Group executive coaching for UK founders and CEOs. Peer coaching cohorts — hear how other captains weathered your storm.
The founder alone on the bridge
You know your ship better than anyone.
You know how she handles in calm water. You know where the paint's thin and where the deck creaks. You know your crew — who steers steady, who panics, who's ready for more. You know the cargo you're carrying and where it needs to land.
You drew the map yourself. Every waterway on it, you sailed. Every rock marked, you hit. Every safe passage, you found the hard way.
And then a storm rolls in that you haven't seen before.
You look at your map. There's nothing on it. You look at your crew. They're looking at you. You look at the sky, and you realise — for the first time in a while — you don't know which way to turn.
This is the moment every CEO knows. The one where your own experience runs out before the decision has to be made.
The peer table
Now imagine, before you touch the wheel, you get to walk into a room.
Around a table are six other captains. Each of them has sailed their own ship. Each has weathered storms you haven't. Each carries a map with different waters marked — waters you have never seen.
One of them has captained through a fundraise gale. One has navigated a co-founder split. One has grown from a five-person deck to a fifty-person crew. One has sold their ship and stayed on to run her. One has watched a market shift under them and pivoted mid-voyage. One is younger, still learning, and asks the questions the older captains have forgotten to ask.
You describe your storm. You show them your map.
And every one of them says something different.
Five different views on the same storm
The first captain says: I've been here. What you're seeing on the horizon is not the storm. The storm is behind it. Turn now.
The second says: I don't think you have the crew for what you're about to attempt. Before you turn, look at your first mate.
The third says: I made this same decision three years ago. The right call. And it nearly broke me. Here's what I would do differently.
The fourth says: You're not asking the right question. You're asking how to weather the storm. The question is why you're carrying this cargo in the first place.
The fifth says: I disagree with all of them. Here's what I saw when I stood on your deck.
The sixth doesn't say anything for a while. Then quietly: You already know the answer. You've been circling it for weeks. Say it out loud.
Five different perspectives. Five different maps. Not one of them the same as yours.
The captain's move
Here is where the work begins.
The captain's job is not to average the advice. Not to take the loudest voice. Not to pick the one that flatters what you already wanted to do.
The captain's job is to synthesise.
Which piece of which map applies to your ocean, this storm, this ship, this cargo, this crew, this moment in the voyage? Which perspective is signal, and which is a memory of a different sea? Which piece of unwelcome truth is the one you needed to hear?
That synthesis — the ability to hold six perspectives at once and pull the right threads through — is the skill peer coaching builds. It is the muscle no solo captain develops on their own bridge, because a solo captain has only ever had to hold one perspective: their own.
The strategy you build after that room is not any single captain's advice. It is yours. But it is informed by waters you have never sailed. And that is what makes it stronger than any decision you could have made alone.
Why peers, not consultants
Consultants are useful. So are advisors. So are 1:1 coaches. Each has their role in the harbour.
But a consultant is a lighthouse operator. They stand ashore. They know the coastline in detail. They can warn you of the rocks. They cannot tell you what it is like to sail into that particular fog, at night, with a crew you're not sure of, in a ship that's carrying more than she should.
A peer is another captain. Someone who has stood on their own bridge and made a call under pressure. Someone who has been wrong and paid the price and been right and still not slept for a week.
Both are useful. The difference matters when the storm is emotional as well as commercial — which, for founders and CEOs, it usually is.
Peer wisdom does not replace expertise. It sits alongside it. And it is the piece most founders never structure into their week.
The Compass approach to Group Executive Coaching
Jonas Partners runs peer coaching cohorts for founders and CEOs of UK businesses between roughly £2m and £20m in revenue.
Format
- Cohorts of eight to ten members. Small enough that every voice is heard. Large enough that the perspectives are genuinely varied.
- Monthly sessions.
- Twelve-month membership. Renewals by mutual agreement.
Optional add-on
- 1:1 coaching with a Jonas Partners coach, threaded into the cohort rhythm — for personal context that would not fit the group.
Method
Sessions run on the Compass methodology — the same four-part framework used across Jonas Partners' 1:1 executive coaching: North Star, Execution, Self-Awareness, Winning. Each session works through one part deliberately. Members bring live challenges and get worked-through in front of the group.
Every member gets airtime. Every member gets challenged. No one hides.
Facilitation
Sessions are led by Jonas Partners' senior coaches — ICF PCC certified, with thousands of hours of executive coaching between us, and all practising founders, operators or board advisors ourselves. Cohorts are currently led by our founder, Warren Jonas. The facilitator's role is not to teach. It is to hold the room, ask the questions that surface the real issue, and make sure every perspective in the cohort actually lands with the captain in the hot seat.
