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Illustrative stock photograph of a team meeting in a glass-walled office; not a Zendesk workplace or program participants

Unlock your organisation’sinitiative.

Give your people the confidence to put ideas forward and take on responsibility. Help their managers make room for that initiative through coaching shaped around your organisation’s priorities.

See how Zendesk helped people step forward

91% reported increased motivation to take on more responsibility and own their careers.

Trusted by leaders to light their way

Customer logos: Airbnb, FICO, Reddit, Contentful, AppFolio, PlayStation, Waymo, Barracuda, Accenture, Couchbase, Twitch, Ubisoft, Zendesk, Unity, Tripadvisor, Mattel, AppLovin, HelloFresh, Best Buy, Nebius, Morningstar, CrossCountry Consulting.

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What is leadership coaching for initiative and innovation?

Leadership coaching for initiative and innovation helps people move from seeing an opportunity to acting on it: putting forward an idea, testing a different approach or taking on responsibility. It also helps managers invite those contributions, give useful feedback and make space for learning. Torch shapes individual, team and group coaching around the actions your organisation needs. Zendesk’s Ignite experience offers a case in developing the motivation and support to step forward, through mentoring and group coaching for underrepresented talent and their managers.

Zendesk paired career ambition with the support to act.

Zendesk wanted more underrepresented employees to see themselves as future leaders and have the support to pursue that ambition. As documented by The Josh Bersin Company, Ignite connected personal development with manager involvement, so participants did not have to navigate career growth alone.

The eight-month program combined external mentoring with Torch-led group coaching on strengths, career choices, influence and networks. Tailored learning and access to executives offered additional perspectives. Managers followed a parallel pathway focused on the awareness and support their people needed.

How the coaching worked

More motivation to step forward. Support people valued.

The Josh Bersin Company’s case study documented these midpoint findings from Ignite’s combined mentoring, group coaching and learning experience. Percentages represent reported responses, not percentage increases or measured innovation gains.

  1. 91%

    Reported more motivation to take responsibility and own their careers

    Participant-reported midpoint finding.

  2. 95%

    Reported high satisfaction with mentor pairing and mentoring

    Participant feedback on one-to-one mentoring.

  3. 93%

    Reported a behaviour change that supports business impact

    Reported behaviour, not independently measured business impact.

  4. >80%

    Of managers found group coaching useful and engaging

    Manager feedback on the parallel program experience.

How Zendesk helped people take the next step.

Stock photographs illustrate coaching themes, not this customer’s participants or program sessions.

  1. Find a direction worth pursuing.

    One-to-one mentoring paired participants with experienced operating leaders from the Torch community, bringing an outside perspective to their career choices and development.

    Personal direction through external mentoring

  2. Build the confidence to contribute.

    Torch-led group coaching explored strengths, career direction, influence and networks, helping participants work through challenges alongside peers.

    Group coaching on strengths and influence

  3. Help managers create the opening.

    Managers took part in their own group coaching and learning pathway, covering psychological safety, sponsorship and career development to better support underrepresented talent.

    Manager support, not participant effort alone

  4. Bring leadership within reach.

    Executive fireside conversations, masterclass videos and tailored learning gave participants access to senior perspectives and opportunities to ask questions.

    Leadership access and continued learning

Where would more initiative make a difference in your organisation?

Initiative needs room for a different view. Help people put forward ideas and concerns, and help managers respond with curiosity before deciding what to do next.

  1. Define the initiative you need.

    Name the ideas, improvements or responsibilities you want people to take forward, connected to a real business priority.

  2. Find what holds people back.

    Identify where unclear expectations, access barriers or a defensive response to challenge make people hesitate to contribute.

  3. Develop people and their managers.

    Shape individual, team or group coaching around raising concerns constructively, listening without defensiveness and making clear commitments.

  4. Match experience to the challenge.

    Choose coaches whose leadership experience and approach help your people test assumptions and decide how to act.

  5. Turn an idea into a next step.

    Use human coaching and optional Spark AI rehearsal to practise putting forward an idea, challenging a decision respectfully or responding to disagreement.

  6. Look for initiative in real work.

    Review agreed actions such as ideas tested, improvements taken forward and responsibilities assumed, alongside feedback on manager support.

Experienced leaders. Worth your leaders’ time.

  • Every coach is ICF-credentialed
  • At least five years of coaching experience
  • Industry leaders with first-hand experience
  • Many doctoral-qualified psychologists and therapists
  • Matched to leaders and their responsibilities
Meet our coaches

  • Coach Sandeep

    Led businesses at Gap Inc. and Mars before coaching C-suite leaders and founders. MBA, Georgetown.

    Previously at
    Gap Inc. Mars The Body Shop

  • Coach Evelyn

    Former CEO of The RNA Society and COO of Parkinson Wellness Recovery. PhD, Cornell.

