Introduction to the Roles
Several of the High Growth Coach Roles are almost self-explanatory, whilst others need some clarification.
The roles of the High Growth Coach as Mentor, Consultant and Advisor often get confused. This is because there is an overlap between the roles.
There are, however, subtle, but important distinctions. If the different roles are not understood, clients can become confused, for example, believing that the High Growth Coach has made a recommendation when in fact they were merely offering advice.
High Growth Enterprise Coaches need to make it clear to clients in which capacity they are operating.
The Coach Role
The Coach role is not usually a ‘hands-on’ activity as the coaching process is more concerned with the development of the client’s understanding, intellectual capabilities and business acumen, enabling them to determine the most appropriate action that they subsequently implement themselves. The focus is more on helping clients to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding and helping them to make informed decisions and choices about the actions they will undertake. By working “through and with” rather than “for” a client, the client comes to own both the problem and the solution, and they are motivated to set objectives and take action.
The Trainer Role
Clients sometimes do not possess the required level of knowledge, skills and understanding to perform and undertake certain activities and responsibilities. The Trainer role involves helping clients address such gaps through the delivery of training or learning programmes. This may take the form of a conventional training course, a workshop or other training intervention.
The Facilitator Role
The Facilitator role has many skills in common with the Trainer role. The Facilitator role also uses many of the same training and communication methods, but the focus is less on the direct transfer of knowledge and skills and more on helping clients to gain insight and understanding to enable them to draw their own conclusions and to make their own decisions: something which it has in common with the Coach role.
The Advisor Role
The Advisor role often involves providing clients with independent and impartial information and opinions regarding the different options or choices open to them. There are similarities to the Coach role in that this role is about helping clients to make informed choices, but the difference is that the Advisor role involves making recommendations on the appropriate choice or decisions: the final decision and implementation of any recommendation are made by the client and not the High Growth Coach.
The Broker Role
There are occasions when clients require services and products that cannot be provided by the High Growth Coach and they are asked to help source suitable suppliers. The Broker role involves helping clients to clarify and define product and service specifications and supplier selection criteria, but it does not extend to undertaking the procurement on behalf of the client. The final purchase decision is that of the client and not the High Growth Coach.
The Consultant Role
The Consultant role usually involves the High Growth Coach providing advice and recommendations, which is subsequently extended to a hands-on role with the implementation of their recommendations. Often the consultant role is about the implementation of a solution to resolve a specific problem (e.g. implementing a management information system).
The Mentor Role
The Mentor role tends to draw heavily upon the High Growth Coach’s own experience and understanding of managing and growing a business and usually covers a diverse range of topics.
The focus of mentoring sessions often revolves around the longer-term development of the client as an individual rather than focusing on the business.
It is often said that a mentor will ‘have been there, done that and got the t-shirt’.
Consider each of the roles above and think about:
Q: Which of the roles you adopt?
Q: What proportion of your time you spend in each of the roles?
Q: Which roles you feel most comfortable in?
Q: How do you make it clear to clients which role you are taking at any one time?
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