Turning the Flywheel

At Eton Executive Coaching Ltd, we’ve long believed that transformation is not a lightning strike—it’s a slow ignition. It doesn’t arrive in the form of sweeping restructures or flagship initiatives. Instead, change is cultivated through rhythm, coherence, and consistent effort. That’s why Jim Collins’ concept of the Flywheel Effect (Collins, J. (2001) Good to Great) resonates so deeply with our work in executive coaching.

The flywheel metaphor speaks to the nature of momentum. Picture a massive wheel—heavy, inert, resistant to initial movement. But with persistent, values-aligned effort, each turn becomes easier, energy compounds, and motion becomes self-sustaining. That’s how we see the power of executive coaching—not as an isolated push, but as a systemic rhythm that embeds trust, reflection, and transformation.

From Metaphor to Practice: Coaching as Cultural Infrastructure

In our coaching engagements, especially across UK higher education, we witness the flywheel in motion. It begins with deep diagnostics: surfacing complexity, culture, and relational dynamics through methods like the Global Leadership Profile (GLP). This uncovers the mindsets and assumptions shaping institutional life—often invisible but deeply influential.

From there, we move into dialogue. Not transactional conversation, but the kind that builds psychological safety and invites generative inquiry. Leaders begin to see their roles not as fixers or controllers but as sense-makers within evolving systems.

As coaching deepens, leadership behaviours begin to shift. We witness clients aligning their actions with institutional purpose and personal values. Meetings become more human. Decisions feel more coherent. Slowly, leadership becomes something you do with others, not to others.

Then comes the cascade. As leaders model this reflective, values-led approach, they begin to coach others—intentionally or intuitively. Coaching becomes distributed. New conversations emerge in the margins, across silos, and through governance. The culture starts to turn. The wheel spins faster.

With time, coaching becomes embedded. It shows up in strategy reviews, performance frameworks, change initiatives—not as a bolt-on, but as a guiding principle. And as impact grows, so too does reputation. The system becomes self-generating: one insight feeding the next, one leader inspiring another.

Why Higher Education Needs the Flywheel

The UK university sector is under strain—financially, politically, culturally. Yet it also holds incredible regenerative potential. Institutions are brimming with intelligent, committed people who want to do good work in complex times. But they often lack the scaffolding—relational, emotional, systemic—that sustains change. That’s where coaching comes in.

Executive coaching in higher education should be more than performance tuning for senior leaders. It should be cultural scaffolding—supporting adaptive capacity, deep listening, ethical clarity, and systemic sense-making. When coaching is done right—and done rhythmically—it becomes a lever for institutional resilience.

Staying with the Wheel

The hardest part? Staying the course. The Flywheel Effect only works with consistency. There’s always the temptation to jump ship—to chase new trends, chase short-term fixes, or revert to control. But enduring transformation needs rhythm. It needs rituals that reinforce progress, reflection that solidifies learning, and leadership that models vulnerability and clarity in equal measure.

At Eton Executive Coaching Ltd, we partner with leaders who are ready to turn not harder, but smarter. To align effort with purpose, and to trust that small, values-aligned pushes will build real, irreversible momentum.

Because coaching, when woven into the fabric of leadership, doesn’t just create better leaders. It creates systems that think, feel, and adapt together.

If you would like to explore having an Executive Coach, who has over a decade as Vice-Chancellor and CEO, the first step is to book a call to find out more.

Please go to the booking page https://calendly.com/etonexec/30-minutes-initial-call