If you have started looking into leadership coaching, you have probably noticed how cagey most providers are about price. You fill in a form, book a call, and only then does anyone talk numbers. I find that frustrating as a buyer, so let me be straight with you here instead.
There is no single price for leadership coaching in Australia, and anyone who quotes you one without understanding your situation is guessing. But there are honest ranges, and once you know what sits behind them, you can work out what is reasonable for what you actually need.
The honest ranges
For 1-on-1 leadership and executive coaching in Australia, you will generally see 3 tiers.
- Individual session rates commonly land somewhere between 200 and 600 dollars per hour, depending on the coach's experience and the level you are coaching at.
- Most coaching is sold as a program rather than one-off sessions, and a typical engagement of 6 to 12 sessions over 3 to 6 months often sits in the low-to-mid thousands of dollars.
- Senior executive coaching, where the coach is working with people running large teams or whole businesses, runs higher again, sometimes well into 5 figures for a full engagement.
Organisational work (coaching several leaders, group facilitation, or themed workshops) is usually priced as a package, so the per-person cost can come down considerably compared with individual rates.
Those are broad ranges on purpose. The point is not to land you on a number, it is to give you a sense of the territory so you are not caught out.
What actually drives the price
The number you are quoted comes down to a handful of things, and it helps to know which ones matter.
The coach's experience is the biggest lever. Someone who has actually led teams, not just studied leadership, charges more, and in my view is worth more, because they can draw on real situations rather than theory.
The seniority of the person being coached matters too. Coaching a first-time team leader is a different job from coaching someone running a division, and the stakes (and the price) move with it.
The format changes things. Individual coaching is the most intensive and the most expensive per hour. Group coaching and workshops spread the cost across more people. In-person sessions can carry a small premium over video, though good coaching works well either way.
Finally, the depth of the engagement. A single workshop is cheap and, frankly, fades by Friday. A program with regular sessions and accountability over months costs more because it is the thing that actually changes how you lead.
Cheaper is not always the saving you think
It is tempting to treat coaching as a cost to minimise. I would gently push back on that.
The reason coaching exists is that poor leadership is expensive. When a capable person is promoted and left to improvise, the bill shows up later: in the good people who quietly leave, in the time lost to avoided conversations, in a team that never quite gels.
SEEK has found that poor leadership is the top reason people choose to leave a job, and that 83 percent of people would leave, or have left, a role because of poor culture. Replacing one good person commonly costs a large share of their annual salary once you count recruitment, lost productivity, and ramp-up time. Set the cost of a coaching program against the cost of losing 1 or 2 people you wanted to keep, and the maths usually looks very different.
The research on the upside is just as clear. The International Coaching Federation reports that 70 percent of people who receive coaching improve their work performance, relationships, and communication, and that 86 percent of organisations that could measure it made back at least their initial investment. Coaching is one of the few development spends where the return is genuinely well documented.
How to work out what is right for you
Rather than chasing the lowest hourly rate, I would ask 3 questions.
What am I actually trying to change? A specific skill like delegation or difficult conversations needs less than a full leadership transition. Match the depth to the goal.
Who is doing the coaching? Ask whether they have led people themselves, and at what level. That single fact tells you more about value than the price does.
What does the program include? Sessions, cadence, accountability, and support between sessions all matter. A slightly higher price for a properly structured program usually beats a bargain that is really just a few nice chats.
At Growth Korner, every program is tailored rather than sold off a fixed price list, because the change you need is specific to you. The simplest way to get a real number, with no obligation, is the free 30 minute strategy call. We talk through where you are and what you want to work on, and you leave with a clear sense of what a program would involve and cost. If it is a fit, great. If not, you still walk away with clarity, and that is genuinely fine.
