The term coaching is frequently misunderstood or misused.

Coaching is not the same as mentoring, consulting or teaching.

As a mentor, you are using the path you’ve walked to advise others. As a consultant or teacher, you are a subject matter expert specifically tasked with advising or imparting expert knowledge.

When you are mentoring, consulting, or teaching, you are the expert.

When you are coaching, the person you are talking to is the expert. They set the agenda, understand the problem best and ultimately, hold the solution to whatever issue they are facing. Your role is to ask questions, listen deeply, and reflect observations back to them if necessary.

This means that you need to recognize the class of issues that requires coaching vs one of the other approaches above… and to be clear when you are doing one or the other.