Coaching And Mentoring Differences

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MENTORING, COACHING AND TRAINING – WHATS THE DIFFERENCE!
When we get about our daily business of corporate involvement, social networking and individual self –learning, we use the terms Mentoring, Coaching and Training almost interchangeably without realising the difference at times.
Corporate members refer to any information download as training and any top down driven initiative as mentoring which may not always be the case.
So what exactly are these terms, let us briefly understand the difference.
We all know that these are ways for an expert or experienced individual to help people do something more effectively. That’s the similarity. But the differences…
Mentoring
Mentoring is generally an informal relationship between two people. …show more content…

An athletic coach definitely does not simply ask the athlete questions and help them bring out their own solutions to problems. An athletic coach helps point out problems, makes very definite suggestions, and sometimes even intervenes physically to help the athlete do the right thing. So what is coaching? The main difference is in terms of formality.
A coach is a coach from the start of the relationship with the person being coached. The person being coached has a specific goal to achieve. It can be long term or short term, but it is specific. The coach is there to help that person meet their goal. Once the goal is met, the relationship is …show more content…

Training is the complete opposite. It is designed to equip all trainees with the same skill to a level of performance against an external standard. For example: how to produce a project schedule to satisfy the scheduled examination. It requires a pre-planned approach to telling project managers exactly what to do and how to do it. And all trainees benefit from sharing the training experience and exchanging ideas. Training imposes one-size-fits-all behaviour externally. Coaching draws out internal resources for reaching individual potential.
Mentoring is a judicious mix of the two, of process and content. Through superior experience, skills and knowledge, the mentor can advise the more inexperienced project manager in what to do in a given set of circumstances. Therefore, it must be apparent that mentoring inclines towards the training end of the spectrum. And that coaching must be left in the capable hands of a trained, qualified and experienced coach. And finally…there is a fashion for line managers to adopt a 'coaching style'. Performance Coaching is not a fashion and is not to be confused with 'coaching style', counselling, therapy, or life

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