynamics getting in the way.

That’s what peer coaching offers when it's built right. Not mentorship. Not feedback. Not “support.” It’s an intentional container where you meet regularly with other senior leaders—across companies, sometimes across sectors—who are walking through the same fog but can see what you’re too close to notice.

The best peer coaching formats I’ve experienced are tight: three people max, time-boxed to 90 minutes, rotating facilitation, with structure. Not a free-for-all, not a weekly emotional unload. Someone brings a challenge. The others listen deeply, reflect, ask sharp questions, sometimes offer tactics—but more often create a shift in how that person sees the situation. The best ones don’t make you feel better. They make you feel braver.

This works especially well across regional executive cohorts where cultural expectations can make leadership a lonely space. In the Gulf, I’ve seen female founders use peer coaching pods to navigate male-heavy investor rooms and government engagement without turning every encounter into a public proving ground. In Malaysia, it’s helped first-time CEOs operating in family-run ecosystems find their footing without always defaulting to legacy behavior. In Singapore, I’ve coached founders in the fintech and medtech scenes who are so optimized for performance that they forget to question whether they’re solving the right problem—or just solving it faster.

What most leaders underestimate is how little safe space they actually have. Your team needs you to have answers. Your investors need you to hit targets. Your coach might be great—but they’re still outside the fire. Peer coaching works because it brings you into the fire with others who know how to hold the heat without trying to control it.

There’s a moment I still remember from one of our sessions. A founder from Riyadh brought up a struggle around firing a long-time senior hire—someone who had helped build the company but was now blocking growth. She was trying to find a “compassionate solution.” What she really meant was: she was avoiding clarity. And I get that—because I’ve done the same. But the reflection one of us offered shifted everything. “Are you being kind to him—or just trying to protect how you’ll be seen?” That question broke something open. She made the decision that week.

Peer coaching isn’t therapy. It’s not for rehashing wounds or re-centering yourself endlessly. But it does help you unstick the patterns that slow you down as a leader. The ones that don’t show up in your OKRs or board decks but bleed into how you make decisions, how you manage people, how you carry pressure. Because that’s the part that breaks execution. Not the strategy. The energy leak you’re too proud—or too busy—to admit.

But let’s be honest. Peer coaching done badly is worse than nothing. I’ve seen versions of it that devolve into humblebrag circles, performance theater, or worse, unsafe spaces where people posture instead of grow. That’s not coaching. That’s just social signaling with a productivity costume.

The structure matters. You need agreement on confidentiality, time commitment, and what “coaching” actually looks like. You need real intent. You need people willing to listen more than speak, and strong enough to call you on your patterns without turning it into a power play. Most of all, you need peers—not mentors, not juniors, not fans. And yes, that means you can’t always do this with your cofounder. Or your exec team. Or your therapist.

The founders and leaders I know who’ve integrated peer coaching into their growth system don’t do it as a nice-to-have. They do it because without it, their decision-making gets noisier, their people debt piles up, and their confidence takes hits that no amount of public success can insulate them from.

You don’t wait until something breaks to use peer coaching. You build it in while things still feel manageable—so you have the muscle ready when the wave hits. Because it will. That’s the nature of this work. Every level has a new level of clarity required. And often, the cost of not seeing yourself clearly isn’t just personal—it’s operational.

I’ve watched companies stall because the founder couldn’t face a hard truth without framing it as failure. I’ve seen exec teams fall apart because no one had a space to process resentment safely, and it spilled into passive-aggressive execution. I’ve seen incredible leaders make wrong strategic bets not because they lacked data—but because they lacked a sounding board who wasn’t invested in their performance, only their perception.

Peer coaching works because it strips away all that. When done right, it becomes a place where your title doesn’t protect you, your intelligence doesn’t shield you, and your charm doesn’t get you out of the hard questions. And that’s exactly why it works.

I know some of you are reading this and thinking, “Okay, sounds nice—but where do I even start?” The answer isn’t to wait for your company to offer it. You build it. Start with one or two peers you trust across your network. Don’t go for your closest friends. Choose people with different but complementary lenses. Set up a structure. Use coaching prompts. Protect the time. Take it seriously. And most importantly—show up without performance. That’s where the real growth starts.

What I’ve learned through almost a decade of founder coaching, startup building, and cross-border leadership support is this: the strongest leaders don’t just build better products or bigger teams. They build better mirrors. And the best mirrors? They don’t flatter you. They reflect you.

So if you’re leading at scale, across regions, across cultures, and feeling like you’re the only one holding it together—stop carrying alone. Find your peers. Build your pod. Get in the room. Because clarity shared is strength multiplied. And leadership, real leadership, isn’t about doing it all. It’s about doing the hard things—and not doing them alone.