At times, there can be confusion between and coaching and mentoring, leading to a misconception about what a coach’s role is with a client. People sometimes reach out to a coach in the hope that the coach pass on their wisdom, knowledge or insights into an industry; however, this is more the role of a mentor. The role of the coach is to help the client find the answers by partnering with them and asking thought-provoking questions. By doing this, the client goes through a greater transformation.
When I am working with coaching clients, especially ones who may be writers, there are times where I need to take my coaching hat off and put on my mentoring hat. To ensure that the boundaries are clear, I tell them that this is what I am doing, and when I have finished providing them with some information, I tell them again that I am now removing my mentoring hat.
ICF defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximise their personal and professional potential. The process of coaching often unlocks previously untapped sources of imagination, productivity and leadership.
We all have goals we want to reach, challenges we’re striving to overcome and times when we feel stuck. Partnering with a coach can change your life, setting you on a path to greater personal and professional fulfilment.
https://coachingfederation.org/about
So what is the difference between coaching and mentoring?
A coach partners with the client and empowers them to find their wisdom to help them achieve their goals. A mentor shares their wisdom in a particular career or sector to help the client progress.
Coaching is future focused and solution focused, collaborative and results oriented; whereas, mentoring is career focused and sector focused.
Coaching is a systematic process to facilitate the enhancement of life experience and goal attainment from someone who is trained and accredited. Mentoring is a process with a respected person in the sector or organisation who may be untrained as a mentor but has qualifications in the role or sector.
Coaching is usually a short-term contract, but can be a life-long relationship between the coach and the client. Mentoring is often a long-term relationship, but can be short term to help a client through a particular career or industry hurdle.
Types of coaching
In my coaching practice, I use both traditional and dynamic coaching. When I see a need, I may mention to a client that I have a technique that I could use that may be helpful for them and then allow them to choose whether they would like to go ahead.
Traditional coaching
Traditional coaching often stars with a coach asking a client: What would you like to talk about today? This allows the client to set the agenda for the conversation. The coach uses thought-provoking questions throughout the sessions to guide the conversation so that the client can gain clarity and create actions toward their goal.
Dynamic coaching
Dynamic coaching uses techniques to help the client eliminate any limiting beliefs, conflicting values and trapped emotions that are in the way of the client reaching their full potential. This is often done in a short period of time and provides breakthrough results for the client. I offer an eight-week program that uses a dynamic coaching model designed by Authentic Education and through this, clients begin to have breakthroughs from the first session on. The dynamic coaching techniques I use are backed by science and assist with realigning the brain to allow it to focus on the client’s desired goals.
