FAQ

What is the difference between Coaching and Consulting?

Coaching and consulting are professional alliances dedicated to your personal and professional goals, and they are different in important ways.

Coaching versus Consulting
The purpose of coaching is to enable learning, awareness, and conscious decision-making. A good coach will not tell you what to do, or give you advice. Instead they will help you arrive at your own answers. A coach will listen carefully, mirror back your insights, and partner with you to create the best options for taking steps forward.  

The purpose of consulting is to diagnose problems and provide solutions. A consultant WILL give you advice and directly tell you what to do. Consultants know more than you in certain domains, which is why you hire them. A consultant fast tracks you towards your goal.  

The results of both coaching and consulting is that you can make significant progress towards goals, with less detours, false starts and mistakes.

I am both a coach and consultant. 

Coaching and consulting are tools I use to help increase effectiveness, productivity and success.  I move easily between the two roles-- helping you answer your own questions (a coach) and giving you clear advice and direction (a consultant). This partnership gives you incredible value for your investment.
 

Who is your ideal client?

I specialize in working senior leaders of mission driven organizations, entrepreneurs, and creative professionals.
 
While we may be focused on business or career goals we may also explore the personal domain; areas such as mindset, self-care, and stress management. These are important aspects of self-leadership.
 
My clients hold a lot of responsibility. Their decisions often have a significant impact on the lives of their community- including their customers, family, and staff.
 
They appreciate working with someone who respects and values creativity and passion, and who also understands the complexities of business/organizational life; the competing priorities; politics; personalities and pressures they face everyday.   
 
I help my clients stay strategic, navigate tricky political waters and transitions, and increase leadership or personal skills. Key areas of growth include realizing their impact on others, reducing derailing behaviors, increasing influence, and managing others more effectively.

What does Coaching feel like?

Coaching is a creative and thought provoking process. My approach to coaching is based on the belief that you are the expert in your life and business.  In this view, you are completely creative, resourceful and whole; there is nothing wrong or missing in you. No one knows your life, its complexities and opportunities better than you. 
 
Standing on this foundation, my responsibility is to:

  • Discover, clarify, and align with what you want to achieve.

  • Encourage self-discovery.

  • Elicit your own generated solutions and strategies.

  • Hold you accountable to the commitments you’ve made.

What is Consulting?

In consulting, I directly recommend and advise. I understand that you are an expert in your field, and that you need another expert to make a well-rounded decision.  My responsibility may be to:

  • Ask the right questions and assess the challenge or opportunity.

  • Provide you objective, researched-based solutions.

  • Provide an assessment of the risk and opportunity to each solution.

  • Recommend a plan for implementing a solution, and implement the plan for you.

So how do you work?

Consulting time and structure is determined by the body of work, so it may take many shapes from short term report to serving as an advisor for years. Coaching, however, has an intentional structure and timeline. Here is an outline of what you may expect in coaching.

The first step is to talk and determine clear, motivating goals that stretch you into a new way of acting and being. Then we can decide on the time and structure.
 
TIME
I work with people for a minimum of two sessions per month, with a six month minimum, which is considered a minimum amount of time needed to arrive at significant goals and to anchor change. My clients tend to stay with me longer because they get great results and want to keep feeling the support and accelerated progress.

My work is guaranteed and risk-free, so if you are unhappy I will not hold you to completing your commitment with me. (This has never happened, but the guarantee still holds.)

Sometimes clients have a specific challenge that has an immediate answer. In this case, we can focus on that specific challenge and bypass a monthly commitment.
 
STRUCTURE
Generally, coaching sessions happen typically between two and four times a month, for 60-75 minutes, either by phone, Zoom, or face-to-face.
 
While meeting face to face is ideal, the majority of my clients prefer to meet virtually and find it efficient and effective. Virtual sessions save time and money otherwise spent on traveling. They allow us to dive in without distractions.
 
After our session, I often send a follow-up email that includes notes, assignments and recommended resources.

While our one-on-one sessions are invaluable, real progress happens in between sessions. Your life is the laboratory in which you practice the new skills and approaches. This is called “Action-Learning” and it is one of the most effective ways to build skill and anchor lasting change.

Over time, some clients shift from focusing on specific goals to using me as a confidential sounding board for  ongoing decisions. In these cases I am honored to serve as a Trusted Adviser. When there is no overarching goal, we focus on whatever is important to explore in the moment.