You’re doing all the right things, listening well, setting goals, helping people move forward. But sometimes, coaching can still feel a little well, surface-level. Like something important is missing, just out of reach.
You are not alone. It feels to me like the difference between clearing the path and clearing the fog. Most coaching focuses on the path helping someone move forward, step by step, toward a goal or an improvement That’s important. But if the fog hasn’t lifted if the person doesn’t see clearly even the best-laid path can feel uncertain, or lead to overwhelm.
This is where understanding two different approaches to coaching horizontal and vertical can help. I don’t use these terms often, but I’ve found them helpful for making a distinction that really matters. And in this article, I want to share what I’ve learned about how each approach works, and when to use them especially if you want to help people grow in a way that sticks.
Horizontal vs Vertical: Two Dimensions of Growth
In coaching conversations, we tend to focus on what’s the problem, what do you want to achieve, then we help coach what’s the next step, what’s the plan? But not every coaching conversation is like that. Sometimes what’s needed isn’t more thinking but more seeing. And especially when you the coach are thinking- if only they could see what I see?
Horizontal coaching is what most people expect when they enter a coaching conversation. It’s about improvement: building skills, executing tasks, managing change. It helps our people move forward and achieve more effectively. The well known GROW model is wonderful for this coaching approach.
Vertical coaching, on the other hand, is about realisation and invites a shift in perspective. It’s not focused on the issue itself, but on what sits beneath it, the assumptions, emotions, beliefs, and inner narratives that shape how a leader experiences and interprets their world. This kind of coaching goes deeper; it operates at the level of insight, not just problem-solving. There’s no step-by-step model here. Instead, there’s an intentional state of mind that the coach brings with a deep curiosity not about what the person is dealing with, but about how they’re seeing it. The goal isn’t to fix, but to help the person see their challenge with fresh eyes, and perhaps, discover something new in themselves along the way.
For example
Horizontal coaching asks, "What are your options“ or What’s the next step?”
Vertical coaching asks, “What do you notice about how you're thinking about this? "What assumptions or beliefs might be shaping how you're seeing it?”
Clarity Happens When the Noise Drops Away
Most of us are moving fast, dealing with complexity, and surrounded by noise, external pressures, internal doubts, competing priorities. Vertical coaching creates an insight-friendly space, a rare pause for us where that noise can settle, and clarity can emerge.
That clarity doesn’t come from adding more ideas. It comes from seeing differently and a change in perspective. When someone gains insight, real insight, it sticks. It shifts their understanding. And they know what to do next without needing to be coached on a plan to get there.
Why We Default to Horizontal
In most leadership development programmes and many coach trainings, we’re taught the horizontal approach. This is the dominant model because it’s cleaner, more structured, and easier to measure. It also avoids the messiness and the perceived risk of overreaching as a leader, where it can feel like we are stepping into counselling or therapy.
But while horizontal coaching is useful and often effective, it’s also limited. When the real challenge lies beneath the surface, in beliefs, emotions, or identity, horizontal coaching alone can leave deeper issues untouched.
And here’s the thing: it’s not overreach at all. You don’t need to be a psychologist to listen and reflect. Vertical coaching is and should be simpler than it sounds. It’s about creating the space, not fixing the person. It’s about asking deeper questions and listening with presence, so the person can access clarity for themselves. This is not therapy its more impactful coaching.
The Simple Skills of Vertical Coaching
To coach vertically, we need to:
- Listen beyond the words – for the assumptions, patterns, and emotional undercurrents
- Ask deeper questions – not “what’s the solution?” but “what’s the meaning you’re making of this?”
- Mirror and reflect neutrally– so the leader can hear themselves more clearly without their story
- Hold space for not-knowing – without rushing to fix, guide, or improve
This kind of coaching is relational and presence-based. Yes, it takes practice to develop the deep listening, reflective skill, and self-awareness needed to create an insight-friendly space. But it’s worth it, because it’s in that space that people begin to fulfil potential.
When I was starting out as a coach, full of self-doubt and worried about getting it wrong, my coach help me see that the best thing I can do is show up with an open, curious state of mind and trust that the right questions will come.
That simple thought has proven true again and again. At its heart, vertical coaching isn’t about having the answers it’s about creating the kind of space where better answers can emerge.
So How Can You Try Vertical Coaching?
Practice stillness in your own mind – Insight-friendly coaching requires an insight-friendly coach. When you're present and clear headed, your presence becomes a catalyst.
Get coached this way yourself – Experience is the best teacher. Work with a coach who knows how to work vertically.
Seek out vertical coaching approaches – that explore how the human mind works, first and foremost to deepen your own self-awareness. The deeper your inner clarity, the more powerfully you’ll be able to help others.
Be curious, not clever – You don't need to know more. You need to listen more, see what occurs in the moment that will help your coachee to see more.
When to Use What
Both coaching approaches matter. Both are valid. But we don't have to get too stuck on the terminology simply:
Use horizontal coaching when there is a clear goal/skill/improvement that can be defined and a path to move forward can be actioned
Use vertical coaching when something new needs to be seen, a shift is required, this is likely to be wrapped up in thinking, beliefs, emotions and assumptions
Great leaders and great coaches know how to move between both dimensions.
So next time you're in a coaching conversation, pause and ask: Am I helping them move forward? Or am I helping them see differently? And see if a vertical coaching approach may help.
If you would like to learn more about developing your coaching, please get in touch to explore further.
Aroha
Judith
