Are You a Mentor, Coach or Both?

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes | Published on: 23 August 2019

So you think you want to become a leader within your company. But leaders have to wear many hats, including that of mentor and coach. But, you ask, aren’t mentors and coaches basically the same thing? Not quite. The two are pretty different.

Coach

A coach helps others learn for themselves and come to their own positive realisations. Coaching works best when you’re working with someone on your team who is both eager to learn and who already has some skill. While coaching takes some time and a lot of clever questioning, it also is really worth the wait. Coaching takes your team to the next level and everyone benefits. Are you an aspiring coach? Do you know the GROW model, read here.

Mentor

A mentor is primarily in a role to provide wisdom and connections to the mentee. Mentoring can be very rewarding for both parties, but the main benefit is to the mentee, who accomplishes more of their goals via your help. Click here on how to set up a mentoring relationship.

Which one?

You don’t have to choose between being either a mentor or a coach. Many great leaders are both. Whether you act as a coach or a mentor in a situation depends totally on the person you’re working with and both of your goals. To find out more of your potential, this is exactly what we uncover in one of our 90-minute Discovery Session. Here, we taking inventory of your strengths and development areas, as well as your ability to understand, influence and connect with others, see if a Discovery Session is right for you.