When coaching helps, and when you need something else
Quite often, potential clients come to me for "coaching", but, during the discussion, I realize that the need is for something else - mentoring, training, or even consulting. It also happens the other way around: someone is looking for training, but actually has a decision to make.
It's not a confusion that blocks us, in the end we are always looking to fulfill the client's need. But they differ in what I offer and what I don't offer in each type of process, so let's compare them!
What is coaching?
It is an introspective practice, in which clients start from problems, blockages or internal obstacles and develop solutions to overcome them, assisted by a professional - the coach.
What is not coaching?
- It is not psychotherapy. Psychotherapy aims to improve mental health and reduce psychological suffering, and is practised only by authorised professionals.
- It is not counselling. The coach does not give advice; he accompanies clients on their own journey.
- It is not a religious or spiritual practice. Each participant finds their own answers to their own problems, aligned with their own values and beliefs.
| What it offers | What it does not offer | When it fits | When it does not | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coaching | Questions that surface what you already know without realising it. A frame in which the decision stays yours, responsibility included. Thinking time nobody takes from you. | Answers, even when I have them. Specialist information. A plan made by me. Verdicts on what you ought to do. | When you know what to do and still do not do it. When you have two good directions and cannot choose. When the advice you get is reasonable and nothing moves. When the question sounds like "I do not know what I want". | When what you lack is information or a skill: there it is slower and more expensive than a course. When you want someone else to decide for you. When you need help with suffering rather than with direction: that calls for a psychotherapist. |
| Mentoring | The judgement of someone who has been there, applied to your situation. Answers I stand behind. Shortcuts, and mistakes avoided. | Neutrality. A mentor has his own experience, with everything it does not cover. There is no guarantee that what worked for him works for you. | When you know how it is done in general, but not whether it is right in your case. When the question sounds like "what would you do in my place". When you need someone who knows the field, not only the process. | When your field is not the mentor's. When you need to reach the answer yourself, so that you can carry it forward alone. |
| Training | Information, a working framework, a skill. A shared starting point for several people at once. | Application to your own case. What happens on Monday morning, back at your desk. | When what is missing is knowledge and the question sounds like "how is this done". When several people need the same thing at the same time. | When you have already taken two courses on the subject and things are the same. Then information was not what was missing. |
What changes between them, in practice. The three ask different things of me, and it is cleaner if you know from the start which role I am in. When I train or mentor, I bring answers and stand behind them. When I coach, I do not hand you the answer even when I have it, because one taken ready-made does not hold. If we work in more than one way, I take different roles in dfferent sessions.
Sometimes, the people who come to me think they want coaching, but they need training. Not always, and I do not want to talk you into anything: if what you need is a course, a good course is cheaper and faster than anything else, and there are good courses elsewhere.
I do mentoring as well, on the subjects I know best - sustainability and ESG, impact measurement, building a sustainability function inside an organisation, or moving into the field from another career. If that is what you need, let us talk.
If, reading the table, you are still not sure what fits you, that is precisely the sign a conversation is worth having. Thirty minutes, free, no strings attached. What would you want to be different three months from now?
Book the Clarity Session