Very often I receive a request to Coach or Mentor someone and usually after chatting with them I realize they are not really aware that there are differences in:
- Coaching
- Mentoring
- Being a Role Model
A leader’s key role is to give Guidance to team members, but it sometimes can cause confusion. Understanding how to effectively guide your team is key to a leader’s success, an important step is to know whether you should coach or mentor.
Throughout my career I have had guidance from all three; role models, coaches and mentors and along the way, I have also been a Role Model, a Coach and a Mentor.
When I started out in a new career and first met my director, her example had a huge impact on me. As I learned more about her and saw her lifestyle I knew I wanted to be like her. She was successful, had a lovely family, a more-than ‘just comfortable’ lifestyle and she made it all look so easy. I knew I wanted to imitate her.
However, if I had stayed star-struck with my Director and had never gotten around to committing to my own dream and creating my plan to accomplish it, I would just have remained an admirer. Keeping my director as my role model would have reduced her leadership to one of celebrity. She was a wise woman and began asking me questions about my dreams to help me clearly define my goals. She then became my Coach.
Coaching is ‘Performance Driven’, focusing on new skill-development.
- A coach has a more structured approach…a set agenda.
- Task oriented focusing on specific issue – the coach has an objective/goals for each discussion.
- They are experts in coaching the best out of people. Never providing solutions – always asking questions which encourage the person being coached to do her own thinking and find their own solutions.”
My director guided my attitude, behavior and skills and did this by working with me to become a “problem solver”. She did not tell me what to do; instead, she helped me discover a better way to reach the outcome that I wanted.
A coaching relationship is for a short time and that is how it was between my Director and me. She was there to guide me to the point where I was ready to advance to the next career level. Then her role changed, and she became one of my mentors.
Mentoring is a “power-free”, two-way, mutually beneficial relationship. Mentors are facilitators and educators allowing the mentee to discover their own direction. She was there to continue to model a work/life balance and was there for me throughout my career with no need of a routine schedule. The relationship was more informal and focused on my career development.
Over the years I have had some powerful mentors, people I admire and with whom I relate. People who were the experts in the areas I aspired to and if I asked, they were there to provide advice on a career next-step …..Leadership is knowing-how to continue a relationship with the people you lead by knowing when to change your leadership role.
ROLE MODEL, COACH, & MENTOR.
“Leaders should influence others in such a way that it builds people up, encourages and edifies them so they can duplicate this attitude in others.”
– Bob Goshen
Thanks for sharing this with us