Mentoring and Coaching: Is there a difference?

Introduction
Coaching and mentoring, are increasingly being recognized as important in employee development. Many organizations are implementing coaching and mentoring at some or all levels of a company structure. Senior management in many organizations have started acknowledging that their company will thrive, if they offer some form of coaching and mentoring to their staff.

Definition
The tradition of a mentor is usually somebody more senior in your own organization, taking an interest and helping your career path’. Coaching, on the other hand, concerns itself with amplifying the individual’s own knowledge and thought processes.

Mentoring can claim a 3000-year History on coaching, but both are proving powerful aids to personal and organizational change and development. Thinking of mentor might evoke vision of a white bearded Wiseman in flowing robes and sandals or Telemachus’ adviser in Hommer’s Oddyssey. The image of a coach is somewhat different: someone critically observing a top athlete, stopwatch in hand. Evolved from these origins, business coaching and mentoring are now widely recognized for their impact in leveraging personal and organizational development. For any one who needs convincing, imagine having someone alongside you who is motivated solely to help you succeed; someone immune from but aware of company dynamics and politics; someone who takes time to listen and to guide you without any personal or political agenda other than the success of you and your company. There are very few who would not benefit from such a relationship.

Differences between Mentoring & Coaching
Often, the term ‘mentoring’ & ‘coaching’ are increasingly linked and used interchangeably, whereas they differ on the following characteristics:

1) Primary Location: The mentor is located internally in the organization, whereas a coach may be an internal or external member of the organization.
2) Primary Role: A mentor is an individual (a) who is generally in a senior level position in authority or expertise within the company, (b) who has had larger-than-average tenure in the company, (c) may either be from technical side or management, with an interest in helping developing talent for his/her organization. Whereas, a coach is an individual certified with specific training applicable to professional coaching.
3) Experience and knowledge required: A mentor has a broad organizational perspective related to the structure, policies, processes and policies, processes and politics of the organization. Further, he has broad, multiple work experiences related to person’s interest. Whereas, a coach is an individual who has past successful experience and formal education/experience in the discipline of organizational psychology, coaching.
4) Goals: Apart from supporting success and advancement, both the mentor and the leader pursue (a) support and advise on career development; (b) serve as a personal advocate; (c) provide advise about strategies for best ways to accomplish work goals; (d) advise the person on the best ways to manoevuer the political waters of the organization. Whereas, the coach may have the following goals: (a) create greater self-awareness around strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for learning & development; (b) help people in identifying personal goals that support work goals; (c) maintain focus on desired areas and objectives; (d) help people accomplish personal development faster than if left on their own.
5) Methods: The following methods are employed in the process of mentoring: One-to-one face-to-face meeting, conducted at lunch or dinners, held generally in a casual setting where knowledge, sharing is done by using telling, advising, suggesting and instructing. Whereas defferent methods are adopted in the coaching process: One-to-one phone or face-to-face meetings, which have a formal structure, conducted in an informational conversational tone, in order to establish measurable goals. Such an interaction is conducted as periodic meetings with the boss, after assessing the soft skills/personal talent/personality of the individual.
6) Relationship: Even in formal mentoring programs the protégé and mentor have choices-to continue, how long, how often, and our focus. Self-selection is the rule in informal mentoring relationships with the protégé initiating and actively maintaining the relationship. If I’m your mentor, you probably picked me. In an organization your coach chose/hired you. On the other hand, Coaching comes with the job, a job expectation, in some organization, a defined competency for managers and leaders.
7) Source of Influence: The interpersonal skills will determine the effectiveness of influence for both coach and mentor. A mentor influence is proportionate to the perceived value he can bring to the relationship based on mutual respect and value for both mentor and protégé. Your job description might contain “coach” or you might even have that job title-it’s just a label or expectation. “Mentor” is a reputation that has to be personally earned; you are not a mentor until the protégé says you are. The coach also has implied or actual level of authority by nature of their position, ultimately they can insist on compliance.
8) Strength: Whilst the strength of mentoring lies in the mentor’s specific knowledge and wisdom, in coaching it lies in the facilitation and development of personal qualities.
9) Scope: The scope of mentoring lies in organizational and career maneuvering within the context of current job and future potential of the employee. On the other hand, the scope of coaching is in personal and professional development of the employee, within the context of current job and future potential.

Conclusion Mentoring and coaching is not the same thing. Mentoring is the all-inclusive description of everything done to support protégé orientation and professional development. Coaching is one of the sets of strategies, which mentors must learn and effectively use to increase their protégés skills and success. Today, mentoring & coaching, both of which focus on the individual, can enable individuals to achieve their full potential, can enhance morale, motivation and productivity and reduce staff turnover as individuals feel valued and connected with any organizational change. It can be concluded that, we need both mentoring and coaching to maximize learning and development in organizations.