Business Coaching vs. Consulting

No business coaching is not some fluffy marketing word for business consulting. There is a distinct difference between a coach and a consultant. A consultant is one who gives expert or professional advice in their area of expertise. The goal of a coach is to build awareness, responsibility and self belief. A business coach doesn't tell you how things should be done, but rather the coach stimulates you to find the answers within yourself. Coaching is a gentle way of raising awareness of the imbalances that exist, and of helping you and your employees to find a way to bring balance back into the organization. (Whitmore 2004). Tim Gallwey, a Harvard educationalist, probably defines coaching the best – Coaching is unlocking a person's potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn, rather than teaching them. Tim Gallwey has written some excellent books which I recommend reading – The Inner Game of Tennis, The Inner Game of Golf and Inner Skiing. Another wonderful and inspiring book if you are interested in learning more about coaching, which is my favorite book, is “Coaching for Performance” by John Whitmore.

Many organizations are turning to business coaches to not tell them how to run their business, but to rather help them unlock the potential of their employees and organizational members. Every person has extraordinary potential, if it can only be discovered. Coaching can be used in many opportunities in your business environment – motivating and developing staff, team building, relationship issues, inspiring creativity, everyday tasks and operations, planning and reviewing as well as many others. If improving your organization is at the top of your priority list, then I encourage you to consider business coaching.

Here are some excellent resources for you to visit.

http://www.performanceconsultants.co.uk/PCL/PCLWeb.nsf?Open

http://www.trilogyperformancecoaching.com/coaching.html

http://www.theinnergame.com/html/about_tim.html