Are you thinking of using a coach or mentor for your career? First you have to know the difference.
Both coaching and mentoring are terms that are used interchangeably in the context of personal development. This makes it confusing to know which path to go and which one is best for you, as the two represent very different approaches.
Would you like to become a coach or mentor?
Both coaching and mentoring can be valuable and effective ways to transform your career, and as a general rule of thumb:
Coaching is more focused and goal-oriented and aims to optimize performance around a specific goal or goal
Mentoring is often more focused on long-term personal and professional growth and the focus is on fulfilling the potential
It is possible that this is still not obvious which one to choose, so let's examine both in more detail and compare and contrast the approaches.
Mentorship
A mentor is someone who shares their knowledge or skills with you to help you grow. The focus is therefore on personal growth and the continuous improvement of the skills and potential of the individual.
Therefore, mentoring relationships tend to be long-term and have a stronger focus compared to coaching. During mentoring, the mentee often turns to the mentor, although this is not always the case.
The advantages of mentoring have been demonstrated with new qualified physiotherapists, whereby both parties benefit from it. It was found that the mentors had the professional opportunity to learn new skills from the mentees (reverse mentoring), that their own skills were deepened through the discussions and that they found joy in helping others, which increased their own will to improve.
The mentees also saw their clinical thinking and decision-making skills evolve and feel that they had better career directions and pathways that led them to better professional identities.
Coaching
A coach is someone who helps you achieve a more focused and specific goal or goal. Coaching includes the conviction that the coachee carries the solutions within himself and the coach facilitates the discovery of these solutions.
Since the focus is on achieving a specific goal, the relationships are usually transactional and short-term, with the coach having the authority, as opposed to a mentoring relationship in which both parties learn from each other.
Coaching has been extensively researched, but the effectiveness of coaching is difficult to assess due to the lack of a standardized measure of results. The effectiveness depends to a large extent on the type of goal / the objective on which the relationship is based and thus determines the success or failure of the coaching.
The general consensus is that coaching can be effective in many situations, including healthcare, but it is heavily influenced by the consent of the coachee and is often a consequence of a transactional relationship.
A dual role – coach & mentor
Often a person takes on both the role of coach and mentor and it can be really difficult to know which approach is most effective and when it is most effective. As a quick rule of thumb:
Does someone have the knowledge and skills but have not yet made connections? – Take a coaching approach.
Is someone missing the dots that need to be connected to make a connection? – Take a mentoring approach.
To know the answer to these two questions, you need to listen to your future coachee or mentee and ask the right questions. Also, if you are looking for a coach or mentor, make sure he can listen to you.
