Coaching is NOT consulting.
Consultants are hired because of their specific expertise. Often they assess a company’s practices and offer
recommended solutions for improvement. Coaching, on the other hand, is a discovery-based process in
which the client is led to create the solution within themselves and are held accountable to implement it.
This empowers employees to produce creative solutions on their own rather than carrying out someone
else’s recommendations. Therefore, coaching offers a long term solution as it equips employees to face
challenges in the present and the future.
Coaching is NOT counseling.
Coaching is future focused, while therapy is often concentrated on past pain or current challenges. Therapy
deals with healing pain, dysfunction and conflict. Therapy outcomes often include improved emotional/
feeling states. While positive feelings/emotions may be a natural outcome of coaching, the primary focus is
on creating actionable strategies for achieving specific goals.
Coaching is NOT mentoring.
Mentoring is offering guidance from one’s own experience or in a specific area of career development.
Although some coaches provide mentoring as part of their coaching, such as in mentor coaching new
coaches, coaches are not typically mentors to those they coach.
Coaching is NOT training.
Training programs are based on learning certain objectives set out by a curriculum. Coaching is not set on a
curriculum; rather it is customized for individual clients and not based on a linear course. While there are
objectives in coaching, they are set by the coachee with guidance from the coach.