If you’re a team leader, supervisor, or manager I want you to think about the following question:
When one of your employees messes up—makes a major mistake, needs guidance to complete a task, misses a deadline, or otherwise doesn’t perform as well as expected—what do you typically do?
Some managers will say, “I delegate the task to someone else.” Some will say, “I reprimand them.” Some will even say, “I fire them.” Most managers will say, “I do a short re-training session.”
Someone isn’t selling enough? Training. Someone had a difficult conversation with a client? Training. Someone keeps making the same mistake? Training again… and maybe a debugging checklist of some sort.
Training has become the company equivalent of duct tape. When something doesn’t work, we cover it in “training duct tape” and hope for the best. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it absolutely does not.
That’s because training and coaching solve completely different problems. Allow me to break down each one.
What Training Is Really For
Training is about learning something new. It works best when people lack knowledge or a specific skill. The goal is straightforward: give people the tools they don’t yet have. So if you hire a salesperson who is fantastic with customers but has never worked with CRM software—boom—training.
Here’s when training is the right solution:
- You’re teaching your team how to use new software
- You’re teaching a new salesperson your company’s sales framework
- You’re helping your team understand new compliance or safety rules
- You’re developing someone’s technical skills, like how to move content from local to live servers or how to operate a machine with losing a finger
If someone has never learned the skill, training is exactly what they need.
But here’s the catch: training works only when the problem is lack of knowledge, and that isn’t always the case.
When Training Doesn’t Fix the Problem
You may have seen this situation before: People attend the training. They nod along. They say it was “really helpful.” Then nothing changes. The same problems show up the following week.
That’s because the issue wasn’t knowledge. It was something else entirely.
For example:
- You have a team lead who knows how to give feedback but avoids confronting an underperforming employee.
- You have an employee who knows the correct safety procedures but keeps rushing through them.
- You have a manager who understands the technical side of the job but isn’t very good at motivating the team, leading to turnover.
No amount of training fixes these issues, because the problem isn’t what people know. It’s what they do.
That’s where coaching comes in.
What Coaching Is Actually For
Coaching focuses on three key factors: behavior, mindset, and decision-making.
Instead of teaching a skill, coaching helps someone apply what they already know. The goal is not information. The goal is change.
Coaching helps people:
- Understand why they behave a certain way
- Recognize patterns in how they make decisions
- Work through obstacles or hesitation
- Build confidence using skills they already have
- Adjust habits that are holding them back
Training says: “Here’s how to do this.”
Coaching asks: “Why aren’t you doing it yet?”
Sometimes the answer is fear. Sometimes it’s habits. Sometimes it’s pressure, lack of confidence, or conflicting priorities. Coaching helps people work through those things.
Why Organizations Overuse Training
Training feels easier. It’s structured; it can be scheduled, delivered, and checked off a list.
Coaching is different. It takes time. It requires real conversations. It often surfaces uncomfortable issues.
So organizations default to training because it’s the cleaner solution. But when the real issue is behavior or mindset, training becomes a wasted expense. Everyone attends the training, but the core issue doesn’t change, so it resurfaces again and again until you decide, “This person isn’t right for the role. It’s time to let them go.” And then you spend more money and resources hiring and training someone new.
The Best Organizations Use Both
When it comes to training and coaching, it’s not an either-or dilemma. The two actually work best together. Training introduces the skill and coaching helps people actually use it.
For example:
- Train managers on how to give feedback. Coach them through real conversations
- Train salespeople on a sales framework. Coach them through live deals.
- Train leaders on delegation. Coach them through the discomfort of letting go.
Training starts the change while coaching makes the change stick.
The Bottom Line
When someone lacks knowledge, training works well. But when someone already knows what to do and still struggles to do it, another training session won’t help much. That’s when coaching becomes necessary.
The key question isn’t: “Who needs more training?”
It’s: “Who already knows the answer but needs help applying it?”
That’s when you’ll actually see real change happen.