Coaching helps your clients overcome roadblocks and reach their full potential. But no two people are the same.

We respond to different kinds of guidance differently. As a life coach, your job is to facilitate transformation in the style that best serves your client.

In this article, we’ll explore six common coaching styles, how to blend them, and the difference it will make to your practice.

6 Popular Coaching Styles

Let’s look at some of the most popular coaching styles used worldwide.

1. The Autocratic Coaching Style

The autocratic coaching style is characterized by a top-down approach where the coach makes decisions for the client and expects compliance from them. This style emphasizes discipline, structure, and clear directives, with little room for input or collaboration from those being coached.

The key features of autocratic coaching are:

• Authority: The coach leads decisions and the coaching process.
• Strict expectations: The coach sets clear guidelines and standards that must be followed.
• Focus on results: The primary goal is to achieve specific outcomes or objectives efficiently.
• Minimal input from the client: Feedback or ideas from clients are generally not solicited or prioritized.

Advantages

• Efficiency: Quick decision-making and execution, particularly in high-pressure situations.
• Clarity: Coachees understand exactly what is expected of them.
• Control: Ensures consistency and adherence to a specific vision or strategy.

Disadvantages

• Lack of engagement: Coachees may feel disempowered or disengaged due to the lack of collaboration.
• Risk of resistance: The rigid structure can lead to resistance or resentment among those who value autonomy.
• Limited creativity: The approach may stifle innovation or problem-solving from the client.

When to Use This Style

• In times when urgent and critical decisions need to be made.
• Whenever safety is a concern, such as in a crisis situation.
• Working with new and inexperienced clients.
• In coaching situations with clear-cut expectations.
• When the coachee has a history of not following through on commitments and requires strict accountability.

This style is most effective in situations where quick results are necessary, such as in sports coaching during critical games or in corporate environments requiring immediate corrective action.

However, it may not be ideal for long-term development, as it can limit personal growth and collaboration. In this case, it should be balanced with other coaching styles to ensure a well-rounded approach.

2. The Democratic Coaching Style

The democratic coaching style is based on collaboration and shared decision-making. Coaches who adopt this style actively involve their clients in the coaching process, ensuring they have a voice in setting goals, creating strategies, and determining the course of action.

This approach is grounded in trust and respect, and fosters a more open, communicative relationship between the coach and the client.

Advantages

• Increased engagement: Clients are more likely to stay motivated and committed to the process when they feel actively involved.
• Personalized approach: By co-creating strategies, coaches can tailor their approach to suit the client’s individual preferences and goals.
• Autonomy: Clients build self-confidence and autonomy, as they become more empowered to make decisions independently.

Disadvantages

• Time-consuming: The collaborative nature can make sessions longer as it involves more dialogue and decision-making.
• Risk of overwhelm: Some clients may feel overwhelmed by the level of input required, particularly if they are not used to taking an active role in their development.
• May lack structure: The open-ended nature of the style can sometimes lead to a lack of clear direction or focus, especially for clients who prefer more guidance.

When to Use This Style

• When working with clients who are self-motivated and comfortable taking an active role in their coaching.
• If your client is looking to build long-term, sustainable changes in a way that aligns with their personal values.
• In situations where clients need guidance but also wish to feel empowered in making their own decisions.

3. The Holistic Coaching Style

Coaches with a holistic coaching style look at their clients as a whole, with no separation between their work, personal life, and the rest. They equally assess the professional, spiritual, and social aspects of their life.

They look at the interdependence of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. This emphasizes the connection between a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and how these impact all areas of their daily life.

Holistic coaches provide a safe space where clients can talk about sensitive issues and discover how they affect them. For example, how their demanding work hours take a toll on their mental health and relationships.

Advantages

Holistic coaching methods promote balance and long-term well-being. They increase self-awareness and foster resilience to handle life’s challenges.

Holistic coaches often tailor solutions to the client’s unique needs and what serves their growth best. By focusing on the root causes of issues, holistic coaching creates sustainable change and improves mental, emotional, and physical health. 

