Pages

Thursday 16 April 2015

Coaching versus Mentoring

In a business setting, much emphasis is currently placed on mentoring and coaching, but like buzz words that get floated around, do we know the differences between coaching and mentoring?


The differences between mentoring versus coaching are subtle but distinct; firstly we should start with identifying the differences between coaching and mentoring. Coaching is primarily focused on skill acquisition whereas mentoring involves skill transfer from an experienced person to a less experienced person. Coaching is performance-based and highly focused as evidenced in professional sports from teams to individuals. 

Therefore, a coach is someone to learn with while a mentor is someone to learn from. When identifying mentoring, a mentor need not be employed in the organisation, in fact, in many cases, mentors are often external to the organisation. Typically, a mentor as as benevolent, mentors act with goodwill as opposed to coaches who are normally remunerated.

No comments:

Post a Comment