Not sure whether you should work as a business manager or pursue a career in consultancy?
Read on and study the differences between the two career options.
Those looking to pursue a career in business often wonder what’s the difference between a business management role and coaching. Although the two terms are often used interchangeably, there’s a subtle distinction between them. It’s that business managers and business coaches both fall under the leadership umbrella, but they have different roles to play. In this guide, you’ll study the differences between a business management job and a coaching job.
Business Management vs. Business Coaching
Business Management
Business management is more task-oriented, requiring teams to deliver projects on budget and on time. When serving as a business manager, team members will turn to you for answers and guidance. Among the most common situations when business management is required include:
- Executive decision-making
- Resolving a crisis
- Evaluating progress
- Training and onboarding new hires
- Holding meetings
- Assigning and delegating tasks
- Meeting deadlines
In addition, the role of business management is largely metrics-driven and involves numbers. Some of the questions to ask here include:
- What are you managing towards?
- What is the best way to organize the task or the team?
- What results does the team desire?
- What are the various moving pieces of the project?
- How are you supervising your team and assessing progress?
Now that you have a fair understanding of business management, let’s talk about business coaching:
Business Coaching
As opposed to a business manager, who is more engaged in assigning tasks, evaluating performance, and issuing directives, a business coach’s role is more about exploration and partnership. As a coach, you’ll inspire teams to their next phase of evolution and nurture future leaders in those businesses. In other words, your efforts will be put toward developing talent. Ultimately, your services should help increase employee engagement, commitment, and productivity.
Some of the specific cases that require business coaching include:
- When a team’s potential is much greater than its current performance.
- When an individual needs career advice.
- When the goal is to develop team members and assist them in boosting their effectiveness.
- When collaboration is essential to formulate fresh strategies.
When working with a competent team who are already delivering their best, your aim as a business coach should be to help these confident and self-reliant team members to leverage independent thinking and execute with any fear. The process of nurturing people to the next level works as a holistic and incremental process.
Conclusion
After studying both business management and business consulting, you should be in a much better position to choose a career path that matches your interests. If you believe that business coaching is the correct route for you, consider joining the team of experts at FocalPoint Coaching and Training NJ. As a business coach, you’ll get to work with businesses from various sectors, learning and building expertise in different fields.
