People often confuse coaching and mentoring. Though related, they are not the same. A mentor may coach, but a coach does not mentor. Understanding the definition of mentoring is crucial. Mentoring is "relational," while coaching is "functional." The concept of "safety" is also differentiator. Below are other significant differences.
Coaching characteristics:
- Managers coach their staff as a required part of the job.
- Coaching takes place within the confines of a formal manager-employee relationship.
- The focus is to develop individuals within their current job.
- The interest of the relationship is functional, arising out of the need for individuals to perform the tasks required to the best of their ability.
- Managers tend to initiate and drive the relationship.
- The relationship is finite, ending when an individual has learned what the coach is teaching.
Mentoring characteristics:
- It occurs outside of a line manager-employee relationship, at the mutual consent of a mentor and mentoree.
- It is career-focused or focused on professional development that may be outside a mentoree's area of work.
- Relationships are personal--a mentor provides both professional and personal support.
- Relationships may be initiated by mentors or created through matches initiated by the organization.
- Relationships cross job boundaries.
- Relationships last for a specific period of time (nine months to a year) in a formal program, at which point the pair may continue in an informal mentoring relationship.
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