What are mentoring, training and coaching?

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Ray Smith

Leadership development specialist, mental toughness coach and systems thinking consultant.
I coach good people to become good leaders.

What is the difference between training, mentoring and coaching?

What is mentoring?

Mentoring in the workplace tends to describe a relationship in which a more experienced colleague shares their greater knowledge to support the development of an inexperienced member of staff. It calls on the skills of questioning, listening, clarifying and improving thinking that are also associated with coaching.

Mentors can also be ‘coach-like’ or use coaching skills within the mentoring relationship, but knowledge is still being transferred, and the relationship remains hierarchical.

The European Mentoring & Coaching Council (EMCC) suggests that mentoring is a learning relationship, involving the sharing of skills, knowledge and expertise between a mentor and mentee.

The relationship is built through developmental conversations, experience sharing and role modelling. It may cover a wide variety of contexts and is an inclusive two-way partnership for mutual learning that values differences.

What is training?

A trainer or teacher shares their knowledge and experience in a subject area, discipline or topic with one or more individuals. At the end of the process/experience, it is expected that the participants have gained knowledge from the trainer/teacher. Hence, it can be considered as a transfer of knowledge from one to many and is, again, a hierarchical arrangement.

What is coaching?

Coaching aims to produce optimal performance and improvement. It focuses on specific skills and goals, although it may also have an impact on an individual’s personal attributes such as social interaction or confidence. The process typically lasts for a defined period of time or forms the basis of an ongoing management style.

The key attributes of coaching

  • Non-directive style of working, although can stray into directive development work.
  • The focus is on improving performance and developing an individual (or team).
  • Personal factors may be included, but the emphasis is on performance improvement.
  • Coaching activities can have both organisational and individual goals, so a triangulated approach is common.
  • The opportunity is found to develop strengths and improve areas for development.
  • It is a skilled activity, which should be delivered by people who are educated to do so (and, ideally, accredited – because coaching is currently an unregulated industry).

The purpose of coaching

To create a change in mindset in the client to enable success to be measured by a series of goals/targets that the client values or can see added value in achieving.

A coachee, therefore, enters the relationship for the purpose of intentionally and actively fulfilling personal objectives. Conceptually, this is a fundamentally different relationship than either a training or mentoring relationship.

Why coaching stands out

The International Coaching Federation (ICF) defines the act of coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.

While training and mentoring are about transferring knowledge from teacher to student or mentor to mentee, coaching is about enhancing, supporting and facilitating the individual to step in/forward and be actively engaged in their own growth and knowledge.

If you would like to learn more about how I work with individuals and teams to help them develop and grow, please get in touch.