What coaching is and isn’t
You see more and more people around you hire a coach or become one themselves. But what is it exactly? And what is it not? What is the difference between coaching and therapy? Or between coaching and mentoring? And how does consulting relate to coaching? We’ll get into all of that in this blog.
Coaching; what is it?
A professional coach in its simplest explanation helps you to achieve your personal or professional goals. A coach partners with you in a thought-provoking and creative process to inspire you to reach them. And this process is what makes coaching very different from other forms of "help" like therapy, mentoring or consulting. A coach helps you to find clarity from within. To overcome challenges with your own solutions. So that you ultimately achieve your goals on your own terms. Why is this important? Because someone telling you what to do may bring quick results; it won't change your life. Coaching, at its very best, is really about making real and lasting shifts in your life. It encourages you to dig deep and guide you in your process of change so that you unlock your truest potential.
Coaching; what is it not
Let me start off by saying that coaching is not in any sense better or worse than other forms of help. It highly depends on what you are looking for. Working with a mentor, therapist or consultant may have truly helped you make positive changes in your life before. If you work with one of them now, it does not mean you cannot also work with a coach. I've seen that for some people, coaching after therapy or even in sync with therapy has truly made a large impact on their healing AND thriving journey.
Coaching is not therapy
Coaches and therapists share a common goal to enhance your well-being and to make positive changes in your life. The difference really lies in your needs and what approach benefits you most right now. Therapy, counselling or psychotherapy, generally, help you move from a state of dysfunction to a state of function. It focuses on the past (including traumas and issues) to help you cope with the present. It helps to heal you, or fix something within you that is "broken". Therapists may give you advice, opinions and solutions. They use diagnosis and treatment as a healthcare professional.
Coaching helps you to move from a functional to an optimal state. Coaching is not giving advice, treatment or diagnosis, but is rather based on the principle that you are whole and perfect just the way you are. Not broken. A coach trusts that you have all the answers, and guides you to find those answers within. Coaches focus on the present to optimize the future. And although they touch the past every now and then to understand the inner obstacles holding you back, you do not stay in the past with coaching. A coach will help you stay laser focused on your goal and take the actions you chose towards that goal.
Coaching is not mentoring
Mentors serve as a wise role model and are usually about you learning from the decisions the mentor made. If you image yourself navigating "the Map" from where you are now to where you want to be, a mentor's approach is captured by "Follow me" and the coach's approach by the question: "Where shall we go next?". This highlights an important difference. A mentor may lay out a road that he or she travelled and therefore gives advice. A coach helps you to find you own way, and discover your own strengths, skills and development areas. Coaching build on the foundation that there is no "one path fits all".
Coaching is not consulting
Consultants are usually hired to solve a problem for you. They help you to define the problem, analyze the situation, come up with a solution and possibly implement those solutions. And I know this all too well, having served as a consultant myself.
A consultant is usually viewed as an expert in their field. They are expected to know what to do and come up with solutions. And there lies immediately the big difference: a coach views YOU as the expert of your life and business. Coaches may offer options of next steps that worked for other clients, but you are always in the driving seat to choose and what to do next.
Now that you know the differences between coaching, therapy, mentoring and consulting, how will you decide what is most helpful for you at this moment in your life? Who or what can help you move from where you are now to where you want to be?
