Hey mom, don't I look great?
Well, this may mean nothing to you however in the coaching world, it was long thought (and, take a moment to reorient because ‘long thought’ in a 20-year old industry isn’t much) that clients have all the answers and coaches provide the questions. If we do it well enough, our questions will stimulate a provocative pattern of thought that will open new neuron pathways in a client’s head, leading them to – eureka – the answers that have been lurking about in half-formed snips of data and image. That is: the client is the expert on her/his own life and the coach is the guide who’ll remind them of what they already know yet may have forgotten or neglected to value.
More recently, some schools of thought have shifted, recognizing that coaches are experts too; expert in a body of knowledge and expertise they accumulated in some prior field and brought into their coach life and expert in the communication tools that abound in the coach profession. As such, can a coach do more than ask cogent questions? Can we tell, advise and consult yet still be coaches?
I think you pose a really good question. My take is that if a coach has a specific expertise to draw upon and targets that niche for clients, then at the very least that should provide him/her with the background to ask the most pertinent questions. Other than that, I would consider the person to be wearing two hats: Coach and Mentor/Consultant and providing a hybrid type service.