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Coaching and counseling are different approaches to the same goal: helping you achieve your goals. They both can help you develop skills, build confidence, and deal with issues that may be in the way of reaching your potential. However, you only see the benefits when you put in sincere effort to correct the behavior and embrace a new mindset.
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Coaching and counseling both require the same kind of honest, forthright communication.
Coaching and counseling are also similar in that they require the same type of honest, forthright communication. Both endeavors require trust between the manager who is coaching/counseling and the employee. They both require time to develop a bond, while coaching may take place over several months or even years, counseling typically lasts no longer than one session per week. And finally, both forms of guidance require patience on behalf of both parties: managers have to be patient with employees who need time to reflect and adapt their behavior; as well as have patience with employees who resist making difficult changes in their lives because they don’t want things to change (and sometimes change isn’t always good).
Coaching and counseling take time.
It’s important to take time when you’re coaching or counseling. Time is a factor in the success of your coaching and counseling, so it’s best not to rush through it. If you find yourself feeling rushed or pressed for time, it will probably be harder for you (and your client) to concentrate on what’s being said and done during the session.
Coaching sessions can last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour; whatever works best for both parties involved. The same goes for counseling sessions—the length of each session should vary depending on what’s being discussed in that particular meeting. For example, if an employee would like more time with their manager because they have more issues than usual happening, it may make sense for them to schedule more time to share those concerns instead of trying to squeeze them into shorter one on one sessions where not everything will get addressed properly. Not setting aside enough time could cause further distress around a situation if it does not get dealt with appropriately and may need extra attention later to deal with any fallout.
Coaching and counseling can be difficult to do.
Coaching and counseling are not easy. They can be difficult to do, especially if you want to help someone in your life who isn’t open and willing to talk about their feelings. These situations often require multiple sessions and a lot of time and patience. Coaching and counseling do not come naturally for everyone, so make sure you’re ready for this kind of commitment before getting started.
There are many things that can make coaching or counseling hard:
- Not being able to get through to the other person
- Having a different perspective than the manager/ employee does
- Feeling like you can’t relate because of differences
- Having a hard time working with people who have different goals or values than you
- Having a hard time getting through to the employee because of their personality type
Our staff management course and resources provide some great guides on how to handle difficult situations with team members. They typically start off with outlining the facts of a situation and then delving into the parts open to interpretation and untangling that.
Coaching and counseling should be fair processes.
Fairness is an important concept in counseling and coaching, because it’s a core value of many people. It’s often defined as equal treatment—being treated the same way as everyone else—and it’s about ensuring that everyone has equal opportunity and access to resources (like financial or educational).
The best managers never lose sight of fairness in their processes, because they know that being fair starts with them! If a manager makes their employee feel like they’re out for themselves then the employee will lose motivation, morale will suffer and they may leave the company.
Coaching and counseling are about building trust in a relationship.
Coaching and counseling are about building trust in a relationship. Trust is essential to the process of coaching and counseling because it’s the glue that allows employees to be vulnerable with you as their manager. The more you trust someone, the more you can be open with them—and that openness leads to greater insight, understanding and growth.
Trust is built through honesty, fairness, and consistency; through a relationship based on mutual respect; through a relationship based on mutual accountability and through being trustworthy by keeping commitments made during sessions (i.e., if we agreed that I would send some material after our session today).
Lack of clarity in coaching and counseling will not help anyone!
Clarity is important because it helps people to understand what they are doing. When a manager is clear about the objectives, methodology, and expectations of the coaching relationship, it is easier for their employee to know what they are supposed to do and how they can best get results. Clarity is also important because it helps people make decisions. When you are clear about what stage in the process you are in, what direction you need to go next, or where your current choices lead (or don’t lead), this can help guide your decision-making process so that you arrive at better outcomes more quickly.
Finally, clarity is important because it helps people take action! If your advice makes sense and feels easy enough to not only speak but also act on your words then there will be more buy-in from your employee– which means greater results for everyone involved!
Conclusion
The bottom line is that coaching and counseling are both very similar in many ways, but they also have some key differences. We hope that after reading this article, you now have a better understanding of the similarities and differences between coaching and counseling. In reality, both coaching and counseling can be helpful if you find yourself having problems at work. The key takeaway is that it’s important to know what kind of support your team needs before providing either option!
