The 8 differences between Coaching and Mentoring

These two accompaniment processes enhance learning, but in a very different way.

In recent times, the practice of coaching has begun and has become increasingly widespread as an accompaniment to the achievement of one's own optimization and the search for techniques that help to improve some capacity, ability or specific 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 to maximize his or her potential and to improve his or her decision-making capacity in various aspects.

It is not uncommon that sometimes this type of practice is related to another apparently similar practice in which another person guides us with his or her 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 will try to answer this question.

What is a coach and what is a mentor?

In order to understand the differences between coaching and mentoring, it is advisable to first reflect on what each of these terms means and what they imply.

We can understand coaching as a type of accompaniment process in which the aim is to increase or to help the subject to be able to develop his or her own potentialities or latent capacities, generally oriented to improve in a specific area or task.The aim is to improve in some specific area or task. It is intended to help to establish and direct to the achievement of concrete goals. This process is usually oriented to achieve 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, who can provide or suggest instruments or methods through which the client can develop him/herself.

It is important to keep in mind that a coach does not necessarily have to be a psychologistIn fact, coaching should not be oriented in any way to try to solve a problem or a mental disorder: the objective of coaching is to promote personal and/or professional development.

As far as mentoring is concerned, it is also a process of accompaniment and also aims at the personal and/or professional improvement of the client or subject. and which also aims at the personal and/or professional improvement of the client or subject. For this purpose, the figure of the mentor is used, an expert in the sector to be worked on who guides the client through his experience in order to provide knowledge and increase his skills, through the learning that the mentored subject can acquire from the mentor.

The mentor acts as a guide and advisorThe mentor acts as a guide and counselor, providing a more experienced perspective and helping the mentee build new knowledge and skills through it. There is a relationship similar to that of master and disciple in order to increase and enhance the capabilities of the mentee through the knowledge that is transmitted.

Main differences between Coaching and Mentoring

Although there are obvious similarities between the two concepts, it is possible to observe some of the differences between coaching and mentoring through their definitions. 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 him/her to develop, each of them does it in a different way.

Coaching aims to emphasize the skills and knowledge already present in the individual, so that the source of the learning process is the individual.In this way, the origin of what is learned is within him/her and the results obtained are derived from the client's thought processes.

In mentoring, the empowerment of the client's capabilities requires the transmission of knowledge from the client to the mentor. requires the transmission of knowledge from the outsidespecifically by the mentor. In this way, the professional imparts a series of teachings based on his or her training and experience in theory and practice.

2. The knowledge of the professional

Mentors, by virtue of the fact that they are mentors, have a certain amount of technical knowledge in a specific area, which is the one in which the client must decide how to position himself. For example, if a startup is proposed to be launched, it is usual that the mentor also has experience in the creation of companies directly or indirectly related to the sector in which the person seeking help is engaged.

On the other hand, as coaching is oriented towards the empowerment of 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 he helps to enhance are of a more universal nature and are 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 in terms of the element addressed.

A mentor is a guide who usually has a general approach and who contributes to both professional and personal development within the area in which he or she moves. Its aim is usually to develop the mentee as a person and not just in one task. Thus, it helps him/her to position him/herself in front of a wide spectrum of options to provide and goals to try to achieve.

On the other hand, the coach tends to focus on a specific aspect on which the mentoring is performed, usually being more specific and focused on specific tasks.

For example, the coach may try to help you make a decision on how to act to achieve a goal or solve a problem. how to act in order to achieve a goal or solve a particular problemThe mentor, on the other hand, gives an example of how to behave or deal with various situations and, in addition to helping to solve specific problems, usually provides values, references and generates diverse learning beyond this.

4. Role of the professional

Another divergence between the two methodologies can be seen in the role of the professional, i.e. his or her role.

The coach is a companion who can help the subject to find their answers, while his or her own opinions, beliefs and experiences remain hidden and irrelevant..

The role of the mentor is in this sense the opposite: it is his or her experience, perspective and opinions regarding what is being discussed with the mentoree that is being sought in order to generate learning. The mentor gives answers, the coach tries to help you look for them 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 former, the starting point is a professional relationship in which there is no relational asymmetry. there is no relational asymmetry between the two people, beyond focusing on the needs of the client. beyond focusing on the client's needs and the fact that the coach is an expert in the subject matter.

In the case of mentoring, it is common that there ends up being a certain emotional bond (remember that there is a mentor-mentee relationship), in which there is also a clear asymmetry in terms of experience with respect to the topics covered: one is the expert and generally has greater weight and power within the field in which he/she operates, while the other is the apprentice.The other is the apprentice and tends to have a lesser position. However, on the other hand, there is more symmetry in terms of the flow of information, since it is both subjects who communicate and express their opinions and evaluations and not just one of them.

6. Who manages the relationship?

Although it can already be noticed 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 to be worked on, and the relationship is oriented towards achieving the proposed goals or objectives, in mentoring it is the professional or mentor who exercises the direction of how the session is going to run or what should be focused on, and the relationship is oriented towards achieving the proposed goals or objectives. or what should be focused on, although it is something more agreed and informal.

Thus, mentoring is a type of service that brings more value to those who have more fundamental doubts about which areas of their life to work on, while in coaching it is usual that the person seeking professional help already has certain clear references about which direction to move in. Mentoring is ideal for people who are just starting out in a type of work or who know almost nothing about the industry they are entering.

7. Timing and structuring

Although this does not always have to be the case, mentoring generally requires contact over a long period of time, whereas in the case of coaching, it does not.In the case of coaching, the professional relationship tends to be shorter.

Likewise, coaching sessions tend to be 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 involves a more continuous relationship and can be less rigid and vary greatly depending on the 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 serves as a general role model in one area. In addition, the type of professional relationship 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 deal with a situation or to train in some kind of skill that we need now, in order to obtain results in the short and medium term. However, in mentoring the objective is usually more focused on improvement not only now but also in the long term.The goal of mentoring is to help the mentee develop positively throughout his or her career.