What is the difference between a coach and a mentor?
I'm curious how you, as an entrepreneur, personally define the differences between a mentor and a coach. Including specific examples would be great.
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Feb 22, 2016
Coaching is a process limited to a specific period of time that supports individuals, teams or groups in acting purposefully and appropriately in the context they find themselves in. The coach supports clients in achieving greater self-awareness, improved self-management skills and increased self-efficacy, so that they develop their own goals and solutions appropriate to their context.
Mentoring is a developmental process in which a more experienced person shares their knowledge with a less experienced person in a specific context through a series of conversations. Occasionally mentoring can also be a learning partnership between peers.
Mar 10, 2015
Mentoring and coaching are quite different.
Mentor is usually an expert or a more experienced professional in a given area. The job of the mentor is to show and lead the mentee through the process of acquiring knowledge and experience within the same area. For instance mentor can be a senior colleague who guides a less experience colleague through learning how a certain IT system works, or how to write better business plans etc. Mentoring is usually used for developing skills, knowledge and experience. A mentor can be a senior colleague / peer, superior manager or even an external professional.
Unlike mentoring, coaching is used to solve different types of development needs. It addresses the personal characteristics and traits. While mentor's job is to show the mentee how things work, coach's job is to help the coachee come to answers, a-ha moments, or simply realize how he/she should react or what should do in certain situations. It doesn't address skills, knowledge or experience. For instance an employee who has visited trainings and has been mentored on how to give presentations is still very lousy at that job. The coach (through asking questions) should help the employee what is the real reason for being bad at presentations and what he/she can do to improve / change that. The answers that the coach and coachee usually come to are the answers given by the coachee with the help of the coach.
I hope that helped a bit. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need any further assistance regarding coaching and mentoring.
Mar 4, 2015
A coach is an experienced person and expert who teaches his/her students strategically by giving multiple tasks and it is always a short time. Where as a mentor is a person who closely work with his/her students in a safe environment while focusing on his/her development and it is always a long term.
Mar 3, 2015
I think a coach could give you great insights, professional insights etc. A mentor will take you by the hand and guide you trough your business...
Mar 3, 2015
A Coach merely tells you what to do and motivates you to be the best you can be. A Mentor guides the apprentice by leading them towards the most advantageous outcome based on their initial intention, shares lessons from their own failures and victories, and is much more of an intellectual guide to ones own personal growth.
Coaches are not as forgiving when it comes to mistakes, whilst the Mentor helps the understudy or "mentee" gain a valuable lesson within their failure.
I could go on but that's the basis in my personal opinion
Mar 2, 2015
The process that enables learning and development is coaching.
The process of transition of knowldge, work or thinking from one person to other is mentoring.
Both have many similarities to share on how the process takes place by appointment or through engagement of people by paid or unpaid rolls.
Mar 1, 2015
A coach goes trough the whole difficulty with you, a mentor only advices you sometimes.
Feb 28, 2015
http://www.banyantreeanswers.co.uk/Mentor.aspx - Hope this link helps.
Feb 28, 2015
Coaching refers to efforts by a manager to develop an employee's skills and knowledge so he can perform up to standards of a specific job. In contrast, mentoring is a broader process where a leader helps an employee balance personal and professional lives while building a career
Feb 25, 2015
This is a great question, Denise!
The answer is complicated, however the easy answer involves the purpose of the relationship. As a coach, you focus your efforts on building the skills and confidence of your client. As an advocate, you have to, at times, take the reins and take the lead in meetings, record review, district communications, and goal development and implementation until the client has the knowledge, skills and confidence to move forward without your help. As a mentor, the primary goal should be to develop the skills and knowledge of your client so they can move forward without you; knowing they can always contact you for support and advice.
I hope this helps!
Teresa
Feb 25, 2015
I feel there is a large gap between a coach and a mentor. In my area of expertise, a coach is somebody who helps a person who wants to learn how the process works. For example, if somebody wanted to know how to write a scientific article, I would lay out the fundamentals on research, format, and editing. This, to me, is coaching. It's a short-term view that focuses on performance and output. Mentoring, on the other hand, is more hands-on, and it's building a long-term relationship with a client. In the example above, a mentor would help guide (as opposed to coach) the client to finding jobs, navigating the world of companies and communications, writing, and beyond. It's an all-encompassing approach that goes far beyond the basics and fundamentals.
Feb 24, 2015
A mentor offers advice and input based on their personal experience and expertise to a client, transferring their knowledge and know-how. Coaching specifically does not give advice and the coach keeps their personality and personal experience out of the coaching experience. The Coach helps the coachee become more self-aware and guides them to reach their goals and aspirations and deal with their roadblocks that's preventing them from achieving it, and bring out the best in the individual. For a professional coach - Coaching and mentoring complement each other well, though mentoring should be done in moderation with the clients permission.
Feb 24, 2015
I think this best explains the differentiation: http://www.management-mentors.com/resources/coaching-mentoring-differences/
Feb 24, 2015
A mentor is someone in your field who shares their own experiences in that field, typically not charging you for the advice. A coach, such as myself, isn't an expert in your field, but is a faciltator who helps you discover underlying issues that may be impeding your business. For example, when I work with clients I help them work on their business and figure out what is stopping them from doing that work, as opposed to helping them be better experts in their field, which is what a mentor seems to do.
Feb 24, 2015
For me a mentor is the one stop, know it all, veteran, guru that supports you with knowledge and expertise and who broadens your knowledge. A coach for me is a trainer that also has some knowledge but mostly focusses on improving your skills and traits rather than knowledge.
Feb 24, 2015
Hi. I'm currently working on my Professional Coach credential (PCC) for the International Coach Federation, and we just had this conversation in one of our recent class sessions. Some common typical distinctions are that a mentor is usually someone who can help with career development/career advice (or even apprenticeship), and can have a tendency (if internal) to be more about helping someone navigate within an organization and/or politically and to build a network, while a coach (internal or external) is usually more focused on the behavior and performance of the individual. A coach is usually more focused on helping the "coachee" work toward an aspirational goal, engage in self-discovery of solutions, and involves an action plan that is more focused on long-term growth. Data, such as that from assessment tools, is also typically tied more to coaching in helping the coachee gain a better understanding of their behavior and overall performance as a baseline. I hope this helps.
I agree. Great explanation.
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