Comments on “COACHING VS. MENTORING”
What’s the difference and why is it important?
I recently came across an interesting article by Mindset Dynamics, exploring the differences between coaching and mentoring. Despite being a clear and informative post, I do not believe it was able to address the focal issue regarding these two teaching strategies.
The article rightly emphasizes how these two terms are often confused and misinterpreted, highlighting what the author believes to be the fundamental difference between such practices. Mindset Dynamics explains that choosing between having a coach or a mentor always comes down to the time-frame imposed by the desired outcome.
The author explains that if you were looking at completing a specific short term task with defined results, then coaching would be a better option. This is because coaching focuses on speed and performance in a win or lose scenario, providing a well defined plan to effectively pin-point and solve a problem.
On the other hand, mentoring is outlined as a longer process which should only be undertaken by those who want to achieve long-term personal goals. Mindset Dynamics believe that mentoring should be employed in order to provide the mentee with leadership and management skills outside of the daily-tasks framework to foster an understanding of the underlying values of such objectives.
I believe that choosing a mentor or coach based on how long the task may take simply displaces the attention from the solution back to the problem.
It is exactly this that the article fails to address. Once you understand the real nature of a task and manage to identify who can help you solve it, time-frames become irrelevant. Moreover, a long-term issue may only be solved through many specific smaller goals. Does this mean your “teacher” is both a mentor and a coach?
My question is: does it really matter?
Whether you are trying to overcome a challenge or achieve a goal, questioning how long it will take is not the correct strategy. Start from building your network in order to understand who can help most effectively with each issue. As the “guidance” relationship progresses it will naturally become easier to understand how the other person can help, regardless of their title of “mentor” or “coach”.
Talking Circles is a peer-mentoring software that aims at building employees’ network within their company in order to foster knowledge sharing and positive workplace culture. As a result, we are able to offer organizations a sustainable solution to declining levels of employee engagement and retention. Find out more at http://talkingcircles.co/
By Mia Meroi, TC Marketing Team