Disadvantages

One of the major drawbacks is that it can be very time-consuming to consider all aspects of someone’s life in a single session to get them in alignment. It’s not the most straightforward coaching style, and some clients will prefer a more direct approach.

As a holistic coach, you must have varied expertise, including psychology, personal development, and spiritual practices. Coaches need to draw on a wide set of qualifications and experiences to offer this type of coaching, and it’s a difficult style for aspiring coaches to start with.

Use This Style When

• You offer personal growth coaching or well-being coaching.
• Your clients have various goals across different life domains.
• You need to help your clients with burnout and stress management.
• Your client is seeking guidance with their life purpose and fulfillment.
• They are going through an intense transitional period in one life domain that affects all the rest.

Holistic coaching means coaches can help clients prioritize their goals and decide on their actions to move forward. It’s also closely related to intuitive coaching, where clients are encouraged to recognize their intuition and use it to make steps forward.

[ Read: The 6 Steps I Use to Come Up with Captivating Life Coaching Mission Statements ]

4. The Inspirational or Motivational Coaching Style

This style is often used by coaches with rizz who can raise the energy level of their clients. Not surprisingly, many inspirational coaches are also speakers or content creators.

Using this coaching style is definitely not a must, and it’s not necessarily better than the other types of coaching (despite the celebrity coach craze in the industry).

However, if you can help people see the bigger picture and instill hope in them during challenging times, this might become your competitive edge.

Advantages

Using the inspirational style encourages positive thinking and motivates your client to achieve what they want in life. Believing in themselves and valuing their strengths will drive them to take action and achieve their goals.

Inspirational coaching can also help to boost creativity and help people think outside the box to explore new ways of doing things and overcoming challenges.

Disadvantages

Inspirational coaching in itself doesn’t necessarily provide concrete action steps so not everyone will respond well to it.

Some clients may also find it too idealistic. While it can give them an initial boost of motivation, it might lack the specificity to put things into action.

Use This Style When

• Your client is facing major setbacks that are emotionally taxing.
• They need a boost in their self-esteem to carry on or go to the next level in their career.
• You have personal stories that could inspire your client on their journey.
• Your client works in creative fields such as art, writing, or creative entrepreneurship.
• You work with athletes and other performance-oriented professionals who need more motivation to do better.

5. The Solution-Oriented Coaching Style

This coaching style focuses on finding concrete solutions to predefined problems brought by the client.

They might come to you with health issues, challenges at work, or a problem in their relationship. Sometimes, these issues impact multiple areas of their life, like a lack of confidence in themselves.

As a solution-oriented coach, you’ll help your client come up with various solutions for their problems and choose the one that’s the best course of action. Once the issue is solved, you move on to the next one.

The great thing about this style of coaching is that it’s well-defined. It might appeal to more pragmatic clients who would find other approaches too vague. 

It encourages creative thinking and decision-making. It’s focused on results and outcomes and can provide your client with concrete steps to overcome their specific problems.

Coaching to achieve specific results can help you build a great relationship with your client as you help them discover their strengths, work on their decision-making skills, and empower them to overcome their struggles. This will help you gain the trust of your client and potentially lead to a successful, long-term, ongoing client relationship.

Advantages

The biggest advantage of solution-oriented coaching is its focus on finding practical, actionable solutions to challenges, rather than dwelling on past problems.

This approach helps clients stay forward-focused and motivated, fostering a positive mindset and encouraging them to take immediate steps toward achieving their goals.

By emphasizing solutions and strengths, solution-oriented coaching boosts confidence and leads to faster results. It also encourages clients to develop problem-solving skills that can be applied to future obstacles.

Disadvantages

Sometimes, this approach is too focused on getting things solved while bypassing important issues. As a result, clients might miss the opportunity to dig deeper and understand why they behave in a certain way. Without this awareness, they might repeat old patterns and struggle to achieve lasting change.

The intense, goal-oriented nature of this approach may also make some clients feel stressed and overwhelmed. It can neglect the emotional support that your clients often need to carry on.

Complementing this coaching style with other methods occasionally can give you a more balanced approach to your practice.