What you do not get
- A network event with drinks. This is work.
- A talking shop where nobody says anything true. Our job is to prevent that.
- Generic advice from coaches who have never operated. Our facilitators are practising founders and board advisors — we have built and run businesses across multiple sectors and two decades.
- A closed feedback loop. Every session ends with each member committing to one specific action for the next cycle. Accountability is structural, not optional.
Who it is for
This works when the fit is right.
It is for you if:
- You are a founder, CEO, or senior operator of a UK business between roughly £2m and £20m turnover.
- You are past the survival phase and into the strategic-choice phase — where the decisions in front of you are hard because there is no obviously right answer, not because you are short of options.
- You know that your own thinking has hit its limits and you want to compound your judgement by drawing on people who have navigated waters you have not.
- You are willing to speak honestly about what is actually happening in your business and to hear honest challenge back.
It is not for you if:
- You want validation. This is not that room.
- You are looking for tactical training. Go book a course.
- You are not prepared to give as much as you take — every member is expected to work every other member's problems, not just their own.
Application-based. Not everyone who applies is accepted. The cohort composition matters more than the headcount.
What changes over twelve months
Cohorts run for a year for a reason. Real leadership shifts take time to lay down.
By month three: you have a small handful of people whose judgement on your business you genuinely trust — who know your context, your crew, your cargo.
By month six: the questions you bring to the group start becoming the questions you ask yourself first, before you walk into the room. The room becomes your internal advisor.
By month nine: you start noticing when you are about to make a decision your peers would push back on. Your own filter gets sharper.
By month twelve: your strategy-making is measurably better — informed by perspectives you didn't have twelve months ago, sharpened by challenges you couldn't run past anyone before. And you are ready to keep going, because the room compounds.
The final thought
The founders and CEOs who make the best strategic decisions do not do it because they are the smartest people in their business.
They do it because they build the biggest thinking bench around themselves. They put themselves in rooms where their own perspective is only one of many, and they build the discipline to synthesise the rest.
Group executive coaching is one of the highest-leverage ways to do this. Not a network. Not a course. A room of captains, meeting regularly, working each other's real challenges.
If you want to know what it would be like to have six other captains helping you think, apply below.
Frequently asked questions
What is group executive coaching?
Group executive coaching is a structured peer coaching format where a small cohort of founders or CEOs meets regularly with an experienced facilitator to work through each other's real business challenges. It combines the peer perspective of a mastermind, the professional discipline of executive coaching, and the accountability of a structured programme. Sessions are agenda-led, every member gets airtime, and every member is expected to work every other member's problems, not just their own.
How is group coaching different from 1:1 executive coaching?
One-to-one coaching gives you deep, personalised focus on your own thinking and situation. Group coaching gives you something one-to-one cannot: five to nine other perspectives on the same challenge, from people who have navigated waters you have not. The two are complementary, not competitive. Many members of the Jonas Partners cohort also work with one of our coaches 1:1 — the group compounds the 1:1 work, and the 1:1 work sharpens what you bring to the group.
How is group coaching different from a mastermind or peer network?
A mastermind is usually member-led — everyone shares, but there is no structural facilitation to make sure the honest thing gets said or the right question gets asked. A network is looser still — often built around business development rather than strategic thinking. Group executive coaching sits between the two: peer-based like a mastermind, professionally facilitated like a coaching engagement. Our role as facilitators is to hold the room, surface the real question, and make sure the perspectives in the cohort actually land with the person in the hot seat.
What is the time commitment?
Monthly sessions across a twelve-month membership. Members can add optional 1:1 coaching with a Jonas Partners coach, threaded into the cohort rhythm, for personal context that would not fit the group. The space to think between sessions matters as much as the sessions themselves — most members find that is where the value compounds.
Who tends to be in the cohort?
Founders, CEOs, and senior operators of UK businesses generally between £2m and £20m in turnover, past the survival phase and into the strategic-choice phase. Sectors are deliberately mixed — the value of the cohort is diversity of perspective, not sector expertise. Members are selected on fit, not first-come-first-served.
How do you make sure the cohort is the right fit?
Every applicant has a discovery conversation with Jonas Partners before being accepted. The conversation covers where you are in your leadership journey, what you want from the room, and what you would bring to it. Fit is a two-way decision. Not everyone who applies is offered a place, and not everyone who is offered a place says yes. The cohort composition is more important than the headcount.
When does the next cohort open?
Cohorts open when the current composition allows a new member to join with clean rhythm — typically two to three times per year. Book a discovery call using the link below and we will let you know the next available start point during the conversation.