Boss controls everything. Transparency may be compromised on many things and people do what is asked of them.

Boss tells one what to do and when to do. Individuals mostly don't have any input on the work done and frequently feel micromanaged.

When a boss decides the work for you, the boss determines who does what and when. Often individuals or groups of individuals do the work for the boss.

The boss almost has complete control over the decision authority. This includes who does what and when. Extreme situations may even have the boss controlling how to do leaving no option for the workers.

When the boss controls the show, the boss may appear to be more knowledgeable. The workers may be equally or more knowledgeable but that is suppressed by the boss.

As a result, innovation and creativity are compromised. When managers and leaders practice such a transactional mindset, the result leads to managerial hubris emphasizing a self-fulfilling prophecy eventually leading to demotivated workforce and strategic failure.

Today's management doesn't always focus on transactional approaches. To a large extent, the managers are expected to be transformational. Therefore, depending on the management style, the managers can practice an active participative management or a passive quid-pro-quo management.

Managers can build self-managed teams by building a vision for the team. At times, they may still be managing to certain outcomes measured by key performance indices.

Some managers may build the team on how customers and shareholders view the team, how the team builds value, and where the team needs competencies. These are the customer, financial, process, and internal domains in the balanced score card.

Frequently, the work is still done by the individuals. Some managers roll up their sleeves and work as individual contributors too. This latter approach allows the managers to experience what happens in the field and harness collaboration towards incremental and radical innovation.

For the most part, it is the manager that decides. Some managers may seek active input from individuals or team and collaborate on a decision. However, the managers reserve the right to decide.

It depends. Sometimes, the individuals know more information especially when they do most of the work. Sometimes, the manager may have more information depending upon the experience, subject matter expertise and the extent of the individual contributor role the manager plays.

A teacher helps others to acquire the knowledge by learning the skills and gaining competencies in a controlled environment.

The focus of learning is on understanding the specifics of both the theory and practice. This learning involves remembering, understanding, and applying skills as well as analyzing, evaluating, and creating new body of knowledge.

Learning itself is multimodal and happens in three modes. The first mode is the teacher-to-student interaction. The second mode is teacher-to-material interaction. The third mode is the student-to-student interaction. Therefore, both the teacher and the student are engaged. If learning does not happen in all the three areas, the learning itself may not be effective.

The teacher comes up with a curriculum of learning outcomes, module objectives, and formal and summative assessments. But the learner controls the amount of learning by meeting the expectations. Therefore, the grade is earned by the learner.

By the very nature of teaching expectations, the teacher has more knowledge than the learner.

In adult learning environment, the learners also come up with experience in different fields and professions. Therefore, in some aspects of applying practical knowledge in a specific company or industry, the learner may also have knowledge that the teacher may not always have.

Trainers invariably rely on existing knowledge to build new skills. Trainers focus on workplace specific skills and are frequently skilled at both at theoretical frameworks as well as specific tools and techniques to implement these processes. They facilitate skill-building and set the stage for early forms of mentoring.

Trainers focus on specific skills for the learners so that the learners can acquire these skills increasing their productivity at work. The learner gains new skills and fills their gaps of understanding in their own knowledge. Subsequently, the learner adopts the new tools or frameworks in their workplace and professional careers. Depending upon the skill acquired, some of the skills can even be applied at personal levels.

Both the trainer and the learner should facilitate the learning towards continuous improvement. The trainer is tasked with coming up with the three modes of learning like a teacher but with the focus on workplace adoption of new skills. The learner is tasked with understanding how their existing knowledge differs from the new knowledge in both the theory and practice. So, facilitation is equally owned by both the trainer and the learner.

Primarily, the learner has the right to decide. The trainer can facilitate as much as possible, but learning is the responsibility of the learner. The learner must unlearn their way of working, learn the new way of working, and relearn to refine how this knowledge can be applied in the workplace setting. The trainer also must adapt facilitation to specific needs of audience and avoid cookie-cutter approach. Only when these working agreements are properly established between the trainer and learner, the training can be effective.

In the context of training, the extent of who has more knowledge depends. The learner knows more about the workplace processes and stakeholders to know implementation challenges and associated details. Trainers that have wide variety of T-shaped skills are more versatile. Such trainers know more about the industry wide use of the framework and associated tools and techniques.

Consultants have deep expertise in one or more allied fields offering their expertise to people that are willing to pay for their subject matter knowledge. Expert consultants also have exposure in more than one industry to customize their recommendations ensuring scalability, manageability, sustainability, and productivity.

Working with a consultant frequent requires some type of a contracting agreement. As scoped out in the agreement, the consultant is expected to understand the scope and deliver as required. However, unless contracted specifically, the details of the post-implementation services, such as training, knowledge transfer, and ongoing maintenance of any work done after the warranty period is the responsibility of the person contracting with the consultant.

Consultancy is a contract work. Good consultants engage in discovery of the specific challenge beyond what is stated. So, consultants are obligated to do the assigned work as agreed on the contract. However, the person contracting with the consultant should ensure completion of work and compliance to the contact.

Consultants are contracted for their expertise. The extent to which they are engaged to do the work is based on the contractual commitment. So, while the consultants can offer suggestions, the decision right to choose the appropriate alternative rests with the person receiving the consulting support.

Consultants come with various expertise levels spanning many fields and industries. Frequently, the consultant has more knowledge. After all, this is why their services are even contracted to begin with.

Mentor wears two critical hats. First, the mentor has knowledge and practical experience in a particular discipline This consultant experience should also be supported by the mentor's personal branding or continuous voluntary work in the field so that this person can become a trusted adviser for others. Secondly, the mentor must be patient and willing to actively listen to the mentee’s challenges and offer recommendations.

A mentor may teach or assist with a solution to a specific challenge for the mentee who has less experience in that area. Alternatively, the mentor may advise or guide the mentee to seek a solution from a list of alternatives. The focus of the mentor is to enable the mentee to become independent.

Both mentor and mentee have work to do. The early stages of mentoring may require mentor to prepare and negotiate specific areas to focus and strategies to grow the mentee in the required space. The later stages of mentoring may involve the mentee to apply the recommendations and grow themselves to become independent. The final stage involves both the mentor and mentee to agree on closing the working agreement based on meeting the expectations.

In most cases, mentee controls whether the mentor's suggestions are helping. It is the mentee’s responsibility to raise questions to the mentor as issues arise. So, the mentee controls the decision rights.

The mentor has specific field expertise or domain knowledge that the mentee lacks. As a result, the mentor has more knowledge than the mentee.

Coach serves as a leader in allowing the coachee to become better and prosper. The coach focuses on a specific area that the coachee needs support but can also look deeper to make meaningful connections around other areas that the coachee doesn't relate to. The coach need not give support in all these other areas. Coaching is deeply rooted in trust.

Coaching involves dialogic communication focusing on appreciative inquiry. The coachee needs to be willing to take a deeper insight into strengths and weaknesses and be open for exploring new ideas and experimenting new approaches.

In a coaching context, the coachee owns the lion's share of doing the work. This may involve journaling activities depending on the context, engaging in a deeper appreciate inquiry, experimenting with new and different ways of working, and exploring alternative solutions.

Coaching involves the active contribution and engagement from the coachee predominantly. The coach should not be prescribing solutions and allow the coachee to become independent in evaluating what matters to them and what works for them. So, coachee controls the decision rights.

In the coaching context, the coachee is more knowledgeable about the situation which warranted coaching to begin with. The specific stakeholders, the details behind the challenges, and the nuances of the communication required is more about the context where the coachee has more information.