20 Different Types of Coaching
Coaching is a form of development where an expert (coach) assists a client (coachee) in accomplishing a particular professional or personal objective. Coaching is important because it fosters personal growth for people with a variety of needs. The benefits of coaching are many. According to the Institute of Coaching, around 70% of those who undergo coaching report improved work performance, and 80% express higher self-confidence. However, coaching has its limitations like any other profession. Some of the most common challenges and limitations of coaching include a lack of clear objectives, spoon-feeding answers to the client rather than listening to their needs and asking questions, lack of confidence, etc.
There are 20 different types of coaching:
- Business Coaching
- Life Coaching
- Executive Coaching
- Career Coaching
- Sales Coaching
- Relationship Coaching
- Group Coaching
- Skills Coaching
- Success Coaching
- Transformational Coaching
- Team Coaching
- Holistic Coaching
- Performance Coaching
- Mental Health Coaching
- Communication Coaching
- Intuitive Coaching
- Leadership Development Coaching
- Targeted Behavioral Coaching
- Legacy Coaching
- Newly Assigned Leader Coaching
1. Business Coaching
Business coaching is a type of coaching where a professional coach helps a businessperson in pursuing their professional goals and objectives. A business coach supports the client by offering tailored guidance to help them navigate the challenges of running a business. The business coach provides an objective viewpoint, teaches you how to make better decisions, helps you identify the route to your destination, and develops a strategy for getting there. The main purpose of business coaching is to help the coachee learn how to resolve problems on their own rather than to provide them with answers and solutions.
The pros of business coaching include a changed perspective, accountability for your business decisions, the ability to identify new opportunities, and motivation. One of the most notable cons is that successful business coaches are often expensive. Additionally, many business coaches claim to be experts but in reality have had limited professional success.
Business coaches charge from $175 to $250 per hour. However, some well-known coaches with national recognition charge up to $30K per day. The price depends on who you are working with, their reputation, and how in demand they are.
2. Life Coaching
Life coaching is all about helping you move forward in your life, whether it’s changing careers, enhancing relationships, or getting in shape. The purpose of life coaching is to help you identify your goals and make a plan to accomplish them. A life coach helps you determine what’s stopping you from moving forward and provides you with the tools you need to start making progress.
This type of coaching works for anyone, but it is best for those who are unsure of how to maximize their abilities or accomplish their goals. However, life coaching requires lots of time and patience in order to yield tangible results. Additionally, life coaching is a waste of your time and money if you are not committed to achieving the goal you set for.
The hourly rates for life coaches normally range from $75 to $250. To assist you in achieving your goals, the life coach often needs a minimum of three to six sessions.
3. Executive Coaching
Executive coaching helps leaders to improve their abilities and skills in order to be more successful in their positions. The purpose of executive coaching is to assist executives in developing stronger coping mechanisms for challenging circumstances and making wise decisions.
Additionally, an executive coach helps the leader understand their existing abilities, how others view them, and focus on creating and clarifying current goals as well as the required action steps to achieve those goals. The main drawback of executive coaching is its cost. This type of coaching is aimed at business executives who expect a high-quality service that yields meaningful results, which is why only top-notch executive coaches with industry-recognized accreditations and a strong track record of success often charge more than other types of coaches like life coaches.
This type of coaching is beneficial at any stage of a manager’s or leader’s career to help maximize their performance and impact.
Executive coaches typically charge from $150 to $650 per hour.
4. Career Coaching
Career coaching is a type of coaching that helps people identify and accomplish their career goals. Career coaching is beneficial for anyone who is having trouble deciding on a career path or wishes to advance in their current career. This type of coaching is useful in a variety of career-related circumstances, including job searching and interview preparation.
A career coach helps clients gain an understanding of the working environment and their own personal development. Coaches work with clients to help them create a career action plan with the goal of improving their employability.
Career coaches, however, are often expensive. Career coaches typically charge $75 to $150 per hour but the cost of more popular career coaching services ranges from $250 to $500, or even more, which means your costs during your career coach partnership might total several thousand dollars. Spending that much money is incredibly stressful if you’re unemployed.
Additionally, you need to use caution when picking the correct candidate for the position. There are many scammers in the industry so beware of anyone trying to oversell themselves and make sure to verify any credentials listed.
5. Sales Coaching
Sales coaching guides sales representatives in the right direction to help them maximize their abilities and develop their sales skills. The purpose of this type of coaching is to identify areas where your sales reps need improvement and then provide them with advice on how to improve. Additionally, a good sales coach needs to be able to motivate your sales team and help them remain focused on achieving their goals.
