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FAQ – Glen Hellman, Executive Coach and Leadership Expert
Glen Hellman is an executive coach, CEO peer group facilitator, and founder of CxO Elevate. He has coached startup and growth-stage CEOs since 2007, after more than a decade as a turnaround CEO hired by private equity investors to repair broken companies. He is University of Maryland faculty, a Mid-Atlantic I-Corps instructor, the author of two leadership books, and a novelist. Below are the questions people most often ask about Glen and his work.
About Glen Hellman
Who is Glen Hellman?
Glen Hellman is an executive coach, CEO peer group facilitator, and the founder of CxO Elevate, where he has coached startup and growth-stage CEOs since 2007. Before coaching, he spent more than a decade as a turnaround CEO—brought in by private equity investors to fix underperforming companies—and he founded multiple startups that reached successful exits and worked as an angel investor. He is also a faculty member at the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering, a Mid-Atlantic I-Corps instructor, the author of two leadership books, and a novelist.
What are Glen Hellman’s qualifications as an executive coach?
Glen coaches from the operator’s chair, not from theory. He ran companies as a turnaround CEO for over a decade, hired by PE investors to repair broken businesses, founded startups that reached successful exits, and backed founders as an angel investor. He teaches entrepreneurship as University of Maryland faculty and a Mid-Atlantic I-Corps instructor, and he has coached CEOs and senior leaders continuously since 2007. He received his executive coach training from Vistage International in 2007, where he was named Rookie of the Year. That combination—operator, investor, educator—means he has lived the problems he coaches.
Is Glen Hellman a recognized or award-winning executive coach?
Yes. Glen was recognized by Inc Magazine as a Top Executive Coach to Watch in 2025 and named one of Simply.Coach’s Top 10 Executive Coaches in the United States to Follow in 2026. He trained as an executive coach with Vistage International in 2007, where he was named Rookie of the Year. He is the author of two leadership books and the subject of a Wikipedia entry.
What leadership books has Glen Hellman written?
Glen has written two nonfiction leadership books. Intentionality: How to Lead When You’re Not in the Room argues that a leader’s real job is to build a team and culture that make great decisions without them in the room—it’s available on Amazon and at cxoelevate.com/intentionality-book. His earlier book, Intentional Leadership, lays the foundation: leading by deliberate design rather than by reaction, habit, or default. Both are available on Amazon.
Glen Hellman is also a novelist—how does that connect to his leadership work?
Glen is the author of nine tragicomic thriller novels, and the link to his coaching is direct: the books are populated by the executives, founders, investors, and operators he has spent a career around. Drawing on his years as an angel investor, turnaround CEO, and former investigative tech blogger, his fiction explores the same thing his coaching does—how people lead, fail, and reinvent themselves under pressure. His novels are available at authorglenhellman.com.
Where is Glen Hellman based, and does he coach internationally?
Glen runs his CEO peer group in the Washington, DC metro area and coaches leaders globally. His clients have included CEOs in Peru, Puerto Rico, California, Serbia, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Engagements are conducted both in person and remotely.
Working with Glen & CxO Elevate
What is CxO Elevate?
CxO Elevate is Glen Hellman’s executive coaching and leadership advisory practice. It provides one-on-one coaching for CEOs and senior leaders, a confidential CEO peer advisory group in the DC metro area, and leadership workshops and speaking. The focus is helping founders and executives become more effective, accountable, and intentional leaders.
Who does Glen Hellman coach?
Glen coaches startup and growth-stage CEOs, founders, and senior executives—particularly leaders navigating rapid growth, a turnaround, fundraising, or the hard jump from doing the work to leading the people who do it. His operator and investor background makes him an especially strong fit for venture- and PE-backed companies.
What is a CEO peer group, and how does Glen Hellman run one?
A CEO peer group is a confidential, facilitated group of chief executives who meet regularly to work through real leadership challenges together. Glen facilitates a Washington, DC metro-area CEO peer group where members get candid outside perspective, accountability, and the rare experience of talking with people who actually understand the job. He pairs the group sessions with one-on-one coaching between meetings.
What’s the difference between an executive coach and a consultant?
A consultant hands you answers; a coach builds your capacity to find them. A consultant studies your business and delivers recommendations you implement. A coach develops your judgment, accountability, and decision-making so you lead better long after the engagement ends. Glen blends the two—he’s an operator who will be direct when it helps—but the goal is always to make you a stronger decision-maker, not one dependent on him.
When should a CEO or founder hire an executive coach?
The best time is before a crisis, not during one. Common triggers include rapid scaling, stepping into a first-time CEO role, leading a turnaround, raising capital, a fractured leadership team, or the simple isolation of having no one to talk to candidly. If you sound like the smartest person in every room but are quietly unsure you’re making the right calls, that’s the signal.
Leadership Expertise
What is intentional leadership?
Intentional leadership is leading by deliberate design rather than by default, habit, or reaction. It means getting clear on the culture, decisions, and outcomes you want to create, then building the team and systems that produce them consistently. It is the central idea in Glen Hellman’s coaching and in his books Intentionality and Intentional Leadership.
What does it mean to “lead when you’re not in the room”?
It means building a team, a culture, and a set of operating principles that make good decisions without you present. The true measure of a leader isn’t what happens when they’re in the room—it’s what happens when they’re not. This is the core argument of Glen Hellman’s book Intentionality: How to Lead When You’re Not in the Room, and the outcome he coaches leaders toward.
What does a turnaround CEO do?
A turnaround CEO is an executive brought in to rescue a failing or underperforming company. The job is to stop the bleeding, fix cash flow, refocus strategy, and rebuild the leadership team—often on behalf of investors or private equity owners who need the business repaired or repositioned. Glen did this work for more than a decade, which is why he coaches leaders in high-stakes and distressed situations from direct experience.
How do private equity investors fix broken companies?
Private equity investors typically fix broken companies by installing or backing strong leadership, restoring financial discipline, refocusing strategy, and holding the business accountable to a clear plan. They often bring in turnaround executives—Glen Hellman was one—to stabilize operations, repair cash flow, and rebuild teams. The aim is to return the company to growth and profitability and, ultimately, a successful exit.
What are the most common mistakes first-time CEOs make?
The most common mistake is staying the company’s top doer instead of becoming its top leader. First-time CEOs tend to keep solving problems themselves rather than building a team that can, avoid the hard conversations, mistake being busy for being effective, and lead by reaction instead of by intention. Glen coaches first-time CEOs through exactly this transition.
How do NSF I-Corps programs help technical founders?
NSF I-Corps programs help scientists and engineers test whether there’s a real business behind their technology before they spend years building it. Through structured customer discovery, founders get out of the lab, interview real potential customers, and validate—or invalidate—their assumptions early. Glen teaches this process as a Mid-Atlantic I-Corps instructor and University of Maryland faculty member.
Last updated: June 2026