Use This Style When

• Your client has clear goals and is focused on achieving them.
• They are dealing with complex problems in their lives or the companies they lead.
• They need help in conflict resolution or ongoing stress management.
• You’re coaching teams or groups who need to find common solutions to their shared challenges.
• You want to build resilience in your client to be able to face the complexities of their situation.

6. Mindset or Transformational Coaching

As a mindset or transformational coach, you’ll uncover limiting beliefs your clients have and other areas in their belief systems that need more clarity. By asking powerful questions, you give them new perspectives on their current reality and thinking patterns, and you help them find their own answers to their most burning questions.

A great mindset coach doesn’t try to influence their client’s way of thinking but, instead, gives them space and freedom to choose their own beliefs, which will help them get where they want to be. Helping them make their own choices will empower them more in this case than simply giving solutions to their problems.

This methodology is great for clients who struggle with self-esteem. This approach can be used in a wide array of coaching situations, so it’s easy to tailor it to specific client needs.

Mindset coaching doesn’t need to apply to any specific area of a person’s life. Your job as a coach is to help your clients overcome the emotional blocks and limiting beliefs that are holding them back from their goals. Once you do that, they tend to move through them with ease.

It’s best not to tell your clients what to do. Instead, listen to them carefully, help them cultivate a growth mindset, and let them arrive at their own conclusions.

Advantages

Mindset coaching helps clients develop a positive and growth-oriented mindset, which can lead to increased resilience, self-confidence, and the ability to overcome obstacles. By shifting how clients perceive challenges, they become more adaptable, motivated, and open to learning.

This style also encourages clients to reframe negative thoughts and limiting beliefs, fostering a proactive attitude and better overall mental well-being.

Disadvantages

One challenge of mindset coaching is that it may not always address practical issues or external factors that impact a client’s situation. It can sometimes be seen as overly focused on “positive thinking” without sufficient attention to concrete strategies or solutions.

Additionally, clients who are highly skeptical or resistant to mindset shifts may struggle with this approach. It can require a long-term commitment, as changing deep-seated beliefs and thought patterns can take time, and progress may not always be immediately visible.

Use This Style When

• Your client is held back by limiting beliefs.
• They work in competitive industries or they have a habit of comparing themselves to others.
• You work in leadership coaching or other areas where soft skills are key.
• Your client seems to be stuck with the same problem repeatedly.
• They want to explore their values, purpose, and aspirations.

Can You Mix Different Coaching Styles?

Absolutely! You can mix different coaching styles to find what best serves your client in a specific situation.

Some might come more naturally to you and allow you to leverage your competencies and natural abilities as a coach. Others might not work for you or your client, and that’s okay.

Assess what coaching style the situation requires, choose the one that’s appropriate, and recognize when you’re not the right coach for a particular situation. Remember, you can’t be all things to everyone!

Coaching Styles in Real Life

Tony Robbins incorporates elements of empowerment into his coaching that align with an inspirational or transformational style. However, certain aspects of his approach—such as his commanding presence, decisive guidance, and insistence on accountability—share similarities with autocratic principles.

For example, he often employs intense, direct methods during his live events to push individuals out of their comfort zones.

His focus on taking immediate action and adhering to specific strategies can sometimes appear autocratic. However, the underlying goal is to empower clients to take control of their lives rather than merely dictating solutions. This makes his style more dynamic and multi-faceted than purely autocratic.

Another example of a coach who blends coaching styles seamlessly is Marie Forleo, using both holistic and solution-oriented coaching in her work.

She encourages a whole-life approach, helping clients align their personal and professional lives for greater fulfillment. At the same time, her programs like B-School and her book Everything is Figureoutable focus on providing practical solutions to challenges.

How Do I Know Which Coaching Style I Should Use?

First, Take a Close Look at Yourself

Assess which coaching styles you feel comfortable with as a professional. If a coaching style doesn’t sit right with you in a session, your clients will feel it, and you won’t be able to help them with what they need.

Are you great at motivating people? Do you carry a positive, uplifting energy that people find contagious? You might be an excellent inspirational coach.

Do you prefer to just get down to business, take a no-nonsense approach, and focus on finding solutions for your clients? You’re probably a solution-oriented coach.

