on Coaching and Consulting
Exploring the Value of Outside Perspective
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If you know, then you know: getting a mature, experienced, outside perspective on a challenge, block, or opportunity can be invaluable.
By this point, we’re (hopefully) all pretty hip to the reality that 2020 is irrevocably shifting the paradigm of how we work, live, create, and connect.
Things are less black and white. Lots of folks are learning that congruence and integrity in what we do, how we do it, and how we talk about it is pretty dang important. We’re being forced to adapt, to connect in the service of our own growth and evolution… whether we like it or not.
Enter coaching and consulting—the outside perspective. Maybe it’s my Midwestern roots, but I’ve long watched all manner of folks spin their wheels and go it alone rather than ask for assistance in transcending the status quo.
Hubris? Fear? Distrust in others? A deeply-held belief that their problem is completely unique and no one could possibly understand?
Perhaps.
Or perhaps they’ve simply never experienced the expanded possibility that comes from including a skilled, experienced, and less attached perspective in the mix.
For awhile now, both in work and in life, the message received and taken to heart by many has been that more is better. More hours. More projects. More talking. More stuff on the to-do list. More time and money spent. More deadlines. More meetings. More context switching. More output. More consumption.
… and what has this quantity-over-quality mindset gotten us?
More of the same, of course.
I’d like to suggest that this imbalance has us spinning our collective wheels—churning and stewing in more of the same. We think and act small-but-fast in the service of tightening tangle. We force our way through, instead of using our power.
So how might we rebalance?
Sometimes, the closer you are to a challenge or opportunity, the further away you are from it. Great coaches and consultants help to level-set this dynamic. They can bring balance by virtue of their outsider perspective… and not just due to their expertise and varied experience—they oftentimes don’t carry nearly much in the way of cognitive or emotional bias towards the work, either.
A strong coach or consultant asks thought-provoking questions. They provide insights and help to connect the dots in new and refreshing ways. Alongside you, they can help you explore possibilities that you may have never dreamed of before.
Despite seeming similar and them both starting with the letter c, coaching ≠ consulting.
Here’s why:
Coaching and consulting are two different ways of engaging outside expertise. Both promise insights and value in perspective and purview, but only one is truly participatory.
”The main difference between coaching and consulting is that coaching pulls out answers from the client while consulting tells the client what to do. With coaching, you walk away with strategies for uncovering your truth on your own. With consulting, you get tools that can support you in moving forward and executing. Both can be useful depending on the client's goal and intention.”
-Rosie Guagliardo via Forbes’ “Key Differences between Coaching & Consulting”
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Consulting provides perspective, insights, and advice.
Consulting is where the goals of the client meet the expertise and experience of the consultant. Consulting is usually rooted in a client’s gaps, problems, and challenges. It’s oftentimes goal-oriented, project-focused, or scoped around a particular strategic challenge.
Good consultants have answers. Great ones have lots of interesting questions that lead to insights, answers, and strategies for how to move forward. They use time skillfully to assess. They evaluate the past and the present in the service of an improved future—one where those gaps or challenges can be met.
A stellar consultant can formulate a strong game plan that’s mindful of the client’s goals, challenges, constraints, and tools. They know how to share their observations from a place of non-judgmental honesty. They carry their clients’ best interests in mind from a place of honest objectivity. When human behavior, methodology, or mindset become part of the equation, a good consultant can gracefully point these things out.
Consulting engagements, often being more project-focused, tend towards a shorter or more scoped collaboration. Should a consultant prove particularly helpful in an ongoing way, however, the consulting engagement can evolve into an advisory, mentorship, or coaching relationship.
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Coaching is participatory.
Coaches walk through a challenge or opportunity alongside an individual or team in the service of their growth and increased capacity. It’s about guidance that cultivates self-leadership… facilitating the clients’ growth and maturation, and their capacity to learn to connect the dots for themselves.
Good coaches use a strengths-based approach to support behavior change, growth, and evolution. They help their clients find their own answers to their questions and challenges, exploring possibilities and sharing know-how and expertise along the way where appropriate.
In short, coaching promotes self-discovery, psychological maturation, and self-actualization.
While coaching requires more participation on the part of the client, it’s the right call for folks who want to evolve and level up their ‘operating system.’ It’s for nidividuals who believe that their inner world contributes to their outer world. They understand that their own growth and development influences outcomes.
Just as with consulting, a coaching relationship can evolve… into consulting, mentorship, or advisory territory.
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The truth is, most consultants do a little coaching and most coaches do some consulting. Advising and mentorship both live in the middle.
Whether it’s coaching or consulting you’re looking for, getting some thoughtful, outside perspective can be the key to breaking down blocks and opening doors. Reach out to schedule a discovery call with me here!
