Many a time we use this word quite interchangeably; however, a practitioner knows the Subtle difference between coaching and mentoring.
Mentoring is more personal, it’s one looking into the long future, focusing on improving one from a long-term perspective. A Mentor needs not to be a subject-matter expert, he needs life experience, which he will be sharing with us, and helping us with those life challenges. He for sure needs to share the same interests as the mentee, to be able to connect with the mentee and guide him for his success.
Coaching, on the other hand, is short term, focused on an immediate goal, highly domain oriented and the coach is a professional who helps coachee to identify the goal, and way to achieve it. A coach helps coachee to identify goals, develop plans to achieve them and helps them mitigate the risk with their domain knowledge.
Typically, a business needs more coaching at the operation level, and Mentoring at the management level. No rule, but an experience. I see myself using coaching as a constant tool to help make my team more effective and make them deliver the result, to boost their moral but also help them align to achieve long – term professional goals.
The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever
This book is really a compact and focused book toward making a more effective coach. It’s basically a focus on asking effective questions.
These powerful questions not only help get more insights on the problem which coaches want (or May want to, as he may not be clear what he wants), but it also helps him to explore more, be more aware of various opportunities to meet the expectations. Wonderful book, highly recommended read.
- The AWE Question >And What Else?
- The Focus Question > What’s the real challenge here for you?
- The Foundation Question > What Do You Want?
- The Lazy Question > How Can I Help?
- The Strategic Question >If You’re Saying Yes to This, What Are You Saying No To?
- The Learning Question >What Was Most Useful for You?
