From executive leader to coach, and discovering that coaching is fundamentally human and profoundly physical.

In our Tales from Beyond series, graduates of our business coaching programme share their many and varied stories, from career changes and professional transformations to breakthroughs in their coaching practice. These stories offer a glimpse into what’s possible when leaders invest in themselves.

This month, 2024 Mastered graduate Ritz Steytler – who specialises in helping leaders of  investor-backed scale-ups thrive through change – shares what makes his coaching style distinctive and how investing in his own development through Mastered has strengthened his coaching and consulting practice since completing the programme.

A reflection on coming full circle – from executive leader to coach, and discovering that coaching is fundamentally human and profoundly physical.

What were you doing before the Mastered Programme?

Before Mastered, I’d spent over 30 years building technology businesses across fintech, payments, industrials, retail, telecoms, healthcare, government, AI, and B2B marketplaces. I’m a five-time founder and former search fund entrepreneur; I acquired, developed, and exited a payments technology business, and that experience has kept pulling me back into the search fund community as an investor, board member, and informal advisor.

By 2023, I was transitioning from executive leadership into a portfolio career – still active on boards and as an investor, but increasingly drawn to coaching and consulting work with scale-up leaders. I’d been doing this informally for years, but I wanted to do it properly. That’s what brought me to Meyler Campbell. I spoke with people I trust, several of whom were Meyler Campbell graduates, so for me the choice was an easy one.

What direction have you gone in since finishing the Mastered Programme? What are you doing now?

I work with CEOs, executive teams, and their organisations to navigate complex personal and business change. I specialise in helping leaders of investor-backed scale-ups thrive through the messy realities of change – leadership transformation, funding rounds, hypergrowth, succession, exit situations. The work where others might step back because it’s too fluid or too challenging.

What’s distinctive about my practice is that I blend strategic advisory with traditional and somatic coaching. Most of my engagements begin with a presenting problem: misaligned strategy, underperforming teams, operational bottlenecks, stalled transformation. I help solve that problem – often in a consulting capacity initially. I then work with the client to coach the people through the change they’re making, developing the leadership capabilities, systems, and rhythms that prevent the same problems recurring.

For example, I’m currently working with a high-growth greentech business that’s scaling incredibly quickly and has outgrown its systems and leadership. I was initially engaged to help them solve their strategic alignment issues, but the real work is coaching the entire leadership team – both as a group and as individuals – with specific ongoing coaching for the CEO. This typically means a retained relationship over 6-12 months. I work with the whole system – the business challenge, the team dynamics, and the individual leader. Because sustainable change requires all three.

What impact did the Mastered programme have for you?

Training with Meyler Campbell feels like I’ve come full circle. I learned how to properly do many things I’d been doing informally in my executive roles, but in a non-directive manner. I learned how profoundly transformational it can be for someone to be properly listened to – something most people never experience. I learned how important presence, coupled with intelligent questions, is in helping someone achieve clarity, awareness, and transformation.

The penny dropped for me when I started deliberately blending my somatic and embodied skillset – something I’d been developing for several years – with my coaching practice. I realised that coaching for me is “fundamentally human and profoundly physical”. This came together as a combination of deep listening with presence, holding space with unconditional positive regard, coupled with the realisation that you can’t be a good coach unless you’re prepared to do the work on yourself.

What are some examples of things you have done differently since the Mastered programme?

I now use somatic approaches in almost all my sessions. I believe you have to coach the whole person, not just the cognitive bits that show up. More often than not, the magic happens when the client can get their whole body online and engaged, with full access to their emotions and physical sensations. It can be as simple as asking them to notice and change their posture, all the way to spending time feeling into their physical sensations during a session. The results can be profoundly transformative.

I’ve also invested heavily in my own development. Working with a brilliant coaching supervisor has been invaluable – I’ve learned as much from those sessions as I did from the Mastered programme itself. I qualified to use several psychometric tools, including the Hogan suite, NEO, and TalentSage, and I’ve continued my CPD by completing several other coaching courses. I’m working towards levelling up my accreditation to EMCC Senior Practitioner / ICF PCC status by the end of the year.

What was the most valuable thing you got from Mastered that you are using now?

The Crossroads syndicate – working with Sarah and Nick under the guidance of our Tutor (Eyal Pavell) – gave me something I didn’t expect: a space to experience what I was asking my clients to do. The vulnerability of being coached in front of peers, the discomfort of having your assumptions challenged, and the relief of being properly heard. You can’t hold that space for others unless you’ve experienced it yourself.

I believe, now more than ever, that coaching is profoundly human, and it is this that will set us apart from a world increasingly dominated by thoughtless AI slop.

Where do you see yourself going in the future?

I want to do more of what’s working – those 6-12 month retained relationships where I’m helping leaders and their teams through complex change, combining strategic advisory with coaching. I’m excited about continuing to develop my somatic and embodied coaching practice and bringing that dimension to work with scale-up leaders who are often living entirely in their heads while their bodies are screaming for attention.

I hold five board roles, chairing two of them, and I’ve found that a coaching skillset transforms how I work with CEOs, particularly as a chair. The ability to listen deeply, ask intelligent questions, and create space for reflection makes board conversations far more productive than the traditional “challenge and advise” approach. I also remain active in the search fund community, advising European entrepreneurs navigating their first CEO role while closing acquisitions – another context where blending strategic advisory with coaching is particularly powerful.

Anything else you would like to say?

If I have one regret, it’s not doing this training 20 years earlier. I could have been a better leader, built healthier teams, and created more sustainable businesses. But perhaps I needed those 30 years of building and sometimes breaking things to truly appreciate what coaching can do!

To my Crossroads colleagues, Sarah and Nick, and to Eyal – thank you for holding space for me to find my way into this work.

Ritz Steytler, 2024 Mastered Graduate

Ritz Steytler is an executive coach, consultant, board director, and investor who helps scale-up leaders thrive through complex change.