How to Choose the Right Support for You

How to Choose the Right Support for You 

Have you reached a point where you know that you are stuck, and you need help through, but you have no idea what sort of support there is? 

Do you wonder what the difference is between a Coach, Psychologist, Mentor, Facilitator or Trainer? 

Do you wonder what sort of questions you should ask and what the services cost? 

Well, here’s a whistlestop tour to help demystify some of these terms and some tips for what to expect. 

Coach 

Coaches can be called a lot of different things; Career Coaches, Life Coaches, Executive Coaches… The type of coach someone is represents a specialty or area of expertise.  Coaches support their client (you) in achieving a particular goal, through a variety of ways like talking it out, acknowledging what might be holding you back from the goal, developing a realistic plan or providing accountability. 

Here are some things to know: 

• Coaching is NOT advice. A good coach will not tell you what to do 
• Coaching is not long term. You should set some initial sessions to approach a goal, (or goals) once these goals are met the relationship should stop. It may of course re-start with a new goal later 
• Coaching is not counselling. A proper coach will only need to know details around the goal 
• Coaching is client led. It works on the underlying assumption that you have the skills to complete your goal, you just need support. 

Top Tip: Many coaches will tell you all about themselves and their own style, what’s more important is to ask what outcomes the coach can produce. Someone can be the nicest person in the world but if you’re not going to actively achieve your goals in a set time then it’s not a constructive process. Always ask for references. 

Mentor 

Mentor is a word that is sometimes used interchangeably with other terms, including Coach. However, the essence of a mentor relationship is someone who has more expertise in an area, sharing with someone with less expertise. This can be done formally within an organisation – colleagues are paired up to help them professionally develop in the organsiation. It can also be done on a personal or less formal level if two people at different levels hit it off and strike up a professional relationship where they discuss the mentee’s progress. The mentor will often give advice and perhaps make relevant connections. 

Some people offer a paid-mentorship service although it is not very common. In this case it’s important to find out in advance if the person has expertise and connections (that they’re willing to share) in your area. 

Most mentor relationships are informal and can happen in a number of ‘directions’ with reverse mentoring becoming really popular (where a more senior person is mentored by someone younger than them to learn about different challenges) and peer mentoring is where someone is at a same level as you but may have experienced challenges in a different order than you so you can co-create solutions. We’ll write more about this in another post. 

Psychologist 

The branch of psychology known as Work and Organisational Psychology deals with people on a work level. Organisational psychologists can work with groups and individuals. At an organisational level a psychologist can work on company culture and policies. On an individual level, a psychologist can conduct scientifically validated personality tests that help you understand your own working style, strengths and motivators. This can be hugely valuable. Tests can also be ‘paired’ and can show people who work together how their styles integrate and how to maximise their working relationship. This can be very pricey but, in many cases, a great investment. We’ll write another post about this as well. 

Top Tip: Registered psychologists are listed on the Psychology Society of Ireland’s website you can see the list here. 

Trainer 

A Trainer will help you identify a knowledge gap and develop a way of generating learning outcomes for your team. Most likely, it will be delivered through a learning and teaching format like a class or workshop. 

Top Tip: When a Trainer is pitching, make sure to ask them what the specific Learning Outcomes for the session will be. Learning outcomes should be specific, measurable and oriented towards the actions your team can take after the session.  

Facilitator 

If your team needs support working through more general issues like preparing for an organisational change, dealing with a crisis, undertaking a large new project or maybe they are just not getting on, then you may need a facilitator. A good facilitator will play a mostly impartial role in helping your team have open and productive conversations and ensuring there will be follow up to the conversation. They function as part coach, part ref, part chairperson and are designed to move a situation forward. They may refer to themselves as a Group Coach. 

Top Tip: A GOOD facilitator is a skill so try and get personal recommendations from people. If you don’t know anyone personally, ask the facilitator to provide recommendations from other clients. A good facilitator will have no problem providing referees. 

How to Choose What’s Right for Me? 

A simple way to break it down is firstly decide whether you are dealing with a group of people or you have individual needs to address. That will help narrow down your needs. 

I have a group. 

If you are a leader that needs help working with a group of people you will probably need a trainer or a facilitator. You may also choose a psychologist.  

I am an individual. 

If you want support to bring yourself to the next level, seek out a coach, mentor or psychologist. 

Pricing  

A common area of confusion for people choosing a service is pricing. Between all the options above, pricing can really vary. Also, pricing is not always indicative of quality of service. Here are some area to consider when looking at pricing: 

Coach/Mentor: Depending on how established they are, we have heard of coaches charging anywhere from less than €100 to multiples of that, per session. A session would usually be from 45 mins to 1 hour 30. How many sessions you need should be outlined clearly in advance and a plan made for them. Will you be meeting online or in-person? 

Facilitator: Usually they charge a day rate. Check if this is a 7-hour day and ask how many days’ work is expected for the piece of work requested. Also, VAT will normally be applied so ask about this too.  

Trainer: This depends on the level of technical expertise required in the training and the award received. So, someone who can give a QQI award in a topic will charge more than someone who provides in-house training without formal certification. Again, a day rate is usually charged. Ask about follow-up, sharing documentation, slides etc. after the event.  

Psychologist: Often the most expensive option but can offer a high return. Each psychologist will vary depending on what tests they use and how long their report sessions are for individuals, ask for details of the timeline for the roll-out of the solution from testing to reporting.  

Some Questions to Ask: 

• Always get three prices. I like to go for lower, middle and upper because it gives me an opportunity to really understand what I could get versus what I need. 
• Ask for pricing structure  
• Ask for a timeline 
• If the work is priced and there is a possibility the work will go beyond a timeline, request a pricing structure to complete the job 
• Check to see if VAT is included or exempt 
• If it’s a one-to-one service, request a discovery call. These are free, usually 15-minute, phone calls to see if you like each other 
• Ask for references. If you are spending a lot of money, I would ask to be able to contact the references directly by phone 
• Ask for planned results or outputs. Ask what will be the tangible outcome of hiring the person.