Sales coaching is a must for any sales business since it may significantly boost productivity, outcomes, and ultimately the company’s bottom line. One of the major drawbacks of sales coaching is the utilization of an organization’s time and resources. It will be a waste of resources for the company if the individual leaves after receiving sales coaching.
Sales coaching prices vary greatly but they are usually in the range from $400 to $3,000 for a reputable sales coaching course.
6. Relationship Coaching
Relationship coaching is a type of coaching that helps clients identify and achieve their relationship-related goals. Additionally, a professional relationship coach helps you recognize your relationship challenges, offers support, and keeps you accountable.
Relationship coaching is for people with troubles in their relationships, or those who want to advance their relationships. Relationship coaches work with individuals, families, or couples to help strengthen their bonds, improve communication, and resolve disputes.
One hour of relationship coaching costs between $50 and $300.
7. Group Coaching
Group coaching or peer group coaching is a type of coaching where a coach helps a group of people work to change particular behaviors or results. The participants in team coaching must collaborate on a daily basis, but the goal of group coaching is to improve each individual. Therefore, the coachees collaborate with one another to achieve common objectives and raise the performance of the team as a whole. The coach creates a psychologically secure setting where the participants interact, learn from one another, and provide support. The main drawback of group coaching is that it feels less personal than one-on-one coaching. Additionally, working with a group requires extra patience, effort, and a higher level of understanding.
The rule that many coaches follow is that group coaching should cost each participant 30% less than one-on-one coaching prices. So, if you are a new coach charging about $60 per session, each participant in the group coaching session will pay $20.
8. Skills Coaching
Skills coaching is a type of coaching where the coach helps their client understand their strengths and weaknesses, overcome any possible blockages, and successfully acquire a new skill.
Skills coaching involves one-on-one sessions customized to the person’s knowledge, experience, and goals. The main priority of this type of coaching is the achievement of both personal and corporate goals. The coaches who run skills coaching courses typically have training and/or experience in the fields in which skills-transfer coaching is offered.
The biggest downside is that effective skills coaching programs often require a large amount of time to execute. Additionally, a skills coaching program that is developed and executed improperly often yields undesirable results, like decreased employee engagement or little increase in productivity.
The average cost of skills coaching is about $100 to $150 per session, but prices vary depending on several factors including the coach’s experience and where you live.
9. Success Coaching
Success coaching is a type of coaching where an expert helps a client achieve success in a wide range of fields. A success coach is responsible for setting specific objectives, creating tailored programs, and putting success-promoting techniques into practice.
The greatest advantage of success coaching is that it helps define and achieve realistic goals faster and easier than would otherwise be possible. However, success coaching is a process that takes time in order to produce significant results.
The best candidates for this kind of coaching are high-potential individuals who are seeking advancement at any stage of their careers.
Transformational coaches typically charge from $75 to $250 per session.
10. Transformational Coaching
Transformational coaching is a type of coaching that helps people transform their lives. Transformational coaching is based on the notion that everyone possesses potential for greatness and that, with a coach’s assistance, everyone is able to accomplish anything they put their minds to. Transformational coaches assist their clients in identifying and removing any obstacles standing in the way of their success.
Transformational coaching is different from transitional coaching. A transitional coach helps you move from one job to another, whereas a transformational coach enables you to radically rethink what is possible for you professionally and even redefine what your professional life means in the context of your entire life.
One of the main disadvantages of transformational coaching is that it often focuses on coaching and encouraging only selected groups of individuals. This is problematic because not all the needs of the team as a whole are met.
This type of coaching benefits anybody who is seeking more clarity and purpose in their personal and professional life. Transformation coaches charge about $49.95 per hour on average.
11. Team Coaching
Team coaching is a type of group coaching that teaches team members the skills to collaborate. Team coaching has the purpose to help groups of people work together more effectively. This type of coaching is used to develop leadership skills, improve communication, and solve problems.
Team coaching helps teams identify goals, create a vision, make wise decisions, improve teamwork, and accomplish their goals. As a result, team coaching has the potential to significantly increase the collective intelligence of the team members.
The main disadvantage of team coaching is the pace. It is often too slow or too fast for certain members of the team, depending on the group and the members’ behavioral styles. Additionally, the results are typically slower than with one-to-one coaching.
A 12-month team coaching program costs between $25,000 and $35,000.
