Your business is experiencing some sticky problems that you know is costing you a good deal of money. You have decided you need some outside objective help. Some people tell you to hire a consultant. Others tell you to hire a coach. This begs the question: What is the difference between consulting and coaching? Is there really any difference in the first place? At FutureDecisions LLC we are involved in both consulting and coaching so we think it is important to differentiate between the two-so here it goes!

Although some people will tell you that other than semantics, there is no difference between coaching and consulting, there are many more who disagree. Let us further examine the two roles and then you can decide.

Consultants assist you and your organization in achieving the highest possible level of performance. Consultants are focused on supporting an organization to run more “flawlessly” by sharing their expertise in a particular area or areas. To provide an example of consulting, FutureDecisions is expert in the area of workforce/succession planning. We help organizations to bridge the skills and knowledge gaps that can occur when long-term employees retire taking with them critical skills and institutional knowledge that newer, less experienced employees have not yet developed. We offer solutions such as mentoring programs, creating depositories of knowledge, structured succession-planning programs, and a host of other options to deal with the complexities of a changing workforce. Thus, consultants can play a critical supportive role in building an organization’s success by introducing new ideas, concepts and tools which the organization may not have been previously familiar.

By contrast, a coach’s objective is to challenge clients in a way that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. The coach’s role is to provide support to enhance the skills, resources, and creativity that the client already possesses. A coach facilitates a process so that clients can create their own plan of action. Business or leadership coaches are much like those who coach in the sports or personal training world. Coaches are focused on bringing an individual to peak performance; the enhanced skills obtained by an individual through the coaching process will provide long-term benefits to both the client and his/her organization. Coaches work with clients to bring out their inner abilities. Coaches, like consultants, assist clients in performing at the highest level.

The next time you are considering bringing in someone from outside your business to assist with an issue, ask yourself this: Will a coach or a consultant better serve my needs/purposes? Each service has its place. Choosing the correct service upfront can save you both time and money and lead to superior results.  FutureDecisions offers both consulting and coaching services; we work with clients to assure they are receiving the services that best meet their needs.

Here is an interesting tidbit of information from the U.S Center for Women’s  Business Research: 28.2 % of U.S. businesses are owned by women yet they are responsible for only 4.2% of U.S. business revenue!

As a women owned business here at FutureDecisions LLC we are doing our part to raise this percentage!

A recent survey conducted by Deloitte Consulting indicated that executives in large companies are more concerned about their Gen Y employees jumping ship than their Gen X employees. Hmm, sounds like that could be a problem for those employers who are guilty of making that assumption.

Why?  Well a companion survey of employees found that only about 37 percent of Gen Xers said they planned to stay in their current jobs after the recession ends, compared with 44 percent of Gen Yers, 50 percent of baby boomers and 52 percent of senior citizen workers who said the same.

This information is consistent with what we see and hear when conducting our Generations in the Workplace workshop. More and more we are hearing from Gen Y’s that they want to stay put while Gen X employees are feeling more disgruntled than ever. Gen X’ers are filling a very important gap in the workplace as a bridge between the boomers and the Y’ers. Employers who lose significant numbers of these individuals will find themselves finding it more and more difficult to be competitive in the workplace as the economy turns around.

If you would like more information on the generations in the workplace contact FutureDecisions regarding our workshop on the four generations in the workplace, “From the Typewriter to Texting – Understanding Four Generations in the Workplace”.

We at FutureDecisions LLC have been talking about the 4 generations in the workplace for several years now. We have made numerous presentations and written extensively on the subject. Now we are about to move on from our 4 Generations theme, not because multiple generations in the workplace is no longer valid but the landscape has changed considerably since we first broached the subject several years ago.

As individuals have watched their savings evaporate in the economic meltdown we have experienced many people working later in life. What this means is that soon we will have 5 generations in the workplace, not just 4!

According to the World Health Organization, men and women who are healthy at 60 will, on average, be physically capable of working until they are 74 and 77, respectively. Combine these statistics and the newest employees entering the workforce might not be joining their parents or grandparents, they might be joining their great-grandparents.

This translates into a social phenomenon not yet witnessed: five generations are about to be working side by side. They include:

• Traditionalists, born prior to 1946
• Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964
• Gen X, born between 1965 and 1980
• Gen Y, born between 1981 and 1999
• Gen 2020, born after 1999

Around 2015 Baby Boomers will cede the majority of the workforce to Gen Y’s. (Due to their smaller size, Gen X will never have the majority spot in the workplace — and so in essence, we will have skipped an entire generation.) What will this mean for your organization, how will you effectively recruit and retain individuals from 5 different and distinct generations? The challenges are real and the solutions are still being created, FutureDecisions LLC can assist you in creating an environment that maximizes the potential and contributions of all of your employees no matter their age.

We have all read about various workplace related incidents that have been blamed on stress in the workplace but we at FutureDecisions LLC recently saw an article that exceeds anything we had previously run across.

According to an article on the CNN website France Telecom has been experiencing a rash of suicides and attempted suicides. There have been 24 suicides and 13 attempted suicides among France Telecom employees since the beginning of 2008! Much of the angst of France Telecom employees is due to the high level of uncertainty they are experiencing.

Sound familiar? Are your employees experiencing a high level of anxiety due to uncertainty? While their anxiety may not manifest itself in the form of suicide changes at the least they probably less productive than you would like.

What is the number one action you can take to lower the anxiety levels of your employees? Communicate, communicate, communicate! The more information they have the less time and effort they will take making up things about what might be, or not. Even if the news is not good it is better to share than to make them guess.

To read the entire CNN article click here.