The difference between a business consultant, coach, and mentor comes down to what your business needs most. Consultants create strategies and systems. Coaches build your leadership capability and accountability. Mentors share experience and shortcuts. Most mid-market CEOs need an integrated blend that delivers clarity, capability, and measurable results.

If you’re leading a growing mid-market business, there’s a moment where you realise that effort alone isn’t enough. You’re capable, your team is solid, and yet something isn’t quite breaking through. At that point, most leaders begin looking for the right kind of help, and this is where the confusion often starts.

• Do you need a Business Consultant?
• A Business Coach?
• A Mentor?
• Or someone who can combine all three?

Almost every CEO I work with has tried at least one of these in the past. Some have hit gold. Some walked away thinking, “We had great chats, but nothing actually changed.” The difference usually comes down to selecting the right type of support for the specific challenge and choosing someone who can combine clarity, capability, and commercial traction.

Here’s how to work out what you actually need.

A Business Consultant: Clarity, Structure, and Systems That Scale

A business consultant is about diagnosis, design, and direction. They help you solve defined problems and make your business make sense again. This is the right support when:

• Your strategy feels reactive rather than clear
• Your leadership team isn’t aligned
• You’re plateauing and can’t identify the bottleneck
• The business is growing, but profit isn’t
• You want a roadmap, not another set of ideas

A strong consultant provides you with clarity that you can act on. They simplify complexity, strengthen your operating rhythm, and build the structures that help growth feel steady rather than frantic.

I have been privileged to work on some fantastic consulting projects, including one just last week, which supported my client in winning a national award in their industry.  Kudos to Bridgette, Jo, and the team at Recruitment Studio for exemplifying excellence in their field – SEEK SARA, Agency of the Year 2025.   

The risk?

Some consultants who write a report, disappear and leave you with 40 pages of recommendations and no behavioural or leadership shift. That’s where business coaching turns strategy into traction.

A Business Coach: Capability, Confidence, and Leadership Lift

A coach builds the leadership needed to execute the strategy. They help you think more clearly, lead more effectively, and stay focused on the work that truly matters. You need a coach when:

• You’re stuck in day-to-day operations
• Your leaders rely on you too much to make decisions
• Accountability drops as pressure rises
• You’re scaling, but the culture isn’t keeping up
• You want a trusted thinking partner at your level

Coaching strengthens the person behind the plan. It creates clarity, consistency, and confidence.

“You brought the strategic clarity, structure, and honest coaching we needed, and your guidance has had a huge impact — helping me lead with more confidence, more purpose, and far greater clarity.”

— Deane, Partner | Executive Officer, SLEEQ

However, coaching alone, without a strategy, can become a series of good conversations with no tangible impact.

Which is why mentoring has its own unique role.

A Mentor: Shortcuts, Perspective, and Wisdom You Can’t Google

Mentors have lived experience. They’ve headed the same storms, made the same mistakes, and navigated the same complexity you’re now facing. This matters when:

• You’re making decisions you’ve never had to make before
• You keep second-guessing yourself
• You’re dealing with people issues that feel messy or political
• You want to learn from someone who’s been in the seat

A mentor helps you see around corners. They fast-track understanding, reduce avoidable risk, and anchor you when things feel heavy.

I have loved mentoring over the years via Business Mentors New Zealand, and this story from my amazing clients at Wild Estate shares some of the results that can be achieved through mentorship.

“With Sharn’s guidance and our dogged determination, we not only managed to keep our heads above water but also had our best year ever.”

— Keryn, Managing Director, Wild Estate

But mentoring alone won’t build leadership capability or drive execution.

Why the Right Support Isn’t One Person – It’s One Partner with Three Lenses.

This is the gap in the market that most CEOs struggle to address. You don’t need a consultant, a coach, or a mentor. You need someone who can be all three – in the right moments, for the right reasons.

That’s where the real traction comes from:

• The consultant provides the strategy and operating rhythm
• The coach strengthens capability, leadership, and accountability
• The mentor provides perspective and shortcuts that protect your time, energy, and decisions

Blend them and you get clarity, capability, and measurable outcomes – not theory, not noise, and not another initiative that fades after the offsite.

This hybrid approach is precisely what drives the results inside the Two Tides portfolio:
181% average turnover growth and 332% average profit growth over three years. Those numbers don’t happen from consulting alone. They occur when strategy, leadership, rhythm, and accountability are all aligned within a single relationship with a trusted partner.

That’s where growth becomes sustainable.
That’s where leaders find freedom, not fatigue.
That’s when businesses become built by design, not by accident.

How to Know You’ve Found the Right Person

Look for someone who:

• Asks better questions than they give answers
• Strengthens your clarity, not your workload
• Challenges you with care and commercial precision
• Brings both strategy and humanity into the room
• Helps you measure progress, not hope for it
• leaves you clearer, calmer, and sharper after every session

What it feels like when you get it right

“Whether designing strategy, giving solid business advice, or coaching our leadership team to excel, Sharn brings the perfect blend of clarity, challenge, and support. She feels like part of the team – pulling us together, strengthening accountability, and helping us set achievable long-term strategies. Working with her has lifted both our confidence and our results.”

— Michael, CEO, JLE

When you choose well, the right partner doesn’t make the business heavier – they make it lighter. They don’t take over. They make you better.

If you’re ready for clarity, capability, and a business that gives you more freedom, let’s talk.