Coaching Versus Consulting
Coaching is an overused term in business. Whenever a team member struggles to keep up or presents in a way that is frustrating to others, the advice is, “They just need some coaching.”
In practice, coaching occurs on a spectrum between asking purely exploratory questions and advice giving. To demonstrate this, I get leader-managers in my workshops to pair up, assigning one as the leader-manager and the other as the direct report. The leader-manager is then given two minutes to coach their team member on improving their time management skills.
After the exercise, I ask the group, “Who did most of the talking, the leader or the team member?”
About 75% of the leaders share that they did most of the talking, and the others offer that it was the direct report. The most effective approach in this scenario was for the leader to ask a few questions and then let the direct report reflect and respond.
Both approaches, consulting (aka advice giving), where the coach does most of the talking and pure coaching (aka question asking), where the coach listens and responds, are effective techniques for advancing the thinking of your direct reports.
The Consulting-Coach Continuum
This spectrum can be captured as the consulting-coach continuum where, on the one hand, the leader is seen as having the answers and is outpouring their knowledge to their team members. On the pure coaching side, it is the assumption that the direct report has the answers, but it is just the webs in their brain that are getting in their way from solving the problem.
For ultimate effectiveness, the leader-manager must be able to flex across the spectrum of coaching and consulting and learn when to best deploy each approach for the situation. I once had a leader who told me to never come to him with questions unless I also had solutions.
This is an admirable approach, but there were several times when I simply didn’t have enough knowledge or context to provide options for resolution.
On the other extreme, I once hired a pure coach to help me develop as a leader, but they saw their role as only asking reflective questions and not providing any form of opinion. I found this approach very frustrating and ended up never returning to this coach.
When to Coach and When to Consult
I have observed that consulting (aka advice giving) is the most effective style when time is of the essence, there is a crisis, or when the team is junior or new.
Coaching, on the other hand, is most effective for creating a culture where your team will think for themselves and own the decision. The goal of coaching is to teach your team to think like you when you aren’t there.
Key Takeaways
- Reflect on your innate style of developing others. Are you a coach or consultant?
- Considering this past week, where have you observed this style work well? Where did it not have the impact that you had hoped for?
- If you are over-indexing on one style over the other, can you see how this pattern might have fostered a culture that you are frustrated with?
- If you are a consultant, you likely have a team that is always in your office asking you questions and isn’t taking much ownership of decisions.
- If you are a coach, your team is advancing in their current thinking but isn’t benefiting from your years of expertise and thinking
- It’s time to shift. Practice flexing your style this week and lean into your opposite style of coaching/consulting.
