Rachel Treece
Senior leaders are being asked to deliver harder results with workforces that are tired, sceptical, and unwilling to follow command-and-control. The instinct is to push harder. The evidence suggests the opposite works: leaders who coach unlock performance that directive leaders cannot reach, but few executives have been trained in how to actually do it.
Rachel Treece is an executive coach, psychologist, and CEO of The Henka Institute who helps senior leaders run their organisations through coaching rather than control.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Rachel Treece
- A coach-led leadership thesis grounded in published work, not platform rhetoric: her book “The Henka Effect” sets out how coaching changes the operating behaviour of senior leaders, with named case studies from financial services.
- Operating credibility inside financial services. The Henka Institute reports work with a majority of the largest fund managers and investment banks, and her podcast “Flex and the City” speaks directly to FS leadership audiences.
- ICF-accredited coaching credentials (PCC, CPCC) and a psychology background, which means the content is built on practice-tested method, not opinion.
- A multinational and multilingual delivery range across 35 countries, useful for boards and leadership populations that span Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific.
- A direct, no-platitudes register on inclusion and culture that buyers can put in front of mixed senior audiences without it landing as DEI theatre.
Biography highlights
- CEO of The Henka Institute and fts global, a leadership development firm operating in 35 countries.
- Author of “The Henka Effect: How Coaching is Transforming Leadership and Organisations” (2022).
- Host of the podcast “Flex and the City – Great leadership in financial services”.
- ICF-credentialled executive coach (PCC, CPCC) and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
- Speaker at the ALFI Leadership Seminar, the leading industry forum for the Luxembourg fund and asset management sector.
- Co-founder of Dress for Success Luxembourg.
Biography
Most senior leaders know that pushing harder no longer produces the result it used to. Workforces are exhausted by repeated change, sceptical of slogans, and quick to disengage from leaders who default to control. The harder question is what leaders should do instead, and how to develop that behaviour at scale.
Rachel Treece’s answer is coaching. Not coaching as a development perk, but coaching as the operating mode of senior leadership itself. Her book “The Henka Effect” sets out the argument with case material drawn from her work inside financial services, where she has spent much of her career advising FTSE and Fortune 100 leadership teams.
That work runs through The Henka Institute, the Luxembourg-based firm she leads. The institute operates across 35 countries and reports clients including a majority of the largest fund asset managers and investment banks. Her credentials sit alongside the practice: PCC and CPCC coaching certifications, a psychology background, and Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
For organisations going through restructure, integration, or cultural reset, the value of her work is specific. She gives senior leaders a usable behavioural toolkit that replaces directive instinct with curiosity, ownership, and accountability, rather than asking them to soften their style and hope.
Key speaking topics
- Coaching as a leadership operating model
- Leadership in financial services
- Inclusive and values-based leadership
- Change and transformation in regulated industries
- Communication and executive presence
- Organisational culture and trust
- Sustainable performance and leader energy
Ideal for
- CEOs, CHROs, and heads of leadership development inside banks, asset managers, and other regulated financial institutions.
- Boards and executive committees navigating restructuring, M&A integration, or cultural reset.
- Senior leadership populations being asked to lead through change without burning out their teams or themselves.
Audience outcomes
- A clear distinction between coaching as a development activity and coaching as a senior leadership behaviour, with the second framed as the lever for sustainable performance.
- Specific behavioural moves senior leaders can use to replace directive defaults in real conversations with their teams.
- A working model for building trust and ownership inside teams that have been through repeated change.
- An honest read on what inclusive leadership looks like in practice in commercial organisations, beyond statement-making.
Talks
A keynote arguing that the next phase of leadership performance comes from human capability, not harder process.
Key takeaways:
- Why directive leadership is hitting diminishing returns in knowledge and regulated industries.
- The behavioural shifts that distinguish coach-led leaders from command-led leaders.
- How heart-led leadership maps onto commercial outcomes, not just culture metrics.
A talk on coaching as the operating mode of senior leadership and how it changes what leaders do day-to-day.
Key takeaways:
- The case for coaching as a leadership behaviour, not a separate development function.
- How leaders can build agency and ownership inside their teams without losing pace.
- Practical signals that distinguish coaching conversations from instructive ones.