Coaching senior leaders in Tech and Product
- Vicky Pike
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 21 hours ago
Who supports senior tech and product leaders hold it all together?
Leadership in tech and product is often celebrated for its boldness, vision, delivery, and innovation. But there’s a quieter reality behind it.
For many senior leaders, the real work is invisible: holding the emotional weight of delivery pressure, stakeholder conflict, and team well-being, while making decisions in ambiguity.
And most are doing it alone.
So who’s supporting the people holding it all together?
The hidden leadership load of senior product and tech professionals
At senior levels, whether you're a Head of Product, VP of Engineering, or a CTO, ambiguity, competing priorities, and high-stakes decisions are part of the day-to-day. Yet many of these leaders are expected to navigate it all without structured reflection time, peer support, or access to executive coaching.
Here’s how the pressure often shows up:
No true peers to talk to. The higher you climb, the fewer people understand what it's like to juggle roadmap uncertainty, cross-functional conflict, and organisational expectations, all while trying to protect your team from burnout.
The pressure to appear confident and certain. Senior tech leaders are expected to set the direction and make bold decisions, even when the data is unclear or the team is divided. And while Agile is grounded in reducing unknowns, at the senior levels, there’s little room to say, “I don’t know.”
Senior leaders make dozens of judgement calls each day, from managing product trade-offs to resolving delivery blockers, and invariably, decision fatigue sets in. Without the space to zoom out, it’s hard to ensure decisions are aligned with long-term strategy.
Tech and product executives often hold the emotional energy of their teams. Whether it’s absorbing tension between engineering and product, dealing with underperformance, or supporting colleagues through personal challenges, rarely getting support in return.
This can result in burnout, stagnation, and a feeling of disconnection, not because they lack capability, but because they’re stretched too thin to lead with intention.
The patterns are often predictable, even if rarely named. Senior leaders feel they should always have the answers. That pressure leads to overload, which leads to isolation because there’s no safe space to admit uncertainty. Over time, confidence erodes. Strategic thinking gives way to short-term decision-making. And the loop continues.
I call this the Leadership Pressure Loop: a recurring cycle many senior leaders fall into when under constant pressure without support.
Expectation ("I should have all the answers."). The unspoken belief that senior leaders must always know what to do.
Overload. Trying to meet those expectations leads to firefighting, decision fatigue, and emotional exhaustion.
Isolation. No time, space, or peers to talk it through. Vulnerability feels risky.
Confidence dip. Over time, the constant overload and lack of reflection provoke self-doubt resulting in “Am I even good enough for this?”
Tactical decisions. Decisions are made reactively, based on urgency, with strategy kicked down the road.
And then the loop repeats.
Why senior tech and product leaders lack support
There’s a persistent assumption that once someone reaches senior levels, they no longer need structured support. But that’s a myth.
In reality, senior product leaders and technical executives operate in some of the most complex and high-stakes environments in business. Yet coaching, mentoring, and leadership development efforts are often targeted at early-career professionals or first-time managers.
According to data from the ICF and EMCC, the majority of coaching investment is focused on emerging leaders. Meanwhile, those in roles like CPO, VP of Engineering, and CTO; the people shaping critical product and platform decisions, receive less structured support. This isn’t just a resourcing issue. It’s cultural.
Just as Harvard Business Review has written about the loneliness of CEOs, senior tech and product leaders also struggle to admit vulnerability, ask for help, or create space for strategic reflection. Many fear appearing weak or unfocused in fast-paced, high-performance environments.
Even at the most senior levels, many leaders carry the unspoken pressure to have all the answers. And that expectation doesn’t just appear at the C-suite, it shows up at every level of leadership.
Whether you’re a newly promoted Head of Product, a VP of Engineering, or a long-serving CTO, the internalised belief that you should be able to handle everything, decisively, immediately, and without doubt can be both isolating and confidence-eroding.
But leadership at this level isn’t static. It evolves with shifting markets, emerging technologies, and growing team expectations. Without intentional support, even the most capable leaders can plateau.
What changes with targeted support
When senior leaders have access to executive coaching, peer networks, or facilitated reflection, the transformation is significant:
They make sharper, more strategic decisions, not just reactive ones.
They regain their energy and focus, reducing leadership fatigue.
They communicate with greater clarity and purpose.
They shift from firefighting to forward-thinking.
I worked with a CTO recently at a scaling tech company who was caught in a relentless cycle of firefighting; constantly addressing delivery escalations, technical blockers, and cross-functional misalignment. Strategic thinking was always on the list for tomorrow, pushed aside by the urgency of the day.
They felt they needed to have the answers to everything, from platform architecture to resourcing questions, to new technology, to board-level strategy. And over time, that pressure triggered a limiting belief: “Maybe I’m not knowledgeable enough to lead at this level.” Despite a strong track record, their confidence began to erode.
More deeply, this is a systems problem. When there isn't adequate support for leaders at the top, the whole organisation compensates. People downstream feel the tension. Teams lose clarity. And strategy becomes reactive.
The Mindset Shift: from answering everything to empowering everyone
Through coaching, the CTO and I made space to challenge that belief, explore its roots, and reframe what leadership looks like at their level. It wasn't about knowing everything, it was about creating clarity, making strategic decisions, and empowering others to bring their expertise forward.
The impact was transformative. They began to:
Delegate more strategically
Communicate with calm authority
Rebuild trust in their own judgment
Shift from reactive problem-solver to intentional leader
And the ripple effects spread fast:
Product teams gained clearer direction
Engineering felt more empowered
The leadership team aligned around shared priorities
The business began operating with greater clarity and confidence
Supporting senior tech and product leaders doesn’t just unlock their potential, it unlocks organisational momentum.
Key reflection questions for senior tech and product leaders
If you're a senior product, tech, or data leader, or you’re responsible for enabling one, here are a few powerful questions to consider:
Where do you/they get to think clearly, not just deliver constantly?
Who helps you/they process the tension between delivery pressure, team dynamics, and strategic vision?
What kind of leadership support would allow you/they to lead from clarity, not depletion?
No matter how experienced, smart, or capable someone is, no one leads well in isolation.
But with the right support, space, and challenge, senior tech and product leaders don’t just survive pressure, they thrive through it.
And when they thrive, so does everyone around them.
If this resonated with you, or describes someone on your leadership team, let’s talk. I offer Executive and Leadership Coaching that helps senior tech and product leaders reconnect with clarity, purpose, and performance.