Coaching as your Performance Accelerator

Most people meet coaching at a crossroads: I want more. I’m ready to grow. Where do I invest my effort? Coaching and therapy are both powerful—but they’re built for different jobs. Therapy helps you heal. Coaching helps you advance. Think recovery vs. reach. One restores baseline; the other raises the ceiling.

What Coaching Is (and Isn’t)

I've met quite a few prospects who have turned down a potential coaching engagement, for reasons that imply a misconception of coaching as a practice as well as regarding its potential outcomes. Bearing this in mind, I will start from the very basics (which an advanced reader may easily skip). The International Coaching Federation (ICF)—the global standard-setter—defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential” (ICF, 2025).

That definition is future-facing and performance-oriented by design. Coaching isn’t diagnosis or treatment; it’s structured progress toward meaningful goals. The ICF Code of Ethics also clarifies boundaries and obligations, including when a coach should refer a client to other professionals (ICF, 2025).

For anyone wondering where the line sits, ICF’s referral guidance makes it explicit: coaches don’t diagnose or treat, and they should refer out when issues block progress or daily functioning is impaired (ICF, 2025). Coaching can resume (or run alongside therapy) once the right clinical support is in place.

Here's a quick checklist on the main diferences between coaching and therapy:

Aspect	Coaching 🚀	Therapy 💡
Primary Focus	Growth, performance, future goals	Healing, recovery, past experiences
Typical Questions	“What do you want to achieve next?”  “How can you reach your peak performance?”	“What’s causing your distress?”  “How can you restore daily functioning?”
Time Orientation	Present → Future	Past → Present
Approach	Goal-setting, action plans, accountability, skill-building	Diagnosis, treatment, emotional processing, coping strategies
When It Helps Most	Leadership development, career growth, resilience, building habits, reaching stretch goals	Anxiety, depression, trauma, unresolved emotional issues, difficulty coping day-to-day
Who Leads the Process	Partnership: client drives goals, coach provides structure & challenge	Therapist guides process based on clinical expertise
Outcome	Higher performance, clarity, sustained momentum	Restored mental health, emotional healing, improved coping

In a nutshell, coaching IS NOT a therapy alternative. It is a standalone practice that helps functional individuals take control of their own lives and thrive. By "functional" I mean people who:

• can take care of theirselves (e.g., hygiene, nutrition, sleep).

• can perform in their job/role (even if they’re not at your best).

• can maintain relationships and basic social interactions.

• can regulate emotions enough to participate in conversations and goal-focused work.

A functional person might be stressed, stuck, or underperforming — but they’re still operating day-to-day.

Does Coaching Work? What the Best Evidence Shows

Short answer: yes—across performance, goal attainment, and well-being.

• A large-scale review of the scientific literature found consistent and meaningful positive effects of coaching on skills, well-being, coping, attitudes toward work, and the ability to stay focused on goals (Theeboom et al., 2014).

• Reviews of workplace coaching show benefits across different areas: people report feeling better at work, building skills, and achieving outcomes that matter for their careers and organizations (Jones et al., 2016).

• Even when researchers only include the most rigorous studies, the results show clear and lasting improvements in both personal and professional domains (Grant & O’Connor, 2019).

• More recent summaries confirm these findings and add nuance, showing that coaching is effective across many settings, while also highlighting the importance of context and fit between coach and client (Sonesh et al., 2015).

• Individual studies also demonstrate concrete results: higher goal attainment, better resilience, improved workplace well-being, and reductions in stress (Athanasopoulou & Dopson, 2018).

Takeaway: If your aim is to stretch into a bigger version of yourself—to ship, lead, sell, learn, or perform at a new level—coaching has a strong, repeatable evidence base.

Why Coaching Works: The Science Under the Hood

Great coaching isn’t motivational fluff. It operationalizes some of psychology’s most reliable performance mechanisms.

1) Goal Setting (specific, challenging, owned). Decades of research show that clear, difficult goals outperform vague intentions (Locke & Latham, 2002). Coaching translates ambition into targets + metrics + cadence, with accountability and feedback loops.

