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At the INSEAD Executive Coaching, we believe that effective leaders contribute to the creation of sustainable organisations that are great places to work. Our outlook is that the ways leaders deal with their people and the type of organisational culture they create, are the real and enduring sources of competitive advantage.
Our mission is to develop reflective leaders who create results-driven, adaptive and innovative organisations by putting people first.
We deliver 200+ leadership development programmes or modules per year at Degree and Executive Education levels. Every session is guided by our philosophy of closely integrating spaces for action and spaces for reflection to achieve the maximum impact. We work across all three INSEAD campuses: Fontainebleau, Singapore and Abu Dhabi. INSEAD Executive Coaching faculty and coaches also travel throughout the world to deliver company-specific learning. In addition, we offer follow-up sessions remotely using a variety of technologies from simple phone calls to customised social media and webinar platforms.
Exceptional leadership development coaches
INSEAD Executive Coaching is well known for the quality and diversity of its coaches. Our 130+ multi-cultural expert leadership development coaches, resident in 20+ countries and working worldwide are all carefully selected for their expertise in individual coaching. In addition our pioneering group-coaching techniques – developed especially for executives to learn from and support each other – make us really stand out when it comes to leadership development.
10+
years experience coaching senior leaders
95%
speak at least two languages
97%
have lived and worked abroad
100%
have industry and business experience
60%
are women
Leadership development
across INSEAD programmes
Executive Education
Our executive coaching team works closely with clients on Customised Programmes to design and deliver tailored leadership development activities that create unique, impactful and transformational experiences.
Executive Education
From exploring power or influence and driving organisational change to developing negotiation styles and coaching teams for high-performance results, leadership development is an integral component of many Open Programmes.
Master Programmes
Delivered throughout all INSEAD Master Programmes, our comprehensive executive coaching follows and shapes participants' personal and professional development.
Our methodology
Leadership development sessions
IThese include group and/or individual coaching – with a practice-focused perspective. Among the services we offer are: experiential learning and leadership simulations; action learning and project support; outdoor group dynamics; fully facilitated indoor group work; and traditional classroom sessions and case study analysis.
Group coaching
This powerful technique was pioneered at INSEAD and our deep expertise in this approach remains our specialty. It involves a group of 5 to 6 participants working with a highly trained coach who understands and makes sense of their current situation. Through various exercises, participants develop a deep insight into each other’s personal and professional situations, analysing the results of the 360-degree exercises and giving each other direct and personal feedback. Participants are often surprised by the personal impact this process has on them. At the end of the session, each participant develops their own personal development plan.
Leadership In Action
Participants have a chance to express themselves in a group context, reflect on their behaviour and its consequences, and experiment with different strategies and actions. The coaching groups experience various situations that require setting a strategy, aligning objectives, planning, distributing roles, controlling processes and execution. The groups result and the behaviour of individuals within the group will be examined after each exercise.
Participants learn much about each other and themselves in a real life situation. The process is facilitated by the coach, who sets up structured, honest, fair and non-judgemental feedback.
Our instruments and tools
We design and implement innovative assessment instruments and simulations – all based on our own research – to measure and build skills, personality and culture. We combine these with coaching for maximum impact.
The xChange Simulation
The xChange Simulation is a powerful computer based learning tool that helps leaders at all levels ask: how do you exercise leadership in a rapidly changing world?
Hear why it’s an integral part of Executive Education programmes at INSEAD.
Feedback instruments
INSEAD has used its research expertise to create and continually update its instruments that are used to understand current performance. These tools help managers to explore the gap between the way they see themselves and the way they are seen by others. Participants, colleagues and even family members are asked to complete detailed surveys, which our coaches are trained to analyse and interpret.
The results lead to the creation of the individual development plan. INSEAD's feedback instruments include the following:
Global Executive Leadership
Mirror and x360
To understand individual leadership styles
Personality
Audit
To describe the individual's personality
Leadership Archetypes
Questionnaire
To improve the functioning of teams
Organisational
Culture Audit
To capture the culture of the entire organisation

Derek Deasy
Affiliate Professor of Organisational Behaviour
Derek is Affiliate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD. His interests include leadership development, burnout and resilience, the impact of emotionally demanding tasks on work groups. Derek Deasy is directing the INSEAD Coaching Certificate, the Advanced Certificate in Group Coaching and the Personal Leadership Programme.
Derek works regularly in leadership development programmes for high potentials and senior executives at INSEAD, and has contributed to open and in-company executive Programmes, as well as to the full time MBAs, at the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark, and at IMD in Switzerland. He has given input on the psychodynamics of organisations to the Clinical Psychology doctoral programme at Trinity College, Dublin. He also has a varied coaching and consulting practice, currently including individual work with corporate leaders and work with teams in the technology sector and in entrepreneurial ventures.