Coach, Trainer, or Manager?
Posted by Liz Strauss · 10 Comments
I am not a coach.
I don’t want to be one.
I don’t think I will ever hire one.
There are too many coaches out there.
The word coach has lost it’s definition.
The original definition wasn’t that appealing to me to start with.
A coach stands on the sidelines and sends in the plays for the team to execute. The coach runs the game.
I don’t want to be merely a trainer.
Trainers work only with beginners and on narrow paths.
I like training folks who don’t know how to do things.
But trainers tend to be focused on mastery of skill sets.
Trainers identify skills that need to be learned and teach them.
Training is discrete and often project focused.
I am a manager.
I run businesses.
Whether we are a movie star, baseball team, or a CEO,
we need managers to make our businesses go and grow.
Managers see projects, people, and skill sets.
Managers also see strategy to move businesses and people forward.
That is why I have named my new business — Perfect Virtual Manager — to distinguish it from a coach or a trainer.
Behind every Successful business there is an Outstanding manager.
In the next few posts we’ll explore what that manager can and should be doing.
Liz Strauss
Hi Liz (very stormy here at the moment)
Interesting take on coach/trainer and like the ‘outcome’ to manager.
Looking forward to the next set of posts on this.
On the personal side: 4 years ago all of a sudden I was a ‘managing director’ (Made my mother very proud
) but still not sure if I got the managing bit right.
Hi Karen,
It’s messy here too this morning and it’s cloudy in my head as well.
I’ve felt the way I describe above for quite a while. Too many folks can hang out their shingle to be a coach. I don’t want to think of myself as needing a coach for my life or my work.
I like the idea of both being and having a professional manager — someone who stays focused on the business and the client’s interests. No one has to care about anyone’s favorite color or candy. It’s about vision, strategy, tactics, responsibility and deliverables.
Hi Liz
Last bit sound like my I hear my mentor
(He’s great)
Hi Karin,
I thought about including a mentor in the list and decided that the relationship there was a different one — one that doesn’t fit withint the group. and I was right it seems.
Here frickin’ here!
Well, Jeff, That one way to agree!
Hi Liz
I agree. Ultimately a good manager will become a mentor (of sorts) but that’s is indeed a completely different ball-game. More like on another level?
Hi Karen,
Yeah, another level. To me there’s no way that mentoring doesn’t involve some personal relatioship that goes deep and so each mentor relationship is individually defined by the people in it. That’s true of other relationships, but not to such an extreme, I don’t think.
Hi Liz
Furhter to these ponderings I wrote about mentors on my blog (tried to track-back to here, but doesn’t seem to work?)
http://www.thekissbusiness.co.uk/2007/01/mentors_ponderi.html
Hi Karin,
My apologies! I got slammed this weekend with spammers and I’m guessing that the trackback got eaten by the spam catcher. I went through them, but with the volume I must have missed it.
I’m sorry.
Thank you so much for thinking of doing that.