2) Implementation Intentions (“if-then” plans).Plans like “If it’s 08:30, then I start deep work for 90 minutes” are small but mighty. Research shows that these structured “if-then” plans significantly increase the chances of following through (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006). Coaches use these to make progress automatic.

3) Self-regulation & focus.Research shows coaching strengthens the ability to prioritize, persist, course-correct, and finish (Theeboom et al., 2014). That’s a direct line to performance and well-being at work.

4) Behavior change (what you do, not just what you think).Newer studies show that coaching drives visible behavioral improvements—exactly what organizations and ambitious professionals need (Jones et al., 2016).

When to Choose Coaching vs. Therapy

Use therapy when the priority is healing: processing trauma, treating clinical anxiety/depression, or restoring day-to-day functioning. Use coaching when the priority is growth: accelerating leadership, scaling impact, achieving stretch goals, building new habits, or navigating complex opportunities. If deep psychological issues surface, ethical coaches will pause or coordinate and refer you to clinicians—then re-engage on your growth agenda (ICF, 2025).

What Effective Coaching Looks Like (So You Know It When You See It)

• Clear contract & scope. You’ll agree on outcomes, metrics, and boundaries—including what counts as coaching vs. therapy and how referrals work (ICF, 2025).

• Evidence-based methods. Expect structured goal-setting, “if-then” planning, deliberate practice, and measurable reviews—not just conversations (Locke & Latham, 2002; Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006).

• Accountability + reflection. Regular check-ins, data on progress, and frank dialogue about what to tweak. This is how momentum compounds (Jones et al., 2016).

• Results in context. Coaching should help you perform where it matters—your role, your team, your market—not in the abstract (Grant & O’Connor, 2019).

For Skeptics: “Isn’t Coaching Just a Nice Conversation?”

It’s a fair question. The research above was designed to test exactly that. Across multiple large reviews—including those limited to the strictest studies—coaching reliably moves the needle on performance, goal attainment, and well-being (Theeboom et al., 2014; Grant & O’Connor, 2019). The reason is simple: coaching translates insight into execution and then sustains that execution over time.

The Bottom Line:

• Therapy helps you heal the past so you can function.

• Coaching helps you build the future so you can excel.

If your next chapter requires new altitude—leading at a higher level, scaling a business, shipping better work, or reinventing your contribution—coaching is one of the most evidence-backed ways to get there.

If coaching is what you need, contact WizzSense to learn what a coaching engagement with us looks like (objectives, process, expectations, outcomes, duration, commitment and fees).

Book your Session

References

• Athanasopoulou, A., & Dopson, S. (2018). A systematic review of executive coaching outcomes: Is it the journey or the destination that matters the most? The Leadership Quarterly, 29(1), 70–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2017.11.004

• De Meuse, K. P., Dai, G., & Lee, R. J. (2009). Evaluating the effectiveness of executive coaching: Beyond ROI? Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 2(2), 117–134. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521880902882413

• Theeboom, T., Beersma, B., & van Vianen, A. E. M. (2014). Does coaching work? A meta-analysis on the effects of coaching on individual level outcomes in an organizational context. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 9(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2013.837499

• Jones, R. J., Woods, S. A., & Guillaume, Y. R. F. (2016). The effectiveness of workplace coaching: A meta-analysis of learning and performance outcomes from coaching. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 89(2), 249–277. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12119

• Sonesh, S. C., Coultas, C. W., Marlow, S. L., Lacerenza, C. N., Reyes, D. L., & Salas, E. (2015). Coaching in the workplace: A review and integration of literature. Human Resource Development Review, 14(2), 161–183. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484315592117

• Grant, A. M., & O’Connor, S. A. (2019). Broadening the evidence base for coaching: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 71(2), 87–107. https://doi.org/10.1037/cpb0000136

• Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1

• Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705–717. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.57.9.705

• International Coaching Federation (ICF). (2025). ICF Code of Ethics. https://coachingfederation.org/ethics