Life Coach Vs. Business Coach
The two most sought after types of coaches for adults are your life coaches and business coaches. Though both have the title of a “coach”, the function and purpose can be very different. In this article, we’ll break down the difference between a life coach and a business coach to help give you a better understanding of their functions as well as which one is most suitable for your needs.
If you are unsure which of these coaches would be best suitable to help you reach your goals, here’s a breakdown of what they do and how they differ.
What does a Life Coach do?
Perhaps the most common type of coaches you’ll find, especially today, are life coaches. Their popularity has tremendously grown the past few years due to the amount of motivation and encouragement a life coach can give their “coachee”. People today seek the guidance of a life coach to get that extra boost of motivation to help them reach their goals. While that sounds simple, life coaches actually go through a course and trains to earn the title of a life coach. In their training , they are taught behavioural science to know how to better approach the people that they are coaching as they need to know how to deal with different personalities and different emotions.
So what does a life coach do? Basically, a life coach will help you define your goals and identify the obstacles surrounding them. They’ll help by giving you the moral support that you need so you can be back on track and, as a result, reach your goals. It’s common for life coaches to give you life advice based on their experience and will help you create a structured plan on how you can be better as a person or in what you are doing.
Life coaches play an integral role in guiding their “coachees” on how to also be in control of their emotions so as to see clarity on where it needs to be seen. This is why their training focuses on understanding certain behaviours so they can effectively and professionally address them.
What does a Business Coach do?
While also on the same playing field of being valuable support, business coaches heavily focus on business-related support. You’ll find business coaches to be industry experts with a relevant amount of time in one department/industry giving them valuable experience and wisdom from the field.
Business coaches go through the same type of training to earn that “coach” title, however, their purpose greatly differs from a life coach. We see business coaches working more with organisations and in corporate settings.
The main function of a business coach is helping organisations and businesses find solutions to the obstacles that they are facing in their business. It’s common for business coaches to have their “specialisations” in different departments so they can properly address these issues with their solutions that’s been earned from years of experience in the field.
One thing to consider however is that while business coaches help find solutions, they are not consultants. Business coaches will guide you on how to find a sustainable solution for your problem and how to achieve your goals but unlike consultants, they don’t usually give specific solutions for your business. A coach will help you improve but isn’t always responsible for giving direct solutions though they may do so sometimes when necessary.
Training and Certification
By now, the difference in their function and purpose should be clear. While they differ greatly in terms of what service they can provide, both types of coaches go through training and certification. They are both taught how to empathise and how to be patient. They also go through similar coaching certification to ensure that they are professional coaches (despite both having different functions). So when you are planning to consult either of them, you can always check to see if they are certified to make sure that you are getting the best kind of help.
Unsure which kind of coach can help you best? We can help you!
If you are still unsure on the type of coach which best fit your needs, feel free to contact us and get in touch. We are offering FREE consultations for your coaching needs. Just visit our contact page and shoot us a message and we’ll get in touch with you.
- October 25, 2021
