Many agency leaders and senior executives ask me “What’s the difference between coaching and consulting?”

The short answer: consultants tell you what to do based on their expertise. Coaches help you figure out what to do based on your own wisdom, goals, and context. But that distinction matters a lot more than it might sound like at first.

Before I became a coach myself, I don’t think I understood the difference. I’d been a PR agency leader for more than 25 years, and I thought coaching was just one-on-one consulting. (Boy, was I wrong about that.) It wasn’t until I experienced coaching myself that I understood why the distinction matters.

Why the Confusion Exists

Part of the confusion is that both coaches and consultants work with leaders to improve performance. Both ask questions. Both have expertise. And frankly, some people call themselves coaches when they’re really consultants. (And as a trained, certified coach, that really gets my goat. It’s something around which I must do lots of self-coaching! But that’s a discussion for another day.)

But the underlying approach is fundamentally different. That difference shapes everything about how the relationship works, what outcomes you can expect, and which you should select.

What Consulting Looks Like

When you hire a consultant, you’re typically hiring them because they know something you don’t. (And I know this because in addition to being a coach, I’m a consultant.) They have expertise in a specific domain: Perhaps they’ve run successful new business campaigns at agencies, they’re experts in digital or metrics, they’ve helped agencies reach profitability goals, they’ve navigated mergers, or they have true knowledge of how to use AI effectively and ethically.

You’re essentially saying: “We need someone to assess our situation, tell us what’s wrong, and recommend what to do about it.” The consultant’s value is in their knowledge and experience. (And, of course, if you implement what they recommend!)

That can be incredibly valuable. Sometimes you genuinely don’t know how to solve a problem, and you need someone who’s solved it before to show you the path.

At my firm, I consult with agencies on business development, client service, team performance, and reaching desired profitability. When I’m consulting, I bring my 25+ years of agency leadership experience, and 18 years of working with agencies to diagnose problems and recommend solutions.

What Coaching Looks Like

Coaching starts from a completely different premise: Coaches believe you already have the wisdom you need to achieve your organizational, career, and personal goals.  But something’s getting in the way of your success and fulfillment.

You might not be able to access it clearly right now because you’re too close to the situation, or you’re caught in old thought patterns, or you haven’t given yourself permission to trust your own judgment.

A coach’s job is to ask the questions that help you see your situation more clearly and make better decisions for yourself. Not better according to the coach’s opinion, but better according to your own values and goals.

When I’m coaching a PR leader, I’m not telling them how to handle a potentially difficult client conversation. I’m helping them figure out what they actually want from that conversation, what’s getting in their way, and what they’re willing to do about it. (And a deadline for doing so.)

The coach’s value isn’t in having the answers, it’s in creating the space and asking the questions that let you find your own answers.

OK, you’re on the road to truly understanding the difference between coaching and consulting. But there’s more.

Why This Distinction Matters

Here’s what I’ve seen over and over: when leaders get advice (even good advice) from a consultant, they often struggle to implement it. Not because the advice was wrong, but because they weren’t fully bought into it. It was someone else’s solution, not theirs.

When leaders arrive at their own insights through coaching, they own those insights in a completely different way. They’re not following someone else’s roadmap, they’re building their own.

That doesn’t mean coaching is always better than consulting. It means they serve different needs.

When You Need a Consultant

You need specific expertise you don’t have. If you’re launching a new practice area and you’ve never done it before, a consultant who’s built successful practices can save you time and mistakes.

You need an outside perspective on your business. Sometimes you’re too close to see what’s not working. A consultant can audit your operations, interview your team, and give you an objective assessment.

You’re a true expert in PR, but…Many PR pros launch their agencies because they’re superb at PR, they’re natural at client service, and they want to be masters of their destinies, but they may not be well-versed in the business side of the business, on how to manage and grow an agency.

When You Need a Coach

You know what you need to do, but you’re not doing it. This is the classic coaching situation. You’ve been meaning to have that conversation with your partner. You know you need to delegate more. You’re aware you’re working unsustainable hours. The problem isn’t information, it’s execution.

You keep running into the same patterns. If you’ve had three difficult clients in a row, or you keep burning out your best people, or you lose every pitch at the finalist stage, that’s probably not a knowledge problem. It’s a pattern problem. Coaching helps you see and shift those patterns.

You’re in transition or growth. You’ve moved from manager to leader, or you’re leading executives who last week were your peers, or you’ve taken the plunge into agency ownership. What got you to where you are won’t necessarily get you to where you need to be. Coaching helps you develop the mindset and skills for success at that proverbial next level. You can’t consult your way into a new leadership identity.

You want to build your capacity as a leader. Consulting solves problems. Coaching builds capability. If your goal is to become a better leader—more confident, more effective, more intentional—coaching is the path.

You’re killing it, but…You seem to be successful. You’ve got the trappings: perhaps you’ve got that big office, big title, even big salary. But, you’re just not satisfied.

Can You Do Both?

Yes. I work with some clients in both capacities. We might start with coaching to minimize blocks to success, to discover thought patterns that aren’t working for us, or to deal with negative self-talk or imposter syndrome, and then shift into consulting to achieve specific business challenge, such as business development or profitability.

That’s because when we use coaching to remove those blocks, the client is able to jump in and get greater results from whatever we work on in consulting.

Sometimes we’ll start with consulting on one of the business topics, and the client realizes they’re getting in their own way, and then we shift into coaching.

But it’s important to be clear about which mode we’re in, because the dynamics are different. When I’m consulting, I’m the expert. When I’m coaching, you’re the expert on your own life and leadership.

How to Choose

If you’re still unsure of the differences between coaching and consulting, here’s another post that might prove helpful.

Now it’s time to ask yourself: Do I need answers, or do I need to develop my capacity to find my own answers?

If you’re facing a specific technical or business problem and you need expertise, consider hiring a consultant. If you’re facing a leadership challenge and you need to grow as a leader and want greater life satisfaction, consider hiring a coach.

And if you’re not sure which you need, that’s a great question to explore in a complimentary consultation. Sometimes the most valuable thing is having someone empower you to figure out what kind of support would actually be most useful. (And yes, that’s coaching!)

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