12. Holistic Health Coaching
Holistic health coaching or wellness coaching focuses on mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional health. The purpose of holistic health coaching is to develop balance since it promotes the overall health and growth of the client.
A holistic health coach works with clients to examine all aspects of their lives, spot any imbalances, and come up with personalized solutions. This process is incredibly powerful for the coachee as it gives individuals the chance to take charge of their own life and make adjustments that enhance their overall well-being.
One big disadvantage of health coaching programs is the lack of customization. While some holistic health coaching programs are excellent at evaluating the coachee’s health and creating a plan that is tailored to suit their goals, other programs are more likely to give each client a pre-made plan. It is important to find out exactly how personalized your plan is before enrolling.
The average monthly fee for a health coach is between $200 and $500.
13. Performance Coaching
Performance coaching (coaching for performance) has the purpose to improve the performance of an individual or a group. Performance coaching is used in the workplace to increase productivity and efficiency. Additionally, it is used by athletes to boost their performance in contests. Performance coaching typically entails goal-setting, giving feedback, and providing encouragement and motivation. However, performance coaching is most effective when used as part of a company’s regular performance improvement or development plan.
This type of coaching is most beneficial for people who have specific work deliverables or want to become more efficient.
Performance coaching sessions often cost between $100 to $300 per hour, with monthly or package costs ranging from $1,000 to $5,000.
14. Mental Health Coaching
Mental health coaching is a type of coaching that focuses on non-clinical mental health issues. Mental health coaching helps people explore the past more deeply and address any potential traumas or diagnosed problems. Additionally, this type of coaching improves mental fitness by challenging cognitive patterns.
The purpose of mental health coaching is to teach people to control their stress levels and create coping mechanisms for challenging emotions. Mental health coaching is different from therapy but is often used as a complement to therapy for better results.
There are several types of mental health coaches, and each coach has a certain area of coaching specialization, such as sexual trauma, ADHD, or anxiety.
It should be noted, though, that mental health coaching is beneficial if you lack purpose and motivation in life but it won’t work if you have a mental illness. You should seek therapy if you have depression, clinical anxiety, or similar problems.
Mental health coaches charge $21.83 per hour on average.
15. Communication Coaching
Communication coaching aids groups and individuals in improving their communication skills. Communication coaching in the workplace helps employees feel more confident while dealing with their coworkers and customers. Additionally, the benefits of communication coaching include increased confidence in front of an audience, a step-by-step strategy for approaching any type of communication (such as a speech, sales pitch, or discussion), a stronger and more powerful vocabulary, etc.
This type of coaching is conducted in groups of one-on-one sessions. Group sessions are often more beneficial because they allow participants to experience and learn from one another.
Most communication coaches charge between $80 and $125 per hour.
16. Intuitive Coaching
Intuitive coaching is a spiritually oriented type of coaching that focuses on the subconscious. Intuitive life coaches help their clients develop their intuition and put it to good use in their life. Clients work with intuitive coaches to identify their strengths, weaknesses, and barriers. Additionally, intuitive coaches assist their clients in letting go of old trauma and blockages. The purpose of intuitive coaching is to manifest a desired result by cultivating new ways of thinking. However, intuition is often influenced by previous experiences and unconscious biases, which leads to decisions that are not objectively accurate. This results in a narrow-minded approach and limits the ability to consider alternative options and perspectives.
The best candidates for this type of life coaching are those who are feeling helpless, overburdened, or unclear about what to do next.
Life coaches typically charge from $75 to $250 per one-hour session.
17. Leadership Development Coaching
Leadership development coaching helps individuals advance into leadership positions or become better leaders. Leadership development coaches assist their clients in discovering more about their own leadership styles and interpersonal communication.
Additionally, leadership development coaching teaches individuals how to take on a new leadership position, enhances their communication skills, and improves their ability to collaborate with others. The purpose of this coaching method is to inspire leaders to accomplish their individual and team goals and become more successful.
The main downside of leadership development coaching is that it requires lots of time and patience to start producing results. Not all organizations are in a position where they are able to make such an upfront investment.
A personal leadership development coach charges from $150 to $200 per hour for mid-level executive training. The cost rises to almost $500 per hour for top executives.
18. Targeted Behavioral Coaching
Targeted behavioral coaching combines elements of clinical, social, developmental, and industrial-organizational psychology, as well as management and philosophy. The main purpose of targeted behavioral coaching in the workplace is to improve employees’ effectiveness and satisfaction so that they are able to perform better. This type of coaching is used to help employees on a variety of levels, such as social, intellectual, emotional, motivational, etc.
