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As pressure grows to prove degrees lead to careers, many institutions are asking advisors to incorporate "coaching" into their work. The usual assumption is that this is a terminology shift — a relabeling with better branding. It isn't. Coaching is not a new term for the same work, nor is it a subtle shift. It's a different stance toward the student, a different relationship, and different targets for what a conversation is meant to accomplish.
When Giving Answers Gets in the Way
The pull toward the old model is stronger than it looks. Students often want to be told what to do — the logic behind what advising research calls "prescriptive" advising, where a student asks and the advisor answers directly. It isn't only the student who benefits. Giving a clear answer feels good — fast, appreciated, helpful, and clearly contributes to the goals of the office. Coaching asks those supporting students to give that up — to resist answering, and sit with a student's uncertainty long enough for the student to find the answer themselves. For someone who's spent years being the one with answers, that's not a light adjustment — it's relearning how to talk to another person, against a pull both sides of the conversation are quietly asking for.
A Workshop Is Only Part of the Journey
Most training doesn't stick. Workplace training research generally finds that only a small fraction of what's learned in a workshop actually changes behavior back on the job — people leave with real insight, return to an environment where the old instinct still gets rewarded, and the old habit wins. A workshop can introduce a coaching stance. It can't install one against that kind of pull. What sustains a shift like this is closer to what cognitive psychologists call "unlearning" — working against habit pattern interference, not hoping repetition of the new way eventually crowds out the old.
From Learning to Implementing
That's the case for certification as an extension beyond the first introductory training. Certification gives someone the repetition, feedback, and practice under pressure that turns "I understand coaching" into "I no longer default to advising" — even when a student is asking to be told, and even when telling would feel good. It's slower, and it asks more — but it's the difference between attending a workshop and becoming someone who coaches.
At LifeBound, our workshops are a first, necessary step — introducing participants to the core ideas, the power of coaching, and how it differs from advising, led by facilitators who work in higher education themselves. Our certification program is where those habits develop — participants submit real coaching sessions and receive written feedback from those same facilitators, so what starts in a three-day room survives back on campus.
Register now for LifeBound's Fall courses to build the skills, habits, and confidence to go from "advising" to "coaching".
To learn more or explore which option is right for you, visit www.lifebound.com.
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