Business Coaching - What is Business Coaching?
Business Coaching is a fairly new profession that has started to entrench itself in the business sector. Its origins of course come from the sporting arena where coaches have for centuries helped athletes achieve their goals.
Coaching is a slightly different concept to consulting. But in a nutshell, consulting implies that you identify a problem that a client has and you propose a solution. Coaching is more about the facilitation of a process so that the client can self help.
The analogy to sport is a good one and also helps us to understand the difference between consulting and coaching.
Imagine a tennis coach for instance. The coach talks to the athlete, shows the athlete where their skill levels are inadequate and then sets over a period of time a plan for the athlete to improve. The plan would enable the athlete to think for him or herself in pressure situations and determine the correct shot to play. This is called coaching.
If the coach on the other hand instructed the athlete to play a particular shot (rather than having the athlete decide on the best shot) or took the tennis racket and played a few sets for the athlete then this would be an extreme version of consulting.
Business Coaching therefore is about collaboratively seeking a solution and formulating an action plan. It looks probably at a more broader perspective and helps in the development of a process for that business to proceed. Whereas consulting is more defined around problem solving and the suggestion of specific solutions.