The CEO Who Stopped Learning

by Tatiana Coviello — HR Consultant, Business Coach, Psychologist

During the years I worked as HR Director in C-suites, I often witnessed a scene I will never forget.

The CEO calls me in. He wants to talk about one of his managers. Sometimes he is frustrated, sometimes cold, sometimes he has already made up his mind. And at a certain point comes the question — the real one:

“Tatiana, do you think he’s coachable? Is it worth investing in him, or should we let it go?”

It is not a simple question, and before saying that a person is not coachable, it is worth working on it together for a while. I would analyze within myself how to give an answer that was not absolute, but above all, open to possibilities. I did my job: try until the end, focus on the positive aspects. Look for that small opening that might trigger change.

But inside me, every time, there was another question — the one I never voiced out loud:

“And you? Have you ever asked yourself if you are coachable?”

Coachability is not for employees. It is for everyone.

Coachability is a concept that research has only begun to study seriously in recent years. The definition I prefer is this: the willingness and ability to seek constructive feedback, to embrace it — even when it hurts — and to translate it into concrete actions that improve one’s performance.

It is not simply “accepting criticism.” It is something more active, more mature: seeking feedback, even when no one asks you to. Especially when no one asks you to.

The research is clear: employees with high coachability perform better, adapt more quickly to change, and are significantly more “promotable” than their colleagues. In a study conducted on 287 professionals in the Health Sciences/Bio-Pharma sector, people with high coachability were 10% more performant, 28% more adaptable, and 30% more promotable — with the same amount of coaching received.

But there is one finding that struck me particularly, and that is rarely cited:

Coachability decreases with increasing age and seniority.

The longer one is in a role, the more the belief consolidates that one already knows. That one has already seen everything. That one does not need to learn from others.

And who has been in a role longer than anyone else in the company?

The CEO.

The paradox of the top

There is a subtle paradox hidden in organizations: the higher a person rises, the less honest feedback they receive (And collaborators had better watch out if they have a highly touchy CEO!) Collaborators quickly learn what can be said and what cannot. Partners choose not to fight those battles. Consultants — often — say what the CEO wants to hear: flattery.

The CEO thus finds himself in a bubble. Not because of others’ malice. Not always because of his own arrogance. Simply because the system around him stops nourishing him with the truth.

And he (or she), in the meantime, continues to evaluate others.

He decides who is coachable and who is not. Who is worth the investment and who should be “let” go. He builds a culture — often without realizing it — in which feedback flows only from top to bottom. He asks his HR to be his Coach and Sparring Partner, but in reality when he starts doing so (and if he has the courage to be one), sooner or later he avoids him. The truth becomes increasingly uncomfortable.

And so no one (not even HR) has the courage anymore to ask: “Have you recently sought feedback that truly challenged you?”

What I saw — and what I did not say

In those years in C-suites I observed brilliant, visionary CEOs, capable of building from nothing. I saw companies grow thanks to their determination. And I saw the same companies slow down, get stuck, lose talent — because that same determination had turned into rigidity.

The signal was always the same: the CEO had stopped asking real questions. He asked for confirmations, not explorations. He wanted execution, not thinking. And when someone brought a different vision, the defense kicked in (if not outright annoyance) — not curiosity.

In those moments the question I had not asked came back to me.

I did not ask it out of respect for the role. Out of professional prudence. Because I knew that conversation, to be useful, would have had to take place in a different context — not as a challenge, but as an invitation, in a moment to create a “safe space.” Then time passes and the safe space no longer exists.

But the thought remained there. I told myself and others told me: wow, but if you cannot do it, who else can? Is it not your role?

Coachability is a multiplier — even for those who lead

Research demonstrates it with precise numbers: leaders with high coachability are 20% more effective than those with moderate levels. Not a bit more effective. 20%.

And it is not just about personal performance. A coachable CEO creates a cascading effect on the entire organization. Teams led by leaders open to feedback in turn develop greater learning capacity. The culture of “I can be wrong and learn” spreads — not through values written on walls, but through the behavior of those at the top. I also had the honor of working with such a CEO, his name was Schneebacher. Periodically he had a coach who accompanied him, let’s say he did his annual “check-up.”

Conversely, a CEO who evaluates coachability in others without cultivating it in himself sends a powerful message, even without opening his mouth: here feedback is for subordinates, not for those who decide. And you as HR conduct Leadership courses, talk about Feedback, and meanwhile inside you feel that strong discomfort, the one you feel when there is a lack of coherence.

Three questions a coachable CEO asks himself

I am not saying that CEOs should become eternal apprentices, nor that they should question every decision. Authority is necessary. Vision too.

But there is a difference between authority and closure. Between vision and selective blindness.

A coachable leader asks himself. Regularly. Honestly.

1. When was the last time someone told me something uncomfortable — and I truly listened? Not necessarily accepted. Listened. With curiosity, not with the answer already ready.

2. Am I creating the conditions for people around me to feel free to tell me the truth? Or am I selecting — unconsciously — only those who agree with me?

3. What do I not yet know about my leadership style that could cost me dearly? It is not weakness to ask this question. It is strategic intelligence. And I emphasize strategic! It is not just a matter of emotional intelligence, there is much more at stake.

The real investment

Companies spend billions on training (and the trend is growing), on coaching, on development programs for their collaborators. It is right. It is necessary.

But if those who lead are not coachable, every euro invested in others has an invisible ceiling. Because collaborators learn — and then collide with a system that does not know what to do with their growth.

Coachability is not a competency only for those who receive feedback. It is a competency — especially — for those who have the power to change an entire culture.

Start there.

Tatiana Coviello is an HR Consultant, Business Coach, and Psychologist. She works with CEOs and SMEs to develop conscious leadership, functional HR structures, and a judicious relationship with artificial intelligence as Co-Intelligence.