Differences Between Coaching and Mentoring in a Workplace

Have you ever wondered what the differences between coaching and mentoring in a workplace are? According to the 2023 report from a study on LinkedIn Workplace Learning, mentoring is the number 1 learning and development program that businesses should focus on. The terms “coaching” and “mentoring” have been used interchangeably to describe 1:1 relationships between a learner and a seasoned individual. However, there are specific distinctions between these two approaches that are important to note.

As the organizational landscape continues to evolve, current trends are focused on aligning learning programs towards achieving company goals, upskilling employees, curating a learning culture, and improving employee retention. Given these trend patterns, knowing the differences between mentoring and coaching could assist you in knowing which approach would best suit your business. As a result, it would help you determine which of these resources would yield the most benefits for your employees.

In this article, we aim to differentiate between coaching and mentoring; shedding light on their unique characteristics, the impact they have on mentor-mentee relationships, and how you can implement mentoring programs into your organization.

Souce: Freekpik

What is Coaching?

A coach is someone who provides guidance that is designed to assist someone to achieve their goals and reach their full potential. Coaches often encourage learners (also referred to as coachees) by using exercises to boost their professional growth. These coaching exercises are usually curated to develop strong communication, foster teamwork, and leadership skills that are vital for an employee to have in order to succeed in their environment.

What is Mentoring?

Mentors are typically senior employees who share their knowledge and experience with junior employees. Mentors do this so that their juniors may be well equipped to develop and grow in their careers. Often acting as sources of information, mentors address their mentees’ needs and concerns, and empower them to work towards growing their career.

Differences Between Coaching and Mentoring

Coaching and mentoring, though often incorrectly used synonymously, have distinctive features and purposes.

Coaching is typically a short-term relationship focused on specific skill development or performance improvement. The emphasis made in coaching programs are to enhance existing skills, address challenges, and optimize performance within a defined timeframe (Bachkirova, 2010).

On the other hand, mentoring is a more holistic and long-term relationship. It is centered around both personal and professional growth. The mentor-mentee relationship is characterized by a broader scope, encompassing career development, personal growth, and overall well-being (Zachary, 2012).

Below is a cheat sheet to spot the differences between coaching and mentoring:

Category	Coaching	Mentoring
Focus and Scope	More targeted, specific, and set in a relatively short time frame.	Holistic and long-term. The mentor-mentee relationship creates a personal bond to cultivate a positive and collaborative work environment.
Nature of Relationship	The relationship between a coach and coachee is transactional and goal-oriented based on predetermined objectives of the coaching sessions.	The relationship is more dependent, fostering a connection-focused form of guidance.
Qualifications	Coaches usually have certified qualifications that validate their coaching abilities.	There are no formal requirements to become a mentor. Mentors are usually senior employees who are great at their job.
Communication Techniques	Coaches use non-directive communication techniques, including constructive feedback for specific improvements in employees' working methods.	Mentors provide more directive communication, sharing industry-specific knowledge to equip mentees with necessary skills. Mentees have the freedom to use the advice as they see fit.
Relationship Timeline	A coaching relationship is usually short-term, as it is an objective-driven transaction.	A mentor-mentee relationship is more long-term, often developing into a longstanding relationship that can span a lifetime.

Advantages of Coaching

Coaching offers several benefits for individuals seeking targeted skill enhancement and performance improvement. By focusing on specific goals, coaching provides a structured approach to development, allowing individuals to acquire new skills efficiently (Grant, 2016). It is often employed in organizational settings to address immediate challenges or enhance the performance of individuals (Kampa-Kokesch & Anderson, 2001).

Advantages of Mentoring

Mentoring offers unique advantages over coaching with its broader focus. Mentees not only benefit from the mentor's expertise but also from the wisdom gained through the mentor's personal and professional experiences. Mentoring relationships can contribute significantly to career advancement, as mentors guide mentees through the complexities of the professional landscape (Eby et al., 2013).

It is also imperative to note that mentor-mentee relationships not only benefit the mentees, but the mentors as well. The voluntary nature of mentoring encourages mentors to dedicate their efforts to the personal development of their mentee, thus providing mentors intrinsically motivated satisfaction.

Challenges in Mentoring and Coaching

While coaching and mentoring bring valuable advantages to employees’ development, they are not without challenges.

In coaching, the potential for resistance from the coachee may arise if the goals set do not align with their aspirations or if the coaching process itself feels imposing (Passmore & Fillery-Travis, 2011).

In mentoring, challenges may include finding the right match between mentor and mentee, along with making sure that the mentor provides constructive guidance to the mentee (Allen, Eby, & Lentz, 2006). Since the relationship between a mentor and mentee is more personal, it may take some trial and error before a mentee finds a mentor that they feel comfortable with.

How To Know If You Need a Coach or a Mentor?

