Can great business coaches make great mentors?

The terms mentoring and coaching are often conflated or used interchangeably by many people. Most of us often mistakenly assume that they are in fact one and the same thing. That’s understandable to some extent, as both business mentoring and business coaching programmes involve confidential one-to-one relationships between a mentee and a trusted adviser, and both can focus on either personal development, career development, or occasionally a combination of the two. It’s also quite often true to say that a coach can also function as a mentor. But, can a mentor ever truly function as a coach? Well, the answer is probably not, but even that isn’t really a definitive answer. However, what we can say is that a coach will be non-directive, whereas a mentor will use the benefit of their practical knowledge to offer input on the direction a mentee can go. Mentors advise, instruct and problem solve, whereas coaches ask questions, listen and ultimately try to empower clients. Coaching is essentially about building an ongoing relationship with a client, and is designed to help ordinary people produce extraordinary results.

Mentoring

Business mentoring is usually a less-structured and longer-running process. It tends to be broader in scope and will generally pursue a wider and more open-ended agenda. In essence business mentoring focuses on longer term goals, though its benefits can also be felt in the near term too. Business mentoring is usually more holistic and often takes into account the broader backdrop of the mentee’s life and career. The essential difference between coaching and mentoring is that coaching aims to impart skills, whereas mentoring is focused on imparting wisdom in using these skills. Mentoring can be useful in many areas of business, but predominantly mentors tend to focus on areas like:

• career satisfaction
• professional development
• important life transitions
• personal growth
• building executive presence
• preparing for promotion
• dealing with life in a new and unfamiliar role
• keeping life and work in balance
• dealing with corporate politics
• developing leadership and management skills

Although business mentors can act as coaches, they can also serve as confidants, and be supportive listeners, sounding boards, guides and tutors. Mentees may meet less frequently with business mentors than with coaches, but when they do meet these sessions are usually longer and more wide-ranging. Because the scope of business mentoring is so much broader than coaching, a typical mentoring relationship can last for several months and occasionally even longer. Moreover, once the formal relationship is over, many mentees continue to seek guidance informally over the course of the years, particularly when new and unfamiliar challenges arise.

Coaching

The general aim of any business coach is to help an individual deal more confidently and decisively with critical short-term issues. You could almost say it was about trying to develop a greater sense of competence and self-assurance. Coaching is aimed at helping individuals develop leadership and management skills to cope with those immediate business concerns and issues that have been flagged up by in-house processes like performance reviews and assessments. Yet business coaches can also play a pivotal role by providing inspiration, encouragement and motivation. They can give you a slap on the wrist occasionally when you lose focus and help to keep you on track with vital priorities and objectives. A business coach will help a ‘student’ develop strategies that will have both an immediate and long-term impact on the business environment. To a large extent coaching is centred on outcomes that can be attained in a relatively short time frame. Once attained, the job of the business coach is done, but any great coach will have already prepared their students to be able to deal with future problems effectively. Of course the coaching relationship may be extended if other areas are identified that are suitable for additional business coaching.