Consultants and Coaches
by John L. Bennett and Debrah J. Martin
“Today coaching is so popular in businesses many executive managers leave a company that does not offer the perk to join one that does. In this article the authors write about similarities and differences between consultants and coaches, and when to use a coach or a consultant.”
Most of the 1000 largest companies worldwide, and many public sector organizations, provide their managers coaching services. There are an estimated 15000 coaches in North America working as external or internal resources. The International Coach Federation (ICF) defines professional coaching as “An ongoing partnership designed to help clients produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives.”
Coaching is a trans-disciplinary profession, rooted in human development, organizational behavior and management, education, psychology, therapy or counseling, and consulting. Coaching is unique and distinct to other practices in organization development: unlike therapy, it tends to focus on the present and the future rather than the past and present. Unlike mentoring, professional coaches are paid; and, unlike consulting, coaching does not necessarily involve the coach having specific or in-depth content knowledge. The coach is not expected to have all the answers, but uses listening skills and questions to support the client.
Coaching is often a transformative process in which the coach helps an individual use the processes of self-discovery, goal setting and action taking to move forward in his or her development. Coaches help clients identify gaps in their performance and build strengths to bridge those gaps to enhance the quality of their lives.
Professional coaches share a number of common attributes with consultants:
- A high level of expertise and training is required: for consulting, subject matter expertise, knowledge of methodology and its applications, client business practices, client service and products; for coaching, coaching skills and methodology training, certification in key competencies and professional credentials.
- Competence in the following skills are required: listening, observing, giving feedback, data analysis, intervention and process facilitation.
- Services to support change, either individual or organizational; the role of both coaches and consultants is based on fulfilling client needs and supporting their success.
- The outside resource is engaged to complement existing skills or to increase productivity.
- There is wide variation in the services provided, fees paid, issues to be addressed, competence of the service providers and measurable results.
- Both work with individuals, teams and organizations.
- The outcome and results are owned by the client who is responsible for implementing any action during or following the provision of service.
Before deciding to engage a consulting or coaching professional consider the following:
| CONSIDER HIRING A CONSULTANT IF THESE STATEMENTS APPLY. We and our organization seek… | CONSIDER HIRING A COACH IF THESE APPLY. We (my team) seek… |
|
someone to tell us what to do – we want answers |
thought-provoking questions – we’ll find our own answers |
|
an outside expert to give us creative solutions |
to develop our people so we find creative solutions |
|
someone to diagnose the situation |
discover for ourselves what needs to happen |
|
someone to tell us how to fix the situation |
make things better, even when nothing appears broken |
|
to take over once we know how to fix the problem |
someone to stick with us as we implement changes |
|
an expert |
a partner |
|
someone to focus on job issues fixing a problem |
someone to focus on me/us |
|
solutions that are out of our areas of expertise |
to find our own solutions, using the wisdom we already have |
|
assistance in evaluating and analyzing |
to use our natural ability with some guidance and support |
|
assistance implementing solutions |
action and results |
In conclusion, coaching and consulting are both helping professions. They share many of the same skills and intentions yet there are distinctions between the two. And, they can be powerful when effectively used either on their own according to specific client needs or in combination.
John L. Bennett, MPA, CMC, is an executive coach, consultant, and speaker based in Charlotte, NC. He can be reached at john@lawton-assoc.com.
Debrah J. Martin, PCC, is an executive coach and communications consultant based in Ottawa, Canada. She can be reached at dmartin@internationalcoach.com.