Do you have a strong desire to lead, and are you an expert in the area that you’re coaching? Perhaps you can be most valuable as an autocratic coach.

Do you believe that your career can never be separated from your personal life and that transformation can only happen on a holistic level? You’re probably a holistic coach.

Build on your strengths and your natural leadership style, and commit to an approach that brings out the best in you. Try out different styles and practice them with a fellow coach until you feel confident using them in action.

If you’re still not sure which styles of coaching suit you the most, you could make a list of your strengths and weaknesses. See which style they mirror and try incorporating those in your practice more often.

The Other Side of the Coin: Your Client

Use your coaching skills to identify the style your client can benefit from the most. It’s not necessarily the one they feel comfortable with—sometimes, the magic happens outside the client’s comfort zone.

It’s best to define this early in your discovery session with your client. See if they want to focus on a particular area or if they are open to looking at interconnected and cross-functional issues.

Pay close attention to whether they want to be given space to find their own solutions with gentle guidance or if they need a more hands-on approach. 

Asking your client what type of coaching they want would probably not give you the right answer because chances are, they won’t know. You’re the expert in this situation so you should make the call based on your client’s best interest.

[ Read: 9 Client-Converting Questions to Ask In Every Discovery Session ]

Evaluate the Context of the Coaching Relationship

If you’re coaching a team, you will have certain expectations from the employer. You’ll likely need to put more focus on performance, KPIs, and team morale rather than the personal lives of team members or their individual career goals.

If you’re an organizational coach, you’ll need to make sure your coaching style fits the culture of the company you’re working with. You will approach a leadership coaching session with a CEO differently from a relationship coaching session with a couple.

Choose the best fit for you, your client, and the situation, and go with the coaching style that brings the best results.

4 Coaching Principles You Can’t Compromise On (Whatever Your Style!)

Yes, choosing between different coaching styles gives you the freedom to navigate sessions differently. But there are some fundamental coaching principles that you cannot compromise on, no matter which one you choose.

If you’re working as a professional coach or taken any coaching training before, these principles probably aren’t new to you, but let’s have a recap of them, just in case.

So whatever your coaching style, remember to always…

1. Ask For Consent

This means only coaching someone when you have permission to do so and continuously seeking consent to push your clients, ask uncomfortable questions, or share your perspective with them. Make sure you always respect personal boundaries.

2. Keep Things Confidential

What happens in your sessions stays in your sessions. Period.

If you’re coaching a team, be clear on when you’re wearing your “manager hat” as opposed to your “coaching hat.” Maintain trust with them and be clear on when it’s time for work talk and when it’s time to share something personal in a safe space.

3. Refrain From Judgment

Many things are allowed in a coaching session but judgment is not one of them. Keep your personal views to yourself and allow your clients to fully express themselves, share their beliefs, and be vulnerable and imperfect.

Being a good coach is all about empathy whether you can relate to their personal situation or not. The more space you give them to share their vulnerabilities, the easier it will be for you to get to the bottom of their challenges and give them useful guidance.

4. Remember, It’s About Them

If you want to be a successful coach, you should remember that the session should always focus on the coachee, not you—even if you’re an inspirational coach with stories that can move mountains.

Practice active listening with your clients and give them space to reflect on the talking points of the session before moving on to the next. You should be listening more than you speak.

Wait, Is There a Difference Between Types of Coaches and Coaching Styles?

Yes, there is! The type of coach you are depends on the topic of your discussion or the area that you’re an expert in. Based on this, you might specialize as a leadership coach, relationship coach, health and fitness coach, branding coach, and so on.

Your coaching style, on the other hand, is the way you approach these areas. It’s a toolkit you can pick from as you build a coaching relationship.

Streamline Your Coaching Business

Choosing the right coaching style is key to your effectiveness as a coach—and so is your client management workflow.

Paperbell equips you with a stunning website optimized for coaches with all your processes plugged into it, from bookings and payments to contracts and package materials.

Try Paperbell today for free with your first client.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in May 2023 and has since been updated for accuracy.