Do you need a mentor or a coach? You feel you are undergoing some personal crisis, which also affects your work. You want help and guidance. But who do you approach? A mentor or a coach? Read on to learn more about mentoring and coaching.
Similarities of Mentoring versus Coaching
Let’s first start with the similarities between mentoring and coaching. Both of them involve a person who can help you process. A mentor or coach is someone who can listen to your concerns and give guidance.
Mentoring and coaching involve skills to be able to help the client effectively.
Basic Differences in Mentoring versus Coaching
Mentoring is a long-term relationship between the mentor and his mentee. It does not happen overnight. Coaching is more short-term in nature. It focuses on skills, tasks, and training the client.
Mentoring
For work, your boss can be your mentor. As your manager, he has already gained enough previous experience. He can help you focus on your long-term career goals.
Business Mentor
It is beneficial to get a business mentor. Usually, business mentors are also business owners. Or they have been in the business or the specific industry you are in. Hence, they are seen as experts in the field. They can then give sound advice to their mentees.
The business mentor can advise you on how to grow your business. You can discuss ideas with your business mentor. You can work and assess those ideas with the mentor to see what is viable.
Because the business mentor is well-experienced, he can give you an outside perspective. You can save on money by just asking and getting advice on your ideas. In business, owners can sometimes do things out of gut feel. Many are risk-takers. They immediately want to try out their ideas. While this is good, there is a potential risk of the idea failing. Thus, a business mentor saves you both time and money through consultations. He can advise if your proposal is workable. He can also suggest how to improve.
You can discuss your life goals with your mentors. The most successful businesses are those whose owner’s life goals are well-aligned with business goals. Hence, it is good to discuss both your life and business goals with your mentor. He can help guide you on how to marry the two.
Counseling is not the main objective of a business mentor. But it does have a similar approach, but the focus is different. The focus of the business mentor is to help the mentee achieve his business objectives.
The mentoring approach or method vary. It depends on the business, environment, and lifestyle of the mentee. Models differ and can be adjusted accordingly as time goes by. Business needs and objectives change over time. Even the mentee’s state in life also changes. Thus, the approach should also adapt accordingly.
In business mentorship, it can involve consultations, business planning, and entrepreneurship programs. These will all greatly help the mentee.
As earlier mentioned, mentoring is more long-term. The relationship allows you to grow professionally alongside your business. The main benefit of mentoring is to help you achieve the business status and personal lifestyle that you desire. To help you, it’s best to get a business mentor Melbourne area.
Coaching
Coaching involves improving your skills to improve your performance. That is why the most common example is a coach in sports. The coach helps their trainee to develop their skills specific to the sport. For example, in sports, it includes training, work-outs, and mental conditioning.
Coaching is not limited to sports alone. There are life coaches also. They help the person deal with the issues hampering them. The life coaches help the person achieve their personal goals.
Other than these, there are also business coaches. See the section below to discuss this further.
Business Coach
Coaching is structured in nature. The coach helps improve your ability to deal with certain situations. The process involves the coach asking questions about your business and your abilities. The business coach drafts an agenda that focuses on achieving immediate goals.
The business coach is not necessarily an expert in your field. Though it can help you better if you have a coach knowledgeable on your industry.
The business coach helps improve your ability to perform your tasks at work. He can help you understand the situation better and can give you a perspective in undertaking your tasks.
The time spent on coaching varies. It depends on your current state and skills. The objective is to develop your skills to help you achieve your business goals.
Getting a Mentor and Coach
Some individuals opt to get both a mentor and a coach at the same time. You can hire two people, one mentor, and one coach.
But some professionals can do both coaching and mentoring at the same time. Getting one who can do both will greatly help you achieve your goals faster. It can give you the best results.
The mentoring part makes sure your business goals are set-up correctly. Mentoring paves the way to achieve business objectives. The coaching side develops your skills to implement working towards reaching the objectives.
It is highly beneficial for businesses to get both a mentor and a coach. The combined approach can help business owners deal with both short and long term goals. Even cash flow problems can be addressed. Personal goals and lifestyle are also dealt with better.
