Are you an executive coach or a life coach?

 Thursday morning, March 11, 2021, around 9.30 am I received a call asking is it Nitin Mistry on line to which I replied ‘Yes’.

 

After a formal Greetings exchanged, a question is put across,’ Are you a Life Coach or Executive coach?’ I gave a 10 seconds pause, putting my reply in a place, the gentlemen continued, “we are looking for an executive coach and if you are a life coach, I will thank you for giving us your valuable morning time.”

 

How our further conversation went and what finally was an outcome is yet another story, which we may discuss some other time but the question “are you a Life coach or an executive coach’ has made me think seriously about coaching from the client’s perspective.

 

I feel it is a gross mistake to assume that life coaching and executive coaching are as specific, well defined and distinct as their names suggests. In fact, they aren’t so distinctly different.

 

The coaches uses the term in front of the word ‘coaching’ to appeal the kind of clients they hope to draw their attention.

For example, a corporate HR executive is more likely to get attracted to Executive coaching or leadership coaching and rightly so because the HR manager has to get the approval from board of directors and the process become easier if the title of coach is in sync with their requirement. An entrepreneur or start-up CEO will look for Business coach title and an individual who is looking for work-life balance will look for life coach title.

 

All caching has same foundation and fundamental values.

 

Coaching is defined by its practice and its results and not by the title, alone.

 

Whether you call yourself an executive coach or a life coach, you will practice your coaching under the guidelines of ICF and according to the coaching competencies defined by ICF.