Do Coaches Give Advice?

There has been a long running and enthusiastic discussion on the “Coaching at Work” thread on LinkedIn, the business networking site, and it would seem that this debate has raged in coaching training and lots of other professional forum and is as old as coaching itself (older if you include counselling in the mix).

All coaches want to do the very best for their clients and many have very different thoughts, feelings and practice relating to advice. The debate has often been pretty heated which indicates that there is a lot at stake. It may well be the case that questions of advice, and the ability and willingness to give it, may be at the heart of coaching. I think that I also spotted a theme where coaches wanted to be non-directive and regretted the times that they had stepped outside this to give advice – this struck me as something of a shame, the examples of advice-giving provided seemed perfectly understandable

I am what could best be described as a Solution Focused Coach and therefore believe myself to be non-directive in the way I understand that definition. In writing this piece I wanted to come up with a way of thinking about this question which I hope is even-handed and practical.

Can we agree on this?

There’s the first prickly matter of defining what we are talking about. Defining coaching is notoriously difficult and I don’t want to derail the reader at such an early stage. I’d like to start the discussion with a statement which I don’t think will alienate too many coaches and it is this – “people are more convinced about what comes out of their own mouths than out of anyone else’s”. It seems to me that coaching is a particular success when coachees develop their own solutions to their own aspirations and needs. Mainly because these solutions can be more easily adapted into how the client already does things and therefore they may be more likely to be adopted and to endure.

Coaching techniques may differ but I hope that we can agree that the central ideas are as follows.

Coaches ask question to help coachees get what they want. This “getting” usually takes the form of internal monologue (thinking), external dialogue (talking) and activities which take place between sessions. Coaches encourage people to find out and act and there is something important in this process coming from the coachee themselves. Like all ideals this may not always happen in practice but can we agree that this what we are aiming for?

The temptation/imperative for advice giving is therefore considered in the light of the ideal that people coaching helps people to find their own way to get what they want.

When is it always really good idea to give advice?

• When coaching is really management. There are signs that the case for coaching is being won in organisations with more companies training their managers in coaching skills. However in many cases so much of the management role is letting people know what they should be doing and fine tune. Managers who are involved in coaching staff will need to be aware of the distinction
• When coaching is really mentoring. New people, often in senior roles, learning from the experience of more experienced colleagues or others in the sector.
• When there is a standard and accepted way of doing something – i.e. structuring a CV, writing and delivering a formal address of thanks.
• When there is a mechanical solution to a problem – i.e. re-booting computer, replacing fuel pump
• When there is an urgent need for intervention – a clients health condition is serious, a coachee is talking about their work in such a way as to seriously damage their career and wellbeing

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