The thing about coaching is that while it provides specific skill enhancements and has been proven to be useful, mentoring programs have proven to contribute to a long-term strategy for the overall growth of the employees and organization.

If you feel that your employees need someone who talks to them as they try to perfect a very specific area of their work, then perhaps a coach may just be what they need. With that, you also have to consider the cost of hiring a coach. This is why coaching is often only obtained for an organization's C-suites (senior management level).

Mentors, on the other hand, often offer their mentoring services for free! Mentors are often trained to talk to their mentees in regard to their career plans, aspirations, and goals in a collaborative manner.

Pro-tips: Did you know that there have also been several studies over the decades that show the career benefits employees can reap from a mentor-mentee relationship? These benefits include (but are not limited to) a quicker understanding of company culture, networking opportunities, and an increase of promotional chances. In fact, it was reported in 2019 by Lauren Wronski in the CNBC/SurveyMonkey Workplace Happiness Survey that mentoring results in higher job satisfaction and career advancement in 91% of employees.!

Overall, while coaching and mentoring are both integral components of professional development, the unique benefits mentoring offers give it an upper hand in being the better option for HR managers seeking to implement learning and development initiatives for their high-potential talents.

How Can HR Professionals Bring Mentoring Programs into their Organization?

Now, you might be wondering how to implement a mentoring program in your organization. We can help you out with that! There are a few ways to go about this, but to make it easier for you, here are some quick steps to cultivate an effective mentoring program in your workplace:

1. Create a learning design

In other words: define your learning goals. This can be achieved by designing a mentorship program with a clear understanding of the learning objectives. This can help you identify tangible objectives that are measurable and attainable, thus providing a better understanding of the value the program brings as well as a clear target to aim for.

2. Mentor and Mentee Matches

Gather relevant details about your participants (key skill sets, strengths, weaknesses, professional backgrounds) and interview both mentors and mentees to get a clearer understanding of their expectations. This way, mentor-mentee pairings will be able to effectively work with one another to progress their careers and reach their respective goal.

It is also worth considering allowing mentors and mentees to participate in the selection process. By giving the participants a choice of whom they will be mentoring/mentored by, they will feel a better sense of ownership in the process.

3. Mentor and Mentee Training

When preparing your mentors for the program, it would be worth providing mentorship training on how to disseminate new skills, communicate effectively, and other tools that they may need to successfully train their mentees.

As for mentees, it would be wise to ask them to identify their developmental and career goals to gain the most from the mentorship program. In the process of preparing to undergo a mentor-mentee relationship, design a plan under which skills they would want to improve on and adopt, practice open communication to receive and give productive feedback and share the expectations they may have in this mentor-mentee relationship with their mentor.

4. Use a Mentoring Platform for Task Automation

Even with a small HR team, you can use a mentoring platform to track the impact of this program on your employees. As previously mentioned, one of the important parts of implementing a mentoring program in your organization is to create measurable objectives.

Examples of such self-assessments, surveys, interviews, and/or audits to collect data for analysis. With this in place, it would be easier for your HR team to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your employees, areas of improvement, and the overall health of the team.

Wrapping It Up

If you would like to know more about how you can implement a mentoring program in your organization, you can contact us at FutureLab! In our online coaching and mentoring platform, we have our mentoring programs in place and would be more than happy to share further information with you.

As the professional landscape evolves, the role of coaching and mentoring in fostering growth and development remains as relevant as ever. But here's the kicker - based on recent research, mentoring programs have proven to be the most effective approach to learning and development. Get ready to cultivate a culture of growth and evolution in your employees’ professional goals through the holistic nature of mentor-mentee relationships! We trust that you will find that your organization will flourish to become better well-rounded and aligned through the help of a mentoring program!

References

1. Bachkirova, T. (2010). Developmental coaching: Working with the self. McGraw-Hill Education.

2. Eby, L. T., Allen, T. D., Evans, S. C., Ng, T., & DuBois, D. (2013). Does mentoring matter? A multidisciplinary meta-analysis comparing mentored and non-mentored individuals. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83(3), 257-267.

3. Grant, A. M. (2016). The third 'generation' of workplace coaching: Creating a culture of quality conversations. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 9(2), 129-149.

4. Kampa-Kokesch, S., & Anderson, M. Z. (2001). Executive coaching: A comprehensive review of the literature. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 53(4), 205-228.

5. Passmore, J., & Fillery-Travis, A. (2011). A critical review of executive coaching research: A decade of progress and what’s to come. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 4(2), 70-88.

6. Ragins, B. R., & Kram, K. E. (2007). The handbook of mentoring at work: Theory, research, and practice. SAGE Publications.

7. Zachary, L. J. (2012). The mentor's guide: Facilitating effective learning relationships. John Wiley & Sons.

8. Allen, T. D., Eby, L. T., & Lentz, E. (2006). The relationship between formal mentoring program characteristics and perceived program effectiveness. Personnel Psychology, 59(1), 125-153.