Coaching vs. Consulting vs. Advising: What Does Your Leadership Team Really Need?

When leadership teams face a major transition such as a merger, acquisition or management buy-out, one of the most important and often overlooked decisions is: What kind of support do we actually need to succeed?

After three decades working with UK-based businesses through complex transactions, I’ve seen a range of challenges. Boardrooms with sharp commercial strategies but misaligned leadership. Consultants brought in to fix operations when the real issue was trust. Newly appointed MDs privately struggling with uncertainty just when their teams needed clarity and confidence.

Here’s the truth: coaching, consulting and advising are not the same. Each is a distinct tool in the leadership support toolkit – designed for different jobs.

A consultant might give you the blueprint. An adviser shares what worked (or didn’t) in their own experience. A coach helps you sharpen your own thinking, build your confidence and make decisions that truly align with your leadership style and values.

Like any toolkit, using the wrong tool for the job slows everything down. For example:

• Bringing in a consultant when the issue is cultural or emotional: No strategy document will fix a breakdown in trust or confidence.
• Expecting an adviser to deliver hands-on strategy: They are there for insight, not delivery.
• Dismissing coaching as too soft: Coaching is not about being nice. It is about uncovering the thinking that drives action or inaction.

So, let’s consider the differences.

Coaching: Unlocking Leadership from the Inside Out

Coaching is not about advice.

• It is about enabling leaders to think deeply, reflect and grow.
• It is for the MD who has just led a buy-out and is asking, “What kind of leader do I want to be?”
• It is for senior teams where meetings sound productive, but nothing is shifting.
• It is for the founder who feels stuck in their role and unsure what to let go of.

Coaching works from the inside out. It is non-directive and deeply personal. In the uncertainty of a transition, this type of support helps leaders gain clarity and confidence.

Coaching can be valuable when:

• A business is going through merger integration
• Leadership identity is changing after a buy-out
• Senior teams are navigating growth and shifting dynamics

Consulting: Structured Solutions from the Outside In

Consultants bring expertise and external perspective. They are there to solve a defined problem.

You might engage a consultant to:

• Deliver a post-acquisition integration plan
• Restructure a business after investment
• Build new reporting lines or improve operational performance

Consultants bring structure. What they don’t bring is the shift in mindset needed to make that structure work. That is where coaching fits in.

Advising: Lived Experience and Practical Wisdom

Advisers bring personal experience. They have faced similar transitions and can offer insight and context you won’t find in a framework.

Think of the adviser who has led multiple buy-outs and understands the emotional weight. Or the former MD who now chairs boards and can challenge thinking from a place of credibility.

Advising is less structured than consulting and less developmental than coaching, but it is powerful. It works well during high-stakes, emotionally complex phases of leadership.

Choosing the right tool moves you forward, faster and with more confidence.

Questions to Ask:

• Are we struggling because we lack answers or because we lack alignment?
• Do we need an external plan or internal clarity?
• Are our leaders managing or truly leading?

If your team is going through a transition such as a merger, acquisition, succession or buy-out, start by getting clear on what kind of support will unlock progress.

A Hybrid Solution

Many leadership teams assume they need to choose between coaching, consulting or advising. In reality, the most effective support comes from someone who understands all three – because real business transformation doesn’t happen in silos.

That’s where Growth Plans® is different.

As a qualified accountant, my early career was rooted in the financial detail of mergers, acquisitions and management buyouts. I’ve sat at the table during due diligence, run financial models, liaised with all the financial and professional parties to the transaction and ran the process. I understand the pressure points from the inside.

Over time, I saw that numbers alone don’t drive value – people do. That’s why I trained as a leadership coach and shifted my focus to supporting senior teams and boards through the more human side of change. Today, I work with MDs, founders and senior leaders to build trust, navigate complexity and lead with confidence.

With Growth Plans®, you don’t have to choose between structure and insight, or technical understanding and personal development. You get all of it – in one person.

This integrated approach brings you:

• Strategic clarity from someone who’s led on both sides of the table
• Leadership coaching that’s commercially grounded, not abstract
• Board-level support that builds alignment, not dependency
• A single trusted partner who speaks the language of both finance and culture

This is what hybrid support really means: commercially credible coaching, operational insight, and lived experience of what makes leadership work when the stakes are high.

Whether you’re navigating a deal, leading through change, or developing the next phase of your business, Growth Plans® brings the tools, mindset and experience to help you get there.

Get in touch for a conversation. No pressure, just perspective. Contact Liz to see if Growth Plans® is right for you and you are right for them: [email protected]