A behavior coach helps clients enhance their behavior, which aids in the development of professional expertise. Employees are coached to be more vigilant and confident when handling unexpected or uncomfortable situations. One of the greatest disadvantages of this type of coaching is that the effect is temporary if there is no consistency.
Behavior coaches charge about $28.46 per hour on average.
19. Legacy Coaching
Legacy coaching is a type of coaching that looks beyond your current circumstances and considers what you wish to leave behind. A legacy coach works with the client to determine what legacy they leave behind for the world, their audience, and their industry after they are no longer in their current position. Legacy coaching helps the client identify the principles they have imparted to the next generations and how their experience encouraged others to follow in their footsteps.
Legacy coaching is intended for people who have already achieved success, are industry leaders, or are preparing for a change in the short- to medium-term. However, this type of coaching is successful only if you are truly willing to share your talents and have a motivating objective.
A three-month legacy coaching package costs about $350-$600.
20. Newly Assigned Leader Coaching
Newly assigned leader coaching offers a way to enhance a leader’s self-awareness and emotional intelligence, enhance decision-making and interpersonal relationships, help a leader adjust to new roles and cultures, and challenge a leader’s thinking and behaviors so the leader is able to continue to grow and develop to their full potential.
However, the effectiveness of this type of coaching largely depends on the skills of the leader involved. When the characteristics of coaching leadership are implemented poorly, or they are integrated ineffectively, then it can create problems on multiple levels
Newly assigned leader coaching is beneficial for individuals who are taking on leadership positions for the first time. The hiring of a coach to help these emerging leaders accelerate their personal growth, self-assurance, and decision-making skills.
Newly assigned leader coaching sessions cost from $150 to $200 per hour.
What Are Coaching Classes?
The term coaching classes describes a method of training or counseling where an expert (coach) helps a learner (coachee) achieve a particular personal or professional goal by offering training and direction. The coach works with a group of people or an individual during coaching classes to help them acquire skills that increase their productivity or resolve performance issues.
Coaching classes, as opposed to mentoring, focus on particular tasks or goals instead of more general objectives or overall growth. The majority of coaching techniques and models involve close observation, accountability, as well as feedback on performance and development.
What Type of Coaching Is Most Effective?
Executive leadership coaching is one of the most common and effective coaching types in the workplace. Executive leadership coaching is effective because it is a proven way to improve the performance of an organization’s leaders, help them through major changes, and provide them with the tools to change any potentially performance-impairing behaviors.
A study by Metrix Global found that this type of coaching has a staggering 788% ROI based on factors like employee retention and increased productivity. Other studies confirm the benefits of executive coaching.
- Improved report/supervisor relationships (reported by more than 70% of executives)
- Enhanced relationship among peers (63%)
- Enhanced collaboration (67%)
- Increased job satisfaction (52%)
- Increased executive productivity (reported by 53% of executives)
- Increased executives retention (32%)
- Enhanced customer service (39%)
- Improved organizational strengths (48%)
What Are the Most Profitable Types of Coaching?
The list of the five most profitable types of coaching includes executive coaching, business coaching, marketing coaching, relationship coaching, and sales coaching.
- Executive coaching
Executive coaching helps executives, managers, and leaders to define their objectives, unlock their potential, and develop self-awareness. Executive coaching is very popular because of the numerous benefits it offers. Executive coaches help their clients navigate difficult situations, offer encouragement when times are tough, assist in removing roadblocks and impediments that hold them back, and assess their clients’ development.
An average executive coach makes an average salary of $100,357 a year. The average hourly rate is $48 but more in-demand executive coaches charge over $80 per hour.
- Business Coaching
Business coaching guides business owners through the rocky environment of running a business and helps them grow successful companies. A business coach is often an experienced executive or entrepreneur who assists their clients in achieving their business goals by offering an unbiased viewpoint and highlighting a company’s strengths and weaknesses.
Business coaching has become a common practice for business owners and CEOs who want to advance themselves and their companies. Over the past few years, the business coaching industry in the States has grown 2.8%.
A business coach has an average salary of $70,400 per year or about $40 per hour.
- Marketing Coaching
Marketing coaching helps clients create effective marketing strategies, draw in customers, convert leads into paying customers, establish and maintain long-lasting relationships with their audience, and boost sales. Marketing coaching is popular because its goal is to provide clients with the skills they need to overcome marketing-related challenges and continue growing their companies.
