How to Choose the Right Approach for You: Mentoring vs. Coaching vs. Training.

Mentoring, coaching or training may appear the same and are at times used interchangeably by most people yet these three are very different. Let’s understand how these differ to make your journey smoother and more accessible in this blog post.

The International Mentoring Center (IMC) definition of mentoring, why it is important and how it varies from coaching and training will be discussed in this article.

Insights you'll gain from this blog:

IMC Definition of Mentoring

Importance and Benefits of Mentoring

Mentoring vs Coaching vs Training: The Differences

Bottom Line

What is Mentoring?

Mentoring is an essential aspect of personal and professional growth that is notable in that it differs from coaching and training. It involves more in-depth conversations to help participants understand themselves and facilitate their growth.

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The International Mentoring Center (IMC) defines mentoring as a collaborative, dialogic, and reflective learning relationship characterized by mutually inspirational learning agreements and shared responsibilities. This relationship is designed to facilitate individuals’ or teams’ personal and professional development, fostering awareness, expanding choices, and enhancing capabilities. A credentialed mentor is skilled at mentoring and possesses domain knowledge to satisfy the mentee’s informational needs while refraining from suggesting solutions for personal life issues.

Mentoring is a mutuality-based collaborative developmental approach that can be adopted in both personal and professional contexts. Let’s briefly examine its significance and advantages.

Why do We Need Mentoring?

Mentors are the life-changers in our personal and professional lives. This is like having your back covered, someone to help you identify your strong points, show you new opportunities and enhance your skills significantly. These mentors offer their advice and share vast experiences with you which will enable you to confidently move forward in your career journey. The alliance creates a protective environment where one can develop their talents, receive feedback as well as become self-confident. In collaboration with each other, students and their mentors must play their parts toward goals that eventually foster from dependency through interdependence to independence.

What are the Main Advantages of Mentoring?

Mentoring has many applications and advantages, which makes it a useful tool for personal and professional growth. Here are some of the critical application areas for mentoring:

Highlighting Issues
Providing Context for Development
Giving Feedback on Results
Inspiring Creative Solutions
Enriching Self-Awareness
Enhancing the Mentor/Mentee Relationship
Facilitating Personal Development

We have read the whats and whys; now, let’s discuss the differences between mentoring, coaching, and training.

Mentoring vs Coaching vs Training: Approaches to People Development

But obviously, you can see that these sessions differ in terms of their content, relationship, approach used by the coach or mentor etc. Let’s look at them separately:

Differences in approaches to people development: mentoring vs coaching vs training

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Unveil the Different Types of Mentoring

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Aspect	Mentoring	Coaching	Training
Nature	Client-led, experiential	Client-led, inquiry-based	Trainer-led, instructional
Relationship	Senior or junior, experience-based	Equal footing, not necessarily senior	Instructor-led, skill-specific
Focus	Development, skill acquisition, knowledge	Performance improvement, goal achievement	Meeting predefined objectives
Method	Sharing experiences and advice	Asking questions to foster reflection	Conducting structured sessions
Purpose	Guiding and advising for growth	Enhancing performance and potential	Teaching specific skills and knowledge
Duration	Both short-term and long-term	Ongoing, integrated into daily work/life	Short-term, intensive
Application	Providing feedback, inspiring solutions	Increasing self-awareness	Imparting knowledge for specific tasks
Ownership of agenda	Shared between mentor and mentee	Set by the client	Set by the trainer

Let’s look at the differences based on the nature of these three approaches

Mentoring is client-led and involves sharing experiences and providing guidance
Coaching is also client-led, but the coach facilitates personal and professional development through questioning and self-reflection
Training is trainer-led, focused on specific skills or knowledge needed for a particular cause.

The relationship between a mentor, coach, or trainer and their respective clients also changes according to the approach used:

A mentor can be anyone, senior or junior, usually anyone with more expertise in the domain or industry. We can discuss the various types of mentoring in the next blog.
In coaching, it’s not necessary for the coach to be a senior at work for the person being coached or to have more expertise in the situation.
Training happens under an instructor who imparts predefined skills and knowledge to a group based on the curriculum drawn up by the trainer.

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Each approach has a different focus for the session, and it is essential to know the scope of your approach.

Mentoring focuses on professional development, skill acquisition, and knowledge transfer
Whereas coaching is more focused on future planning, performance improvement, and setting and achieving goals.
Training is focused on meeting pre-set learning objectives.

The method used for each approach is different as well

For Mentoring, the method of a mentor is based on sharing experience and advice based on the mentor’s career journey.
Coaching uses questioning techniques to facilitate thinking and practical learning.
For training, group sessions led by an external consultant or internal trainer

There are changes in the purpose of mentoring, coaching and training.

The purpose of mentoring is to guide and advise for personal and professional growth
For coaching, the purpose is to enhance performance, facilitate growth, and unlock potential
Whereas training provides foundational knowledge and skills necessary for specific tasks or roles

The duration of the sessions and the frequency of sessions can also change depending on the approach.

Depending on the agreement in the mentoring agreement, mentoring could be short-term or long-term.
Coaching, instead, is more ongoing and integrated into daily work or life.
Training is usually short-term, lasting a few days or weeks.

The applications of mentoring, coaching and training also differ from each other.

A mentor provides various forms of support, such as feedback and suggestions given to mentees along with their creative solutions. As a more action-focused application, it often works in collaboration with information gathered through self-awareness.
Coaching takes into account individual needs and focuses on particular issues and goals. In fact, coaching increases the client’s level of self-awareness about their own situation or problem without going further than that point. A coach does not give advice beyond what comes from within their clients themselves. Responsibility for action falls entirely on the client.
Training is focused on the intervention, teaching specific skills and knowledge in a particular use case. No tailored advice or coaching is provided beyond this.

Each approach takes different ownership of the agenda, which, as you know, is the foundation of the upcoming sessions.

In mentoring, both the mentor and mentee share ownership of the agenda.
In coaching, the client sets the agenda
In training, the agenda is entirely set by the trainer.

The Bottom Line

Knowing how and when to use mentoring, coaching, or training can ensure better support for your clients or employees while greatly improving your personal and professional development efforts.

Key Takeaways:

Mentoring is most effective for long-