It has been a while since I started training and coaching individuals groups and corporations. I have offered multiplicity of trainings and programs to ensure a change could happen as designed by me and expected by the management or the person or the organization. During my curricula I learned that many people are confused between what coaching or consultation or training means. Many think that they are synonyms yet the difference is huge, in meaning and in application. For more information I will try to give a general view about each term in order for interested companies or people to know exactly what they need to create the change needed or implement a skill or body of knowledge. So what is the difference between coaching, consulting and training? COACHING Coaching is an advanced program in which a dialogue is planned to the current state to the desired one. ‘’When I am in the process of coaching I usually don’t train the person, he /she should have been already trained. My role as a coach is to support, stimulate, inspires, and focuses on the exchange of ideas’’. Good coaching occurs positively when your personal blockages are removed. Thereby empowering you to reach your goals and create your vision and direction. Consultation Consultation is different from coaching. Here the consultant is the professional. After the evaluation of a business as a whole, the observed situation has to be chunked into small pieces for a better understanding. The consultant will inspect the goals, vision, processes implemented and people. The role of the consultant is to offer a list of suggestions and hints on what adjustments are needed and how to implement them. Training The trainer role is to teach skills and deliver knowledge. The trainer wears the hat of an instructor and can train individual or groups on either hard skills or soft skills along with a workbook and supported material. ‘’Training can be conducted in a variety of ways’’. It is to note that more soft skills are needed to be trained to meet the new way of managing organizations. As much as you acquire soft skills as much as you are capable to coach people in your company later on. Issam Atala.com