The average hourly rate of a marketing coach in the US is $30 but more sought-out coaches charge more than $60 per hour. The average business coach’s salary is $61,475.
- Relationship Coaching
Relationship coaching assists coachees in having more fulfilling relationships. Relationship coaching has become quite popular in recent years and is commonly used for its goal-setting aspect that delivers tangible achievements and structure at a time when both are lacking in people’s lives.
A relationship coach supports individuals and couples in identifying and achieving their relationship objectives, better understanding their life partners, and discovering strategies for successful partnerships. Additionally, a relationship coach helps develop and maintain professional connections with the aim to expand a client’s career opportunities.
In the US, an average relationship coach makes $57,191 per year. The average hourly rate is $27.
- Sales coaching
Sales coaching is popular because it helps sales teams to improve their selling skills and bring in more sales. Many companies decide to invest money in sales coaching to boost their sales reps’ decision-making abilities. Additionally, sales coaching helps your sales reps identify problems and develop effective action plans that enhance sales performance.
Sales coaches make on average $35 per hour or $50,904 a year.
What Type of Coaching Is the Most Popular?
Life coaching is the most popular type of coaching. The demand for life coaches has increased by 51% since 2019.
Life coaching is popular because people want to develop faster without going through all the difficult and time-consuming trial and error. Additionally, this type of coaching is popular because people prefer turning to life coaches rather than conventional psychotherapists in order to achieve a greater sense of fulfillment in their lives.
Many people turn to life coaches for assistance in navigating a major life shift, like starting a new career but in many instances, people seek out life coaches only for advice on how to lead a happier, more fulfilling life. Life coaches assist their clients in developing a plan for pursuing their goals in life and identifying any obstacles they may encounter. Additionally, life coaches offer their clients helpful criticism that prompts them to reconsider their course of action.
What Type of Coaching Is the Hardest?
Coaching organizational leadership teams is the hardest form of coaching. Coaching organizational leadership teams is a type of team coaching that blends the extremely dynamic, interactive character of working with a group of highly skilled people on their challenges with the high-quality individual focus of one-to-one coaching. The coach must be able to strike the ideal balance and make decisions “on the fly” for this coaching approach to be successful.
Additionally, coaching organizational leadership teams is the hardest type of coaching because it is a crucial component of organizational development. The potential worth of this type of coaching lies in the possibility that the group of people will actually have an organizational impact on the organization’s overall health and performance.
What Is the Most Difficult Part of Coaching?
Compassion fatigue is one of the most difficult parts of coaching. Compassion fatigue is defined as a combination of physical, cognitive, and emotional exhaustion brought on by providing care for those who are experiencing severe emotional distress and physical suffering.
Compassion fatigue has traditionally been associated with the medical and therapy professions but there is no doubt that it affects coaches as well. Coaches are more susceptible to compassion fatigue if they have a lot of difficult customers to work with or if they have gone through emotional trauma.
Compassion fatigue in coaches has many symptoms including anxiety, difficulty sleeping, sadness, feeling overwhelmed, reduced pleasure in activities we enjoy, etc. The good news is that a fast recovery is possible if the problem with compassion fatigue is recognized and managed early.
What Are the Common Mistakes of Coaching?
The three most common mistakes of coaching are choosing the wrong caching style, not having confidence in your skills, not listening enough, and not establishing clear goals and expectations. Even the best coaches occasionally make mistakes, especially when they are just getting started. These common coaching mistakes typically stem from a lack of experience, but fortunately, there are efficient strategies to avoid them or resolve the problems they cause.
- Choosing the wrong coaching style
There are different coaching styles to choose from, including democratic, autocratic, holistic, mindful, etc. Remember that what is effective for one client is not always effective for another. You need to be familiar with all these techniques and able to put them into practice. Make sure to get to know your client well before selecting the approach that is most effective for them.
- Lacking confidence
One of the most common mistakes of coaching is the lack of self-confidence and failure to understand the value a coach adds to their clients’ lives. This mistake of coaching is easily avoided by enrolling in a coaching education program recognized by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), which instills valuable coaching skills and rewires a coach’s thinking about the true worth of optimizing human potential during a creative process.
- Not listening enough
It is crucial to gather as much information as you can about the client early on in the coaching session. Start by paying close attention to what is being said in order to be able to understand both the problems and the person who is having them. Effectively helping your coachees depends on your ability to listen.
