In years of coaching professionals across industries, I’ve had thousands of sessions, and one recurring theme: people don’t want to be asked how something made them feel. They want to know what to do.
Despite the growing popularity of traditional coaching frameworks that emphasize reflection and open-ended exploration, the vast majority of people I work with crave something different: relevance, real-world experience, and actionable advice. They want to know what works—not just for anyone, but for someone who’s been where they are and succeeded.
What People Really Want
Ask anyone who’s spent time working with rising leaders or first-time managers, and you’ll hear the same thing. People want to know:
- What would you do in my shoes?
- How did you handle this situation?
- Can I run something by you and get your take?
This isn’t resistance to growth, it’s a request for grounded, contextual support. It’s why I’ve stopped trying to fit into a traditional coaching mold that doesn’t serve the people I work with. I don’t sit in silence asking “How does that make you feel?” I mentor, I guide, I share my perspective based on lived experience.
And they love it.
The Value of an Expert
Let’s talk about what “expert” really means. It isn’t just someone with a title or a resume. It’s someone who’s been there; a woman who’s navigated leadership, managed teams, dealt with budgets, faced layoffs, and presented to the board. Or someone who has deep domain knowledge in tech, finance, AI, or marketing.
Sometimes you need traditional coaching. But often, especially when skill development is the goal, what you need is someone who understands the context and the content.
This is the difference between theory and practice. Between encouragement and targeted support. Between passive listening and real momentum.
Precision Matters
Companies pour millions into coaching programs, only to discover their people are using sessions to talk about stress, balance, or general career exploration. That’s fine, but if your goal is to build future-ready leaders or upskill for business-critical outcomes, you need more than feel-good conversations.
You need precision. You need experts.
That’s why I love the model Growthspace has built. It combines personalized skill development with expert-led 1:1 support. These are practitioners: people who know what it means to lead a product team, scale a retail operation, deliver a board presentation, or integrate AI tools into daily workflows. And they’re matched to participants based on exactly what they need to work on.
It’s less like traditional coaching and more like a modern apprenticeship. Learn from someone who’s done it. Practice with someone who knows what success looks like in your environment. Get coached, mentored, and trained by someone who’s been where you are (and knows how to get you to where you’re going).
Mentorship Without the Politics
The other benefit of working with external experts? Psychological safety. Many people want a mentor, but internal mentorship programs come with baggage. What if I want to leave the company? Will this person report back? How honest can I be?
An external expert provides the best of both worlds: guidance rooted in experience, with the freedom to be candid. It’s the kind of relationship that builds skills, confidence, and clarity fast.
The Future of Development Is Expert-Driven
We’re in a moment where companies are rethinking what professional development should look like, especially in a world where talent development programs are required to pass the ROI test.
Skill-building needs to be measurable. Development needs to be relevant. And the people delivering that experience need to be able to be direct, focused, and prescriptive. They need to be guides.
So if you’re designing programs meant to truly grow your people, ask yourself: Do you need to focus on measurable and focused skill development?
Then you need expert-led development.
