Is Coaching the same as Consulting? As a Coach, do you give ‘advice’ and tell the client what to do?
There seems to be a lot of confusion about the difference between
coaching and consulting, and whether a coach behaves the same way as a
consultant does towards clients.
A consultant is employed for their knowledgeable input to take charge and
make things happen. A life coach on the other hand is more client-centred in their
approach, aiming to empower the client to recognise their strengths and make
their own decisions.
In short, Coaching is not consulting or telling the client what to do.
Here’s a longer breakdown of the key differences between Coaching and
Consulting…
CONSULTING is about taking charge and
making decisions, often with a technical team on board. Consultants are paid to
utilise their knowledge, skills, and expertise in a particular area to provide
solutions and fix problems.
Consultants are task-oriented, which could mean a short or long-term
contract, and focused solely on the outcome.
Consultants don’t deal in behaviour or mindset change and won’t consider
your thoughts or feelings very much at all.
COACHING is client-centred and usually
conducted one-to-one. Coaches support the best interests of the client – every
session is about them and for them. They’re
the one paying after all!
A life coach, especially a
Holistic Life Coach, learns
to pose their questions and suggestions in such a way to engage the clients’
own mind and inner resources, and empowers their ability to ultimately choose
what feels best for them with the right mindset, attitude, self-knowledge, and
tools to guide them.
Self-responsibility is empowering. Having someone else do it for you when
it’s a more personal investment, simply won’t work for long-term change.
People usually already know what to do but don’t have the confidence,
motivation, resources, support or self-belief to actually do it on their own.
This is where a
qualified Holistic Life Coach comes in! Your job isn’t to take over and advise
or tell your client what to do like you’re the expert. The client is their own
expert, even if they don’t realise that in the beginning.
As a
qualified coach, you help build their confidence, clear the fear, expand their
perspectives with new information, connect them with their existing skills and
strengths, and help them build confidence and belief in themselves to achieve
their desired change with your support, accountability, and guidance..
This approach requires
a collaborative partnership,
where the paying client puts their investment and trust into the Coach to help
them learn what’s holding them back and how to get unstuck and feel confident
within themselves to take ownership of their choices in life.
The aim is to help your
client not only move forward and create change, but maintain the outcome
independently, long after your coaching ceases.
We encourage our holistic
coaching students to light the way and empower their clients with deep self-awareness, mindset perspective shifts, and a large range of behaviour change tools they can use for
life. You can’t do the changing for them!
Explore our empowering
courses to see how you can become a transformational, neuro-coach or practitioner!
