Business vs. Personal Coaching
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PERSONAL COACHING & BUSINESS COACHING?
Personal Coaching would include classifications such as Life Coach (the most common term), Success Coach, Personal Coach and many more. Personal or Life Coaches specialize in working with individuals, mostly outside of their actual business or professions, focusing mainly on the personal lives of their clients. Of course, issues about career and job can enter into the coaching process with a Personal or Life Coach, but in general, the focus is much broader. Career or Transitional coaches could also fall under Personal Coaching, looking at issues such as “what do I do with the rest of my life?”
Under the banner of Business Coaching, one often sees terms like Executive Coach, Business Coach, Professional Coach, Corporate Coach and more.
Business Coaches, like me, come from a strong background of diverse business experience, often coupled with a formal business education, and are therefore familiar with the operations of a company or organization, as well as the terminology and processes used in business. This is extremely important
to consider when hiring a coach to help you primarily in your business and enterpreneurial activities. That being said, it is only natural that some aspects of personal and family life will also enter the coaching work, and, having a coach with a great deal of LIFE experience is a tremendous asset.
Executive Coaches more specifically deal with executives who are part of a corporate hierarchy and work not only on strategic and operational issues, but can also focus on the ways executives can further their careers, navigate corporate politics or deal with power issues.