The Differences Between Coaching & Mentoring

Many people assume that mentoring and coaching are basically the same, but there are distinct differences.

Coaching is task oriented. The focus is on concrete issues, such as being a more effective leader, speaking with authority and confidence, and learning how to think strategically. This requires a subject matter expert (SME) capable of teaching the client how to develop these skills.

Mentoring is relationship oriented. It seeks to provide a safe environment where the mentee shares whatever issues affect their professional and personal success. Although specific learning goals or competencies may be used as a basis for creating the relationship, its focus goes beyond these areas to include things such as work/life balance, self-confidence, self-perception, and how the personal influences the professional.

Coaching is short term. A coach can successfully be involved with a client for a short period of time, maybe even just a few sessions. The coaching lasts for as long as needed, depending on the purpose of the coaching relationship.

Mentoring is always long term. Successful mentoring requires time to allow both partners to learn about one another and build a climate of trust in which the mentee can feel secure in sharing the real issues that impact their success. Successful mentoring relationships often last for years.

Coaching is performance driven. The purpose of coaching is to improve the individual's performance on the job. This involves either enhancing current skills or acquiring new skills. Once the client successfully acquires the skills, the coach is no longer needed.

Mentoring is development driven. Its purpose is to develop the individual not only for the current job, but also for the future. This distinction differentiates the role of the immediate manager and that of the mentor. It also reduces the possibility of creating conflict between the employee's manager and the mentor.

Coaching does not require design. Coaching can be conducted almost immediately on any topic. If a company seeks to provide coaching to a large group of individuals, then certainly an amount of design is involved in order to determine the competency area, expertise needed, and assessment tools used, but this does not necessarily require a long lead-time to actually implement the coaching program.

Mentoring requires a design phase in order to determine the strategic purpose for mentoring, the focus areas of the relationship, the specific mentoring models, and the specific components that will guide the relationship, especially the matching process.

Coaching - The client's immediate manager is directly involved as a critical partner in coaching. She or he often provides the coach with feedback on areas in which the employee needs coaching. The coach uses this information to guide the coaching process

Mentoring - The immediate manager is indirectly involved. Although they may offer suggestions to the employee on how to best use the mentoring experience, the manager has no link to the mentor, and they do not communicate at all during the mentoring relationship. This helps maintain the mentoring relationship's integrity.

Frank Manfre

www.frankmanfre.com

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