Professional coaching has been good to Alejandra Badilla, helping to accelerate an already rapid rise. The 36-year-old Chilean, who will complete her Executive MBA at Madrid’s IE Business School late this year, started monthly coaching sessions over Microsoft Teams six months into the course. Soon afterwards, she was promoted to a director-level role at the insurance business Chubb, managing a $100mn portfolio of clients.

“I believe that everybody needs a coach, always, because your life is changing constantly,” says Badilla, who switched careers a few years ago, having trained originally as a physiotherapist. She also has experience in the health and financial sectors and was a convert to coaching long before starting at IE. “For me, it is like a religion.”

EMBA providers increasingly emphasise the importance of executive coaching. According to 2023 research by the Executive MBA Council (EMBAC), a network of schools, more than 87 per cent of its member programmes offered a coaching service, up from 58 per cent in 2011.

Prospective students are also demanding coaching. The most recent Tomorrow’s MBA study, by higher education consultancy CarringtonCrisp and the European Foundation for Management Development, found executive coaching was the second most demanded career development service sought by prospective EMBA candidates, just behind mentoring.

Randall Peterson, professor and academic director of the Leadership Institute at London Business School, was involved in the decision to increase coaching for LBS EMBA students six years ago. The shift was driven by the reality that coaching was, even then, standard for senior executives.

“The logic . . . was that these students didn’t have much experience of it, so let’s get them used to the idea of coaching accelerating their careers,” Peterson says.

He adds that it was also important to differentiate in students’ minds the practices of coaching from other forms of careers support. “We wanted to show that it is not therapy and it is also not mentoring, in that they are not going to tell you to do X and Y,” Peterson says. “What coaching does is support your thinking about where you want to go and how you want to get there.”

Coaching EMBA students “presents unique challenges” because they are studying while holding down often senior full-time jobs and balancing competing demands on their time, says Sarah Langslow, executive coach and author of Do Sweat the Small Stuff. But, she adds, it can also be the best time to be coached.

“We can work on their leadership, communication, influence, executive presence and so on in the context of their working environment, not only their MBA class environment,” Langslow says. “Coaching on live challenges allows direct challenge and support, and the chance to follow up to explore the impact of their changes in behaviour and approach.”

Few business schools hire coaches as staff members, usually preferring to use freelance professionals. Los Angeles-based Sue Ann Gonis, a former business executive who has been a certified coach since 2008, supports students on the Executive MBA at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Gonis says she can relate to EMBA candidates who are often in senior roles and looking to switch to other sectors or professions “because I have made a career shift”.

Executive MBA Ranking 2024

This is a story is from the EMBA report publishing on October 14

Her services are also in demand when Michigan Ross students come to LA, where she runs workshops with the cohort and follows up with Zoom calls.

Christoph Kiegler experienced private coaching before his Global Executive MBA at Barcelona-based Iese Business School, having hired a coach to support his rise to partner at KPMG, his employer of more than 20 years.

He and the approximately 40 participants on the GEMBA programme were offered four executive coaching sessions as part of the course’s leadership element.

Kiegler says he valued these interactions highly, particularly as Iese was able to pair him with a fellow German-speaking coach. But he adds that those who want to benefit fully from the process should continue after they graduate, something that Iese also offers.

Coaching supports your thinking about where you want to go and how you want to get there

“As a senior executive, the only way to grow is by such self-reflection, [but] having four sessions with the coach is not enough to get to something very specific,” he says.

Kiegler admits, however, that he has not used an executive coach since the GEMBA, blaming demands on his time. “It is like sports: I know I should do it because it’s good for me,” he says — adding that he also struggles to find time for those activities.

The process of coaching involves more work than just the time spent in one-to-one sessions. Alejandra Badilla’s coach at IE Business School recommended self-help books for her to read, worked together with her to discover aspects of her character that might help in achieving career goals, and assisted with strategies to capitalise on personal strengths.

“If you don’t have the ‘mirror’ to question you all the time, who sees your best skills, you won’t be aware of what you are best able to do,” Badilla says. “I have some friends, older than me, who always had a coach and they are successful people. On the other side, I have friends who are not open to that experience and they have been doing the same [job] for the last 10 years.”

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Barack Obama has said Black men’s support for Donald Trump is “not acceptable”, suggesting they were uncomfortable with a female candidate as the former Democratic president hit the campaign trail for Kamala Harris.

Obama said in an unannounced stop at a Harris campaign office in the swing state Pennsylvania that he had not detected the “same kinds of energy and turnout in all quarters of our neighbourhoods and communities as we saw when I was running”.

The problem seemed to be “more pronounced with the brothers”, Obama said. Support for Trump, whom he said had denigrated women, was “not acceptable”.

“You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses. I’ve got a problem with that,” Obama, the first African-American US president, said hours before he was due to hold a rally for Harris, the vice-president, in Pittsburgh.

