Difference between being coached or receiving consulting advice?

Coaching is identifying and creating your own advice instead of receiving consulting advice

There is a big difference! Coaching helps you find your own solutions. Consulting advice is someone else’s recommendations. Coaching enhances your thinking. Consulting advice comes from the consultant’s thinking. The coach’s Socratic questioning approach helps YOU find your solution to your resolutions. The International Coaching Federation, ICF, defines coaching as: partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. How does this differ with receiving consulting advice?

Receiving consulting advice

In other words, consulting advice is an approach that provides expert advice vs. the coaching approach, which offers reflection and dialogue to facilitate your learning. If you lack specific knowledge, then hiring a consultant might be the better option. An alternative is that the coach puts on a consulting advice hat if the coach has the expert knowledge and the situation merits specific advice.  The danger of switching back and forth into both coaching and consulting roles is that the leader being coached risks to continually ask for consulting advice.  Why?  It takes less effort for the leader than creating the leaders own solutions.

Leadership coaching

Leadership coaching is coaching geared towards leadership challenges and issues.

Developing Knowledge and Wisdom

If you want to develop knowledge and wisdom, answering good coaching questions will more likely develop those competencies vs. receiving ready-made answers. However, consulting might be less time intensive but less developmental.

Now that I have briefly defined what coaching is and how it compares to giving consulting advice, let us look at how coaching compares to psychotherapy next week.

I shall update a series of blog posts weekly on the Top Coach Blog so make sure you check back next Tuesday! Comments are welcome.

For more information, you can check out our leadership coaching programs or talent development programs and access our free podcast on Excellent Executive Coaching and subscribe on iTunes.