We are celebrating our first year in business at Mantis Counseling and Coaching Services. We are very excited about our first year and want to share some of our success with you! So, for the entire month of September, we are offering our medium level of coaching services at our low level price. That’s a savings of 30% Give us a call today to set up your first appointment before September 30 so you can take advantage of this special offer! Please read below because we are clarifying the role of a coach versus a consultant!

Coaching versus Consulting

As we add coaching to our career track, we have been learning so many things along the way. We love being coaches! We find that our clients work hard and get the results they want, and we thoroughly enjoy the teamwork! Once in a while when we introduce ourselves as coaches, people confuse what we do with what people do as consultants. Becky and I thought it would be helpful to clarify personal coaching or business coaching versus business consulting.

A business consultant, sometimes called a business advisor, is very directive. The communication is more of a one way conversation where they are giving you specific advice. They are experts in their fields. Some examples are CPA’s, insurance agents, lawyers, or financial advisors. If a person is hiring a lawyer, they are essentially hiring someone that knows the law and is informing them of the best course of action and the steps necessary to get there. Coaches on the other hand, are experts at coaching, and they do not need to be experts in the area that is being coached. We are expert listeners and brain-stormers, and we do this by asking the right questions. In this role, we assist you developing your whole self. However there are times we will also refer you to an advisor. For example, when you need expert financial advice or you feel you will benefit from an expert opinion.

Coaching is a very collaborative process. We look at the bigger picture and we work together with you in reaching your self-defined goals. We focus on your strengths and build on them. We tend to address struggles or fears if they are getting in the way, or when they are speed bumps on the way to your finish line, but we do not focus on problems. We also help you discover your inner wisdom and assist you in bringing it to the surface, in order to improve your life on many levels, not just one. Where a CPA is expected to help you navigate taxes to your advantage, coaches are able to broaden their collaboration into several aspects of your life. We cheer you on and assist you in improving your life based on your beliefs, strengths, values, and desires.

We also hold you accountable. As you discover the aspects of your life where you want to flourish, we help you focus on short term and long term goals and ensure that you stay on track. You decide what things you need to accomplish in between our sessions and we follow up on your successes. We also help you refocus if you have become distracted, or have not completed the things you said you wanted to complete. We do this in a non-judgmental and supportive manner. Maybe you decided that you changed your mind and have a different goal you want to focus on instead. By exploring further, if you still want to keep the goal or task the same, we keep it as an assignment for the following session. Hopefully this will help clarify what we do as coaches here at Mantis!