The comments come as Harris and Trump vie for undecided voters that could determine one of the tightest White House races in decades. Trump has made inroads with some Black male voters in battlegrounds such as Georgia, in contrast to Harris’s success in energising women voters.

Obama’s intervention comes less than a month before the election and marks a new effort to boost Harris, who was an early supporter of his bid for the White House in 2008. The former president remains among the most popular Democratic politicians and is one of its best communicators.

Obama said on Thursday that he was “speaking to men directly” when he said: “It makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.

“Women in our lives have been getting our backs this entire time . . . when we get in trouble and the system isn’t working for us, they’re the ones out there marching and protesting. And now, you’re thinking about sitting out or supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you, because you think that’s a sign of strength, because that’s what being a man is? Putting women down? That’s not acceptable.”

Harris, the daughter of a Black father and an Indian-American mother, would be the first female US president. Polls put her in a dead heat with Trump in the seven swing states that will determine who wins the White House in November.

Several recent polls have shown that Harris’s levels of support are lower among Black voters, and Black men in particular, than Joe Biden had in 2020.

CHRISTMAS is a magical time of year and one of the best ways to get into the festive spirit is to see a light show. 

There are many stunning light shows across England from Kew Gardens in London to Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.

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Some even serve festive treats including mulled wine and gingerbread men to help you get into the fun of the season. 

Here are the eight best Christmas light shows in England.

Kew Gardens, London

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When Christmas arrives, Kew Gardens is lit up with more than a million bulbs.

It’s an entirely new way to see the 320 acre attraction which is home to over 16,000 species of plants. 

The gardens are bathed in warm, colourful light and the trail is lined with thousands of candles, holographic laser beams and canopies of fairy lights. 

Visiting Christmas at Kew doesn’t have to break the bank either, as ticket prices range from £21.50 for members at off-peak times to £26 at peak times. 

For non-members, it is a little bit more expensive with off-peak tickets costing £25.50 and peak tickets costing £32. 

Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire

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The grounds at Blenheim Palace are already so beautiful that they have been used in Harry Potter, James Bond and Indiana Jones — but Christmas there is really something special.

There are thousands of illuminated lights transforming the historic building and grounds into a winter wonderland.

Kids will love the Neverland in the palace experience, which gives them the opportunity to explore the sparkling state rooms, complete with a model London skyline

Also, £1 will be added at basket stage for each Neverland in the Palace ticket to Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity. 

Longleat, Wiltshire

Bristol is home to the beautiful Longleat House which opens its gates for visitors to welcome them to its annual Festival of Light. 

The grounds, which are home to one of the UK’s most exciting safari parks, will turn back the clock and take visitors on a journey from the dawn of man to the present day. 

But that’s not all because this light show has a Santa train to meet Father Christmas and his elves.

The Festival of Light runs from November 9, 2024 to January 5, 2025.

Oxford Street and Regent Street

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Oxford Street and Regent Street are among the busiest streets in Europe and they are both home to some of England’s best light displays every Christmas.

Both streets have over 300,000 LED lights which provide great photo opportunities while you do some Christmas shopping. 

Regent Street has huge angels of light spanning across the entire street and Oxford Street is draped in over 5,000 white stars. 

Oxford Street will be lighting up from November 5, 2024, and Regent Street will follow suit just two days later. 

Killerton, Exeter

Christmas at Killerton will feature a traditional Christmas experience that includes an enchanted decorated house, which has green garlands, warming fireplaces and lush trees to make you feel cosy.

There is more fun to be had in the garden, which has an outdoor trail for the kids to enjoy.

The gardens and chapel grounds will be covered in Christmas lights, making it the best location for a Christmas family photo so dress to impress.

Christmas at Killerton will run from November 26, 2024 to January 2, 2025.

Bedgebury, Kent

Bedgebury is home to a one-mile magical winter trail which has fields of light and giant luminous seed pods.

Then, you’ll walk through sparkling tunnels of light and the forest is drenched in all of the colours of the rainbow.

It’s perfect for a little Christmas warmth on a cold December day.

Christmas at Bedgebury runs from November 14 to December 31, 2024.

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Mayfield Park, Manchester

The Twilight Trail transforms Mayfield Park into a 6.5 acre Christmas extravaganza with 50,000 lights.

From hot chocolate to toasted marshmallows, there is plenty to eat and drink as visitors wander through the winter wonderland.

Tickets are now on sale. Adult tickets priced at £14 and child tickets are £9, with under two-year-olds gaining free entry.

The Twilight Trail runs from November 14 to December 31, 2024.

Liverpool Cathedral

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The Light Before Christmas 2024: Starlight is an immersive sound and light installation by the acclaimed artistic collective Luxmuralis, in one of the most historic cities in England.

The cathedral will be become a stunning display of sound, light and storytelling — but it only runs for one day so you’ll need to hurry to get tickets.

Head on to Liverpool to catch The Light Before Christmas when takes place on November 30, 2024.