Hi there,
I trust the month of March has been coming along well and you have gone ahead to stoke your fire for achieving all you set out to do. Welcome to another exciting edition of productivity Wednesday.
Last week, we started a conversation on mentoring, and I hope you had a great and educating moment reading the opening article; no worries if you missed it, kindly click HERE to enjoy. Taking the conversation a notch higher, we will be discussing “Mentoring Versus Coaching”.
It is quite easy to confuse mentoring with coaching and in some contexts, both words are used as synonyms to each other. The conversation today seeks to shed more light on both words and when they mean to people in the workplace.
Mentoring just as we defined last week is a relationship established between colleagues for learning and growth; while coaching in the workplace is a form of relationship established to develop another by a more experienced person in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance. Coaching focuses on a defined set of skills, knowledge, or tasks. Mentoring, meanwhile, is all-encompassing and oriented around building trust and establishing relationships, although it may also focus on specific learning goals. Other differences between coaching and mentoring include;
- Mentoring focuses on overall career and skills development while coaching looks to improve performance in a current job.
- Mentoring is often long-term while coaching is often short-term.
- The structure of meetings in coaching is informal relationships and meetings while coaching is often structured and formal meetings.
- The agenda of mentoring is often set up by the mentees and more open while meetings in coaching, meetings are set and co-created by the coach and protégé.
- The results of mentoring are often shown in development while the results of coaching are seen in improved and outstanding performances.
Having known the differences both now, it is also worthy to note that one is not superior to another as both can come in handy at different points in one’s career. 21Search is a manpower development agency that develops employees’ skills and efficiency as well as recruits the most suitable fit for a role. Send us an email to: e,mbahon@21Search.ng or call 08107017274 to get a quote.
Love,
Lizzy