(Wikipedia) There are many definitions of coaching, mentoring and various styles of line management and training[. The position is complicated by the perceived overlap between many of these activities. A more succinct definition positions coaching as follows: Managing is making sure people do what they know how to do.

Training is teaching people to do what they don’t know how to do. Mentoring is showing people how the people who are really good at doing something do it. Coaching is none of these – it is helping to identify the skills and capabilities that are within the person, and enabling them to use them to the best of their ability.

Professional coaching uses a range of communication skills (such as targeted restatements) to help clients shift their perspectives and thereby discover different solutions to achieve their goals. These skills are used when coaching clients in any field.

In this sense, coaching is a form of meta-profession that can apply to accompanying clients in any human endeavor, ranging from their concerns in sports and personal, professional, social, family, political, spiritual dimensions, etc.

Life coaching is a practice that helps people identify and achieve personal goals. Life coaches help clients set and reach goals using a variety of tools and techniques.

Life coaches are not therapists nor consultants; psychological intervention and business analysis are outside the scope of their work. Life coaching draws inspiration from disciplines including sociology, psychology, positive adult development, career counseling, mentoring and other types of counseling.

Contemporary life coaching can be traced to teachings of Benjamin Karter, a college football coach turned motivational speaker of the late 1970s and early 1980s.