Yaniv Preiss

You may have googled “Coaching vs Mentoring vs Consulting” before. But there are even more types of support for different types of challenges.

To clarify misunderstandings about various types of support constellations and needs, I will list them with their typical characteristics and examples. This may help you find the right type of support for you or for your direct reports.

Teaching

Provider: subject matter expert on the specific topic.

It is primarily instructor-led and focuses on delivering a specific curriculum or body of knowledge to a learner who has little prior experience in the subject.

Example: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, history of labor law, agile principles.

Training

Provider: subject matter expert on the specific topic.

Transferring a skill. Usually includes theory and practice with immediate feedback on the performance and repetition.

Training is specific, structured, and task-oriented. It’s about building a particular skill. Unlike teaching, training is often measured by immediate competency.

Examples: Salesforce workshop, kanban, writing automated tests, effective OKRs, the fundamentals of management.

Feedback (manager → direct)

Provider: manager (direct or skip).

A mirror that shows positive and negative behaviors and their implications for improved future behaviors. Sometimes done against established standards and sometimes against subjective managerial preferences for effectiveness.

The Manager Tools effective formula :

Negative: “Can I share some feedback? When you do [behavior], then [result] happens. Can you do better next time?”

Positive: “Can I give you some feedback? When you do [behavior], then [result] happens. Keep it up!”

Examples:
“When you don’t let your colleagues finish the sentence, people perceive you as rude and minimize contact with you. Can you do better next time?”
“When you finish reports on time, it gives me the confidence you can take over this responsibility, well done!”

Read about feedback in detail here.

Coaching (manager → direct)

Provider: direct manager.

Facilitating the process of the direct report in acquiring a new skill. In this process, the manager is brainstorming with the direct on needs, goals, ideas to accomplish them and then tracks the direct’s progress. Note that the manager is not the trainer or teacher, though they may be one of the possibilities. This allows the manager to coach many directs on many topics they are not even familiar with.

Examples: direct mastering AI, learning a new programming language, effective code reviews.

Read about coaching in detail here.

Mentoring

Provider: person experienced on the topic, usually outside the org.

Mentoring is a relational, long-term partnership. A mentor is a more experienced person who shares their “war stories,” wisdom, and networks to help a mentee navigate their career path or strategic goal.

Examples: becoming a public speaker, becoming a CTO, becoming an entrepreneur.

Read about mentoring in detail here.

Consulting

Provider: subject matter expert on the specific topic, internal or external to the org.

A consultant is hired to be the “brain” of the system for a temporary period. They diagnose, prescribe, advise, suggest ideas, and sometimes implement. The responsibility for the solution lies with the consultant, potentially creating dependency.

Examples: agile transformation, develop a strategy for go-to-market, assimilate a new tool.

See my consulting offer in detail here.

Systemic coaching

Provider: a certified systemic coach.

For a sustainable change by addressing the dynamics. This is a holistic approach: systemic coaching looks beyond the individual and examines the entire ecosystem (family, friends, team, company, market). It recognizes that an individual’s behavior is often a response to the system they are in. The coach doesn’t provide advice or guidance, but rather provides the structure, reflective questions, and their presence.

Imagine a proactive rubber duck that has powerful tools and a human nervous system that creates a safe, ethical space for exploration.

A systemic coach works either with an individual, a group of individuals, a team or the whole organization.

Examples: navigating burnout, facing major career decisions, relationship patterns, leadership challenge, team conflict, digital transformation

See my systemic coaching offer in detail here.

Somatic Work

Provider: a certified practitioner.

Body-based practices that support regulation, integration, and recovery by working through physical sensation rather than cognitive analysis.

Pantarei offers embodied awareness and relational touch with communication that helps people reconnect with themselves, giving space to their full story and experience, connecting with emotions, their body, and surfacing their qualities and strengths.

Massage primarily targets muscular and nervous system relaxation, improving circulation and reducing stress.

Examples: relieving tension, stress, physical manifestations of burnout, numbness, disconnect.

See the Berlin-based Pantarei practitioner Balach Hussain .

Therapy

Provider: Licensed professional.

Diagnosing, analyzing (why), healing, psychological resolution, and trauma processing. There are different psychotherapy schools, some are backward-looking and some future.

Examples: helping an individual process childhood trauma that manifests as people-pleasing, working through clinical depression or generalized anxiety disorder with a licensed professional.

Summary

The following table may help you find the right type of support for you or for your direct reports.

Modality	Focus	Who has answers	Typical timeline
Teaching	Knowledge	Teacher	Short-term
Training	Skill	Trainer	Short-term
Feedback (manager → direct)	Future performance	Manager	Immediate
Coaching (manager → direct)	New skill	Employee (facilitated by manager)	Mid-term
Mentoring	Career wisdom	Mentor	Long-term
Consulting	Problem solving	Consultant	Project-based
Systemic Coaching	Challenge, pattern awareness	Individual & system	Mid-term
Somatic	Body	Prarctitioner & client	Immediate-Mid-term
Therapy	Mental health	Therapist & client	Mid & long-term

These modalities aren’t mutually exclusive:

• A great manager may switch between feedback and coaching in a single 1-on-1.
• An agile or digital transformation coach is shifting between teacher, trainer, consultant and systemic coach.
• A systemic coach may be able to consult on specific topics. However, being clear in the initial contracting and during conversations about which “hat” they are wearing prevents confusion and holds ethical boundaries.