Coach, Consultant – Distinctions and Why it Matters

Jane Smith-Stage                      www.stagecoachleadership.com           jane@stagecoachleadership.com

As both a business coach and a consultant, I am frequently asked about the distinctions between coaching and consulting.  Can the circumstance call for both coach and consultant?  Absolutely and when this is the case, it’s even more important to understand the distinctions so we can move intentionally between roles. 

The International Coaches Federation (www.coachfederation.org) defines coaching as ‘partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. ‘

A coach is typically engaged to work with an individual or team to stretch their thinking and reflecting, so that the client can gain clarity, define their best action and move forward.  A client may also engage a coach if he or she wants to assess their leadership skills and focus on strengthening specific skills.    Coaches must be subject matter experts in coaching competencies and have strong business acumen.  During a series of confidential 1:1 or team sessions, the coach sets the stage for success by using powerful questioning and creating the environment in which the client gains clarity and defines their best action.  In coaching, the client alone is responsible for the plan and the execution.  The coach promotes the client’s self-discipline and holds the client accountable for agreed-upon actions.  In the coach/client relationship, the coach must be 100% agenda-less. 

One example of a coaching engagement I have is with a leadership team who had heard about the StrengthsFinder through the book, Now Discover Your Strengths  (Buckingham & Clifton).  Over a period of several months, I coached the individuals and the team as they assessed their strengths, took this new information and used it to grow their individual and team leadership capacity.  We now converge on an annual basis and revisit their capacity. 

In his book Flawless Consulting, Peter Block defines a consultant as ‘a person in a position to have some influence over an individual, a group, or an organization, but who has no direct power to make changes or implement programs.’

In the purest sense of the word, consultants are engaged because they are subject matter experts in the desired are of change, such as sales & marketing, engineering, human resources, organizational development or technology.  A consultant diagnoses, prescribes and may manage or implement solutions by creating new systems, conducting research and/or developing processes.  In the consultant/client relationship the consultant has an agenda that must be completed based on the client’s goal. 

One example of a consulting engagement I executed was in response to a request for creating a problem-solving process that could be replicated in geographically dispersed manufacturing plants.  The scope required gathering current processes, creating a replicable process, engaging employees in facilitating change, delivering experiential training and gathering data for sustainability measurements.  I worked with a team of employees to create the project plan, implement positive change drivers, deliver the training and assist in reporting measurements. 

Understanding the difference between these two fields is essential both for us as professional coaches and consultants, and for our clients.  It is important that we educate our clients so that they can partner with us to make the best decision, given their specific goal.  Failing to do so may result in disappointed clients, failed projects and financial losses.  

The feedback that I receive from my clients when I am in an engagement that includes consulting and coaching is that they learn as we move through the process and are able to distinguish when the different roles are in play.  Eventually, the movement between coach/consultant becomes second nature, and yet it is always important to keep the distinctions in perspective.

Here are a few simple strategies that can make the difference in determining successful coaching and/or consulting engagements.

1. Determine your client’s goal.  If achieving the goal requires technical knowledge in a specific field, a consultant would be the best choice.  If the goal is for the individual or team to move from ‘good to great’ or ‘great to excellent’ and be accountable for the work, then a coach would be the best choice.
2. Be forthcoming about your credentials.  A consultant should have subject area technical expertise, in addition to having excellent project skills.  A coach should have training in coaching core competencies, and excellent business acumen.  Both should have excellent facilitation skills for working with teams.
3. Make sure you have an excellent client fit.  The relationship factor is critical.  You may be a highly qualified coach and/or consultant, but if it’s not a good fit, you risk disappointment and potential failure for both yourself and worse, the client.  The network of excellent coaches and consultants is deep and wide, offering an excellent referral opportunity when necessary.

©StageCoach Leadership Resources, 2009

What do we see with The ‘change chain’?  If the energy is positive, then a ‘change chain’ could be a really good source of power.  If we see negative energy, then the chain would certainly need to be broken and re-established with positive energy, as in our ‘Red Rover’ game.    Either way, understanding the source so that it can be replicated, if powerful, or redefined, if negative, is critical.

In working with clients, I’m always curious about discovering the sources of energy — both positive and negative.  Discovering the source of energy often involves several iterations to really get to the source.  When looking at personal energy, ‘Where’, ‘What about’ and ‘What else’ are helpful.  When looking at a process, we often use the ’5 Whys’ of root cause analysis.  When we reach the fifth iteration, we’ve typically hit the root and it is there that we find the source of the positive and/or negative energy. 

Then the question becomes, ‘So what?’   What do we do, now that we’ve made the discovery.  The answer to that, my friends, determines the true success of the process.  …..more to come.   ….and there you have it from StageCoach Leadership, People and Performance Excellence

1. Let’s say that you have decided to embark on a change, and you discover that this change requires some new skills and/or competencies.  How does that impact your decision?  How do you go about engaging the right person to work with you through your process?  
2. By now you’ve discovered that a change is not singly (is this a word?) focused — it is a ‘change chain’, as I like to call it.  You make a decision to change and that change impacts another thing, which impacts another….. and you have the ‘change chain.’  So, just like the energy that runs through electrical chains, or the energy you had when you played ‘Red Rover’ as a child, how do you keep the energy running through the ‘change chain’?  Where do you get your power to stay on course?

Note:  I’m determined to ask questions and focus on what I hear from you, but I think I like this ‘blogging’ thing.  I’m trying to work on the neo-Luddite part of me.      See you tomorrow for Day 3 of questions on this topic!  ….and there you have it from StageCoach Leadership, your People and Performance Excellence coach!

Today we are all at a place that should cause us to think about what we believe about change, ’ it’s enevitable’, ‘ I have no control over change’;  how we approach change, ’ I hate it’, ‘ I love it ‘(really?);  and what would cause us to want change badly enough to create the change.  

As someone who is called ‘the question-asker’, there are questions begging for thoughtful consideration.  Here are a few and I’d love to hear your responses.  Tomorrow I’ll post a couple more, and we’ll see where the week takes us on this topic. 

1. To what extent do you believe you are a Luddite?
2. What do you believe your  ‘Luddite’ scale is to others — low, medium, high?
3. How do the answers to 1 and 2 impact your ability to get to the very best decisions and actions — in all aspects of your life?

A couple of my favorite quotes related to change are listed below.  What are your faves?

• People don’t resist change. They resist being changed!  Peter Senge
• One of the things I learnt when I was negotiating was that until I changed myself I could not change others.  Nelson Mandela