    Previously at
    RNA Society Parkinson Wellness Recovery American Chemical Society

  • Coach Rafal

    Former Chief Learning Officer at Deloitte Switzerland and Vice President at Barclays. ICF Master Certified Coach.

    Previously at
    Deloitte Barclays JP Morgan

  • Coach Sheryl

    Former Executive Vice President at Wells Fargo and Managing Director at Barclays.

    Previously at
    Wells Fargo Barclays UBS

  • Coach Jorge

    Former CEO of Axion Energy, a BP joint venture, and SVP of Global Strategic Partnerships at BP.

    Previously at
    Castrol BP Axion Energy

  • Coach Sophia

    Former Vice President and Business Unit CFO at Kraft Heinz.

    Previously at
    Kraft Heinz Procter & Gamble Walker & Company

  • Coach Jon

    Former Partner at Bain & Company and The Bridgespan Group.

    Previously at
    Bain & Company The Bridgespan Group Bannock Consulting

  • Coach Shirley

    Former Chief People Officer at Zadara and Callisto Media. PhD, Organizational Psychology.

    Previously at
    Zadara Callisto Media

  • Coach Andrew

    Former Chief Technology Officer at Parametric and COO at Synoptic Data.

    Previously at
    Parametric Microsoft Synoptic Data

  • Coach Anita

    Former Partner in Accenture's global strategy practice and Head of Innovation at KPMG Strategy.

    Previously at
    Accenture KPMG

  • Coach Shamar

    Led coaching and development programs at AvidXchange and GEICO. U.S. Navy veteran.

    Previously at
    AvidXchange GEICO U.S. Navy

  • Coach Marie

    Former Head of Commercial Excellence at Merck and Head of Marketing at Novartis.

    Previously at
    Novartis Merck

  • Coach Kevin

    Former VP of Product Management at BILL and Head of Global Product Marketing for QuickBooks at Intuit.

    Previously at
    BILL Intuit LinkedIn

  • Coach April

    Former Director of R&D at Johnson & Johnson. PhD, Organizational Leadership.

    Previously at
    Johnson & Johnson OraPharma Delaware Valley University

  • Coach Don

    Former Executive Vice President and COO at Gateway Ticketing Systems; led IT at Universal Orlando Resort and Walt Disney World.

    Previously at
    Gateway Ticketing Systems Walt Disney World Universal Orlando Resort

  • Coach Catherine

    Former APAC Chief Strategy Officer at Siemens Industry Software and regional director at IBM.

    Previously at
    Siemens IBM Cisco Systems

  • Coach Frank

    Former VP of Professional Services for North America at Unit4 and VP of Customer Success at Actifio.

    Previously at
    Unit4 SAP SuccessFactors Actifio

  • Coach Vanessa

    Former Chief Human Resources Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Executive coaching certificate, Columbia University.

    Previously at
    Michaud Cooley Erickson Wayside Recovery Center Control Data Corporation

  • Coach Jeff

    Former President of Healthcare Solutions at Budco Financial and VP of Marketing and Product Development at Dialog Direct.

    Previously at
    Budco Financial Dialog Direct

  • Coach Andrea

    Former Senior Director of Direct-to-Consumer Marketing at Procter & Gamble.

    Previously at
    Procter & Gamble PayPal

Frequently asked questions about initiative coaching.

How is initiative different from motivation?

Motivation is the desire to do something; initiative means taking a purposeful next step. Coaching can help a person identify that step, examine what is holding them back and prepare to act. Managers also need to provide clear expectations, feedback and opportunities, so initiative is not treated as a matter of confidence alone.

What did The Josh Bersin Company report about Zendesk?

Its case study documented Ignite’s design and midpoint feedback: 91% reported more motivation to take responsibility and own their careers, 95% reported high satisfaction with mentoring, 93% reported behaviour change supporting business impact, and more than 80% of managers found group coaching useful and engaging. The report does not establish an independently measured innovation gain, promotion rate or causal effect of coaching. It does not supply the survey respondent count or response rate.

How does this relate to innovation?

Putting forward ideas, seeking feedback and trying a different approach are practical actions a coaching program can focus on. They are not the same as proving an increase in innovation. Zendesk’s case supports the motivation and manager-support story; an innovation-focused program should agree its own measures, such as ideas tested or improvements adopted, from the outset.

Would our program look exactly like Ignite?

No. Ignite combined external one-to-one mentoring, group coaching, tailored learning and executive access for underrepresented talent, with a parallel manager pathway. Torch can shape individual, team and group coaching around your priorities and participants. Optional Spark AI can support practice between sessions today; it was not a component of the historical Ignite experience described here.

What could change if more of your people stepped forward?

Give initiative a direction, and your people the support to act.

Become a Torch Changemaker:

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