In recent times, the practice of coaching has begun and has increasingly spread as an accompaniment to achieving one’s own optimization and the search for techniques that help improve a specific capacity, skill or domain
In this sense, it is possible to find coaches focused on very different sectors: there are sports, food, personal or organizational coaches, among others. All of them share the fact that they focus on helping the client seek to maximize their potential so that they can improve their decision-making capacity on various aspects.
It is not uncommon that this type of practice is sometimes related to another apparently similar one in which another person guides us with their experience in order to help us learn and integrate knowledge and skills: mentoring. However, although they have a certain similarity, both terms refer to different types of accompaniment. What are the differences between coaching and mentoring? Throughout this article we are going to try to answer this question.
In order to understand the differences between coaching and mentoring, it is advisable to first reflect on what each of these terms mean and implies.
We can understand coaching as a type of accompaniment process in which the aim is to increase or help the subject himself to be able to develop his potential or his latent capacities, generally oriented towards improving in some specific area or task. It is intended to help establish and direct the achievement of specific goals. This process is usually aimed at achieving a specific result in a relatively short period of time and with the resources that the subject already has as a base.
The role of the coach is that of a companion in the process, which can provide or suggest instruments or methods through which the client can develop themselves.
It’s important to put attention on a coach does not have to be a psychologist and in fact coaching should not be oriented in any way to trying to solve a problem or a mental disorder: the objective of coaching is to promote personal and/or professional development.
Regarding mentoring, it is also a process of accompaniment and that also aims at the personal and/or professional improvement of the client or subject. To do this, the figure of the mentor is used, an expert in the sector to be worked on who guides the client through their experience in order to provide them with knowledge and increase their skills, through the learning that the mentored subject can acquire from the mentor.
The mentor acts as a guide and advisor, providing a more experienced perspective and helping her mentee build new knowledge and skills from her. A relationship similar to that of teacher and disciple exists in order to increase and enhance the capabilities of the mentee through the knowledge that is transmitted to them.
Main differences between Coaching and Mentoring
Although there are obvious similarities between both concepts, through their own definitions it is possible to observe some of the differences between coaching and mentoring. Among the different divergences that can be found, some of the most relevant are the following.
1. Self-learning vs Teaching
Although both coaching and mentoring aim to increase the subject’s possibilities and enable them to develop, each of them does it in a different way.
Coaching aims to emphasize the abilities and knowledge already present in the subject himself in such a way that the origin of what is learned is within and the results obtained are derived from the client’s thought processes.
In mentoring, the enhancement of the client’s capabilities requires knowledge to be transmitted from abroad, specifically by the mentor. In this way, the professional imparts a series of lessons based on his training and his experience in theory and practice.
2. The knowledge of the professional
Mentors, by virtue of being mentors, have a series of technical knowledge in a specific area, which is the one in which the client must decide how to position themselves. For example, if you have proposed launching a startup, the mentor usually also has experience in creating companies directly or indirectly related to the sector in which the person seeking help is dedicated.
On the other hand, since coaching is oriented towards enhancing the client’s self-learning skills, it is not necessary for the coach to have that level of experience and technical knowledge about the content of what the coachee needs to learn, since the skills that it helps to be enhanced are more universal in nature and not dependent on the profession or specific task to be addressed: stress management, leadership skills, conflict resolution and negotiation skills, etc.
3. Level of specificity in the objectives
Mentoring and coaching also differ in the level of specificity they have regarding the element treated.
a mentor It is a guide that usually has a general approach and that contributes to both professional and personal development within the area in which it operates. Its objective is usually the development of the mentee as a person and not just in a task. Thus, it helps you to face a wide spectrum of options to be addressed and goals to try to achieve.
On the other hand, the coach tends to focus on a specific aspect on which the support is provided, generally being more specific and focused on specific tasks.
For example, the coach may try to encourage making a decision regarding how to act to achieve a goal or solve a specific problem while the mentor sets an example of how to behave or face various situations and in addition to helping to solve specific problems, he or she usually provides values, references and generates diverse learning beyond that.
4. Role of the professional
Another divergence between both methodologies is observed in the role that the professional has, that is, his role.
The coach is a companion who can help the subject find their answers, their own opinions, beliefs and experiences remaining hidden and not being relevant
The role of the mentor is in this sense the opposite: it is his experience, perspective and opinions regarding what the mentee deals with that is being sought in order to generate learning. The mentor gives answers, the coach tries to help you find them for yourself
5. Relational symmetry
In addition to the role of the professional, we can also highlight as a difference the fact that the relationship between professional and client is different between coaching and mentoring. In the first, you start from a professional relationship in which also there is no relational asymmetry between both people beyond focusing on the client’s needs and the fact that the coach is an expert on the subject matter.
In the case of mentoring, it is common for there to end up being a certain emotional bond (remember that there is a mentor-mentee relationship), in which a clear asymmetry is also observed in terms of experience with respect to the topics discussed: one is the expert and generally has greater weight and power within the area in which he or she operates, while the other is the apprentice and usually has a less important position. However, on the other hand there is more symmetry regarding the flow of information, since it is both subjects who communicate and express their opinions and evaluations and not just one of them.
Although it can be seen from the previous points, another difference between coaching and mentoring is that while in the case of coaching it is always the client who will direct the session towards the aspects that must be worked on, and the relationship is guides you to achieve the proposed goals or objectives, In mentoring, it is the professional or mentor who directs how the session will go or what it should focus on, although it is something more agreed upon and informal.
In this way, mentoring is a type of service that provides more value to those who have more fundamental doubts about which areas of their life to work on more, while in coaching the usual thing is that the person seeking professional help already has certain certainties clear. references about which direction you should move in. The work of mentors is ideal for people who are just starting out in a type of job or who still know almost nothing about the sector they are entering.
7. Temporality and structuring
Although we are not dealing with something that always has to happen, As a general rule, mentoring requires prolonged contact over time while in the case of coaching the professional relationship is usually shorter.
Likewise, coaching sessions are usually highly structured and limited in time until an objective is achieved, while in the case of mentoring the temporality is not necessarily linked to sessions but rather implies a more continuous relationship and can be less rigid and vary in largely based on needs, with objectives that may vary over time.
This is mainly due to the fact that the coach focuses on a specific task or skill while the mentor usually acts as a general behavioral model in an area. In addition, the type of professional relationship that one has with the mentor requires a much closer bond, which takes time to maintain.
8. Present or future
Another difference between coaching and mentoring has to do with their temporality.
As a general rule, the objective of coaching is to face a situation or carry out training in some type of skill that we currently need, to obtain results in the short and medium term. However, in mentoring the objective It is usually more focused on improvement, not only current but in the long term so that the mentee develops positively throughout their career.
