Mentoring, and developing a culture of mentoring is absolutely essential to all areas of society – family life, with our nation’s children, in small businesses, and throughout large multi-national organisations.
In What Areas Can You Benefit Through Mentorship & Coaching?
What Is The Difference Between Mentoring (Wisdom) & Coaching (Cleverness)?
It’s understandable that you might think mentoring and coaching are similar or even the same practice with a different title. After all both involve one or more people helping another person become the best they can be. But they’re not the same at all. Both warrant serious consideration in our lives, businesses and careers. Both require committed and positive action if we are to optimise our lives and those in it. Both work together but in order of process; mentorship first, then coaching. Mentorship flows into coaching.
Below are the four differentiators that from the last 10 years of active research we now know to be important.
Coaching Is Task-Oriented
The focus is on tangible issues relating to hard skills, such as managing more effectively and efficiently, speaking with greater clarity and articulation, as well as learning how to think in a strategic way. This calls for a skills development professional (coach) who is proficient at teaching a skill set to the coachee on how to develop and be competent at the skill at hand.
Coaching Tends To Be Short-Term
Coaching is often just on a short term basis. It’s on an “as much as is needed” format. Once a skill is learned then the coachee moves on to the next skill perhaps with another coach. You will no doubt be interested to learn how we at LIG have successfully brought together the long term self-leadership top line elements like mentoring, with the shorter term bottom line management and skill based coaching, to form a seamless Mentorship Coaching process.
Coaching Is Measured & Driven By Performance
Mentoring is driven and measured by the development and transformation of the person. Its aim is to develop the person for both short and longer term goals. Mentoring often leads to wonderful, meaningful and purposeful long term relationships that coaching, by the nature of it, rarely does.
Coaching Is More About The Skill Than The Person
Coaching does not need as much thought and planning behind it as mentoring does. Coaching is less about the person and personal, and more about the skill. It can be done almost on the spot without any thought for the person at all, except what is relative to the skill to be coached. Mentoring has a longer, more meaningful and purposeful lead time and process.
When Coaching is preceded by Mentorship, it takes coaching and skill learning to almost unbelievable levels. It shortens the training period considerably and increases the learning and proficiency many times over.
We believe that, armed with the understanding of the differences between Mentorship and Coaching even at this basic level, you will get more out of this report and will be able to use it both as an inspiration and a catalyst to greater and greater achievement in your life.
How Does Mentoring Compare?
The focus is on transformational issues that are often less tangible issues, like how to deal with criticism or how to focus, or how to be motivated when times are hard. How to deal with problems and challenges relating to achieving a result through and with people. It has more to do with the top line (leadership) rather than bottom line (management) of our lives, business and/or career.
Mentoring is based on sound relationships. Its aim is to provide a trust-filled environment where the Mentee shares his or her professional and personal challenges and obstacles to success.