My company was paying for the sessions, so I never saw the bill. It also helped that I work for a company large enough to have their own internal executive coaches. However, this particular EC has since left the company to start his own EC consulting business.

I found it very valuable. As with any kind of coaching, you could try to work through issues on your own, but it might take you awhile. With a coach, they're there to call you out when you try making excuses and keep you honest. Also, I found that saying and talking about things out loud has a much bigger impact and weight than just thinking them to yourself.

It also helped that this particular EC had worked for about 10 years as a software engineer at my company. When I described work situations and problems, he understand exactly what I was talking because he understood some of the political dynamics of our company and technical language I was using.