Coaching vs. Mentoring: How Do the Roles Compare?

Coaching is a personal or professional development process that involves working with a private coach to develop a skill set, or establish and achieve an end goal. A coach facilitates a personalized, goal-focused training program for their client, typically including feedback, solutions, techniques, timelines, and goalposts. People looking to improve their professional performance in a specific area—like public speaking, active listening, or effective management—may find it helpful to work with a business coach.

Mentoring involves an experienced individual in a specific field (a mentor) who provides advice, moral support, and a contact network to a less-experienced person in the same field (the mentee). Mentors draw on their own experiences to support a mentee’s personal and professional development over time. This long-term relationship often lasts the length of the mentee’s career or life, with the mentor serving as a source of insider knowledge and wisdom throughout.

Companies may establish mentoring programs to aid in employee development, providing new hires with a go-to contact to help them assimilate into the new work environment.

A mentoring relationship or a coaching program can help you achieve your career goals and further your personal development, but there are some key differences between these resources, such as:

• Duration: A mentor-mentee relationship lasts as long as a person’s career, if not longer. The mentor may periodically check in on their mentee to see how things are going, but unlike coaches, they will not track progress or assign homework between coaching sessions. Short-term coaching relationships hinge on establishing timelines and creating mini-tasks to achieve specific goals.
• Methods: Driven by questions from their mentees, mentors offer advice and suggest resources to help their protégés advance in their careers. Coaches are more hands-on, working closely with clients to create actionable plans to help them develop a specific skill set.
• Specialty: A mentor-mentee relationship occurs between two people in the same field, with the former sharing their valuable experience with the latter. Coaching is a coach’s full-time profession, focusing more on general skill or professional development than the specifics of a particular field.

When deciding whether you want a mentor or coach, there are several factors to consider. Review this list to help you determine whether you need a coach or a mentor.

1. 1. Consider your goals. Establish whether your personal or career goals are skill-related or more holistic. Coaches will help you work towards developing a specific competency in a set time frame, while mentors offer more general insider advice on how to grow in the field. Those already in their desired field looking to develop a new skill would benefit more from a coaching relationship. Those looking to break into a whole new field would likely benefit more from reaching out to a relevant role model, who may become a mentor.
2. 2. Choose your desired guidance level. Mentoring is an open-ended process, often driven by questions from the mentee. The mentor has their own busy career in the same field you’re in, and they likely don’t have the time to develop a tactical plan for you or hold you accountable. Coaches, however, provide their clients with the structure to achieve micro or macro goals. This hands-on process involves assigning homework, checking on their client’s progress, and holding them accountable for meeting goals on time.
3. 3. Consider the relationship. A coaching relationship is often results-bound and takes place over a short period of time. Mentoring relationships can last for years. If you admire someone’s career, talk to them about starting a mentoring relationship. They may be able to guide you long-term.

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