Life and Business Coaching give
Different Results
than Consulting
Picture
yourself in the picture at the right. You need to know what is on the
other side of the fence, as it will affect your plans. You can't see
over the fence by yourself, so you are going to hire someone to help you
out. Which should you hire, a consultant or a coach?
The answer depends upon the result that
you wish to achieve. Your choice will decide whether you will be
standing:
-
on the top, seeing for yourself, or
-
on the bottom,
listening to the other person.
Which will give you a greater advantage?
Obviously, it depends upon whether you
need the specialized knowledge of the consultant - or whether you
want to enhance and rely on your own decision-making skills. And that is where a coach can help.
Working with a coach,
you get to see over the fence
Your coach believes that his job is to
help you see over the fence, so you can see the situation clearly. The
coach believes you can create the best plan for yourself or your company and
it will be consistent with your values and vision and capabilities. It
will be a plan that you are comfortable with.
Working with a consultant,
you hold the consultant up while he looks over the fence
That is
because you believe that the consultant can analyze the situation better
than you, since he has specialized knowledge. You are relying on the
consultant to come up with a plan that works for you or your company.
You are trusting that the consultant's plan will be consistent with your
values and vision and executable by yourself or your staff.
Here's an important factor: is the
person you hire sticking to your agenda? By the very
definition of coaching, your coach's objective is
to get the very best result for you. Your coach believes that the best
answers for you will come from within you. Thus, your coach focuses on
helping you uncover those answers - and the best way to do that is to stick
to your agenda. Your consultant, on the other hand, knows that he was
hired because of his special knowledge, so part of his agenda is likely to be
keeping his knowledge relevant to the solution. That may be part of
the best answer for you, but often it isn't.
Sometimes you simply need another hand; you need to hire
someone to "do" the work that you (or your staff) don't have the time to
do. That is a good time to hire a consultant. A coach is not
likely to accept such an assignment, unless the coach also has a consulting
practice. Your consultant typically is willing to devote many hours
each week to your assignment (especially if it is a "doing" kind of
assignment). On an ongoing basis, Your coach typically is going to work with you about once a week for 30 minutes to an hour.
Your coach will spend more concentrated periods of time working with you
and/or your team around certain team development efforts or to conduct
briefings and de-briefings for assessments. As you can imagine, that
does not lend itself to "doing" assignments.
Shouldn't your coach have
specialized knowledge about what you are trying to work on?
It can be very helpful if your coach does, but your coach is first and foremost
an expert in the process of coaching, an expert in empowering you to find
your own solutions (see Why Hire a Coach?).
Your coach is not going to lead with his specialized knowledge, but
will volunteer what he knows after getting your permission each time he
thinks he has something to contribute. Your coach believes that
telling you without getting your permission first might distort the
solutions that you can develop. Your coach does not want to do
anything that might result in moving away
from your agenda.
Understand Your Relationship with Whom You Hire
When working with a coach or consultant, be clear whether
the work is consulting or coaching. If the person gives you answers or
makes suggestions without asking you permission first, then it is a
consulting relationship. If you ask the person a question, then either
a consultant or a coach may give you a direct answer. But often, the
coach will reply with a question that causes you to dig deeper - and when
you find the answers from inside, then you become more able to answer the
question by yourself the next time.
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