It’s the oldest story in the org chart: Senior leaders get quality time with human coaches; the managers who shape day‑to‑day culture are left to improvise. No scale. No real culture change.

Real change starts when coaching becomes a shared habit. That means scaling consistent support, particularly for early-career managers who rarely get 1:1 time. To scale the habit, pair human presence with AI that shows up every day.

It’s a practice of pairing "Big C" Coaching—the deep, presence‑driven human work that changes how leaders show up—with "little c" coaching—the in‑the‑moment prompting, reflection, and preparation that helps people act on what they’ve learned in real time.

AI makes the latter available to everyone, every day, so the former can have its full impact where it’s most needed.

This is how you make the whole company coachable, according to two enterprise leaders in the thick of the work: Christine Nollen (Global Head of Coaching, VML) and Liz Lowy (VP, Talent, Learning & Development, Hearst). When I sat down with them at the 2025 NYU Coaching & Technology Summit, Christine and Liz shared how they are widening access to coaching while protecting scarce human time for the work only people can do.

Big C sets the climate, little c keeps it moving

Senior leaders set the tone for everyone else. That’s why Big C Coaching—the deep, presence‑driven, human work—remains uniquely valuable at the top of the house.

“Leaders make the weather. We need to ensure that our leaders are getting the support they need and noticing how they’re showing up so they are truly creating safe, healthy organizational spaces for others.”— Christine Nollen

And when that human work happens, little c coaching keeps progress moving between sessions and before tough moments—so the climate holds in day‑to‑day work across the org.

“This is… the direction everyone is going… the mobility of it. The anytime—call me at midnight—anytime you need something, I’m here for you. You don’t have to wait for the next course… You could go right now and get that help you need.”— Liz Lowy

Together, Big C Coaching changes how leaders show up in the moments that matter most, and little c coaching makes those changes stick in the flow of work. The combination makes the whole organization more coachable and ensures scarce human coaching time delivers outsized impact.

Little c coaching creates safe spaces at scale

How your organization handles friction is the biggest test of the climate your leaders create. And it’s in these difficult moments that the value of real-time little c coaching comes to life. 

Employees don’t always feel comfortable bringing raw vulnerability or half‑formed thinking straight to a manager—especially in high‑stakes or emotionally charged moments. That’s why one of the earliest, highest‑value uses of Nadia is as a private pre‑conversation: a judgment‑free, always‑available first stop.

Liz experienced this first‑hand. After a meeting with her team went sideways, she took time to process with Nadia before debriefing with her manager.

“I was incredibly impressed at Nadia’s level of nuance, emotional connection, recognition of what I was really going through, that, as a coach would say: there's 16 different ways we could approach this. Do we need to work on some communication? Do you need to take a step back and think about your triggers? We really began that ongoing coaching relationship in the way that you would with a human coach.”— Liz Lowy

This safe space lowers the barrier to reflection and raises the quality of manager conversations. Across an organization, it compounds into a more open, feedback‑ready culture.

Big C + little c connects the work to what matters

With psychological safety in place, it’s time to rewire coaching into the moments that drive performance—so reflection becomes action.

At Hearst, that means weaving Nadia into core manager training courses on motivating, delegating, and coaching. Managers practice in class with human coaches, then plan with Nadia how to start putting what they're learning into practice. From there, Nadia follows up proactively to keep the behavior alive between sessions:

“Nadia will check in: ‘Did you have that conversation with Joe? How did it go? Do you want to talk again?’ We’re trying to get the learning that happens with the humans in the room into the flow of work, building accountability that’s hard to scale human‑to‑human.”— Liz Lowy

At VML, Nadia sits inside the company’s THRIVE career‑progression process. When VML wanted to give employees and managers a more structured approach to career conversations, Nadia was trained on VML’s THRIVE framework to guide employees through that process. 

“She's really preparing the employee to go into the conversation with their manager—not just saying, ‘I want a raise,’ but based on these contributions, based on these assets I bring. Even thinking in advance about the tone with which to approach the conversation.  With Nadia, employees now feel more able to step in the conversation.”— Christine Nollen

The goal is simple: turn every talent moment into a better human conversation.

From Hearst and VML to Delta, Experian, and Prudential, enterprise leaders are modernizing coaching strategy with AI and seeing stronger managers and healthier teams. Explore what this could look like for your organization by scheduling a conversation with the Valence team today.