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Differences and Similarities between Mentoring and Coaching and Roles of a Mentor

Understanding Mentoring, Teaching and Coaching.

Mentoring involves a person with experience helping an inexperienced individual to develop specific skills for career development. On the other hand, teaching involves an experienced person shaping another individual’s (learner) thoughts and actions through giving directions and performance practices that create a positive behaviour and capacity useful in developing an individual and the society. In contrast, coaching is whereby a learner is supported in order to achieve a specific goal within a short while under the guidance of a more experienced person (Kutilek & Earnest, 2001).

Differences and Similarities between Mentoring and Coaching

Differences

Many people tend to assume that mentoring and coaching mean the same thing, however, they differ in various ways.  While mentoring is a long term process based on trust and respect which tends to focus more on the future and nurture skills for career development as time goes by, coaching aims to improve the results within a very short time, therefore, focusing on the ‘here and now’ rather than the future (Clutterbuck & Lane, 2004). Specifically, coaching focuses more on issues that will have an immediate impact on the job at the present time (Kutilek et al., 2001).

Another difference is that mentoring involves people who share a similar passion and visions working together to improve their skills and qualities to achieve their short- or long-term goals without any payments being  involved. On the contrary, coaching is more of a profession. Here, coaches are paid to direct and train individuals on how to achieve their goals. Coaches focus on accomplishment of set tasks. (Kutilek et al., 2001).

Additionally, a mentor is directly involved or is already a successful person in what the mentee is about to do. In most cases, a mentor acts as a role model for the mentee guiding them develop contacts  and personal goals in the business as well as interpersonal skills. On the other hand, a coach does not need to have the knowledge or the skills in what the trainee is engaged in in order to show him how to do it and get the anticipated results (Kutilek et al., 2001). Instead, they focus on developing specific skills.

Furthermore, whereas coaching can involve more than one client, mentoring is usually a one-on- one program. Coaching is usually a structured program that can be done as teams, organisations or individuals, on the contrary, the mentoring program is usually a one-to-one program, where there is one professional and a client.

Lastly, mentoring focuses more on the career paths one needs to follow to become successful. A mentor helps create pictures in individuals’ mind for them to see what they want to be in the future, as a result, they help them realise their potential. Coaching emerges during an action.  The coach  provides guidance one may need to adjust their performance based on the situation he or she is in then. It is an intervention one receives to promote improvement (Kutilek et al., 2001).

Similarities

As much as there are many differences between mentoring and coaching, these two processes have similarities as well. In both cases, the coach and mentor should  ensure that they have a good working relationship with their clients so that they can offer the best services. A relationship of trust and understanding needs to be developed to maximise on skill development. Both the coach and mentor should be supportive and avoid negative criticism to promote development of self-belief and confidence (Zainal, 2006).

Moreover, both activities encourage individuals to take charge of their own development. Individuals are encouraged to reflect on their own learning, improve on areas of weakness, therefore, learn. The main aim of coaching and mentoring is to improve performance as well as results. Moreover, both activities are based on the assumptions that humans can change and make the right decisions. Therefore, improvement is a result of asking the right questions and giving the right interventions.

Personal Reflection on my Mentorship Role

As a mentor, I knew the importance of developing a warm and open relationship with my mentee as this could ensure boost our communication. I ensured that my mentees felt that I cared about their feelings and contributions by ensuring that I created an environment where they could be free to visit and talk to me when they felt the need to. As a result, we developed a relationship based on trust. The mentees were more willing to share their daily stresses, and thus I helped them develop mechanisms to cope with them, such as develop organisational skills and ensure they used polite language when communicating.

One of the tasks I embarked on as a mentor involved working on improving the social skills of my student (Zainal, 2006). I educated him on the importance of having good manners, being considerate to other peoples’ feelings and voicing their personal needs. I helped the student become more confident and he developed important social skills that could help him throughout his career. The mentoring sessions helped him become more aware of the people around him and respected their feelings.

Secondly, as a mentor, knowing what my student wanted, I had to bolster his self-esteem by supporting him and helping him understand that everything was possible, and he could become whatever he wanted in life (Zainal, 2006). The main aim was to motivate him and make him to work harder to achieve his education and life goals. I shared some of the challenges I faced when I first started my career and how I overcome them. The mentee said the tips were quite helpful for them to cope in their new work environment.

Additionally, I explained to the student the importance of taking his studies seriously because this was important for his personal development and could help him fit in today’s world. I explained that there is more competition in the job market today, therefore, one need to prove that they are worthy of a position. To be worthy, one needs all the skills and knowledge they gain from their studies. I saw a slight change of attitude towards the student’s studies.

In general, the mentoring process was quite useful to the mentee. The guidance and support from an experienced person boosted his self- confidence, thereby, helping him develop coping skills in a social environment. It also reduced the pressure of work as the mentee shared his experiences with someone who understood him and offered insights on what he should do to reduce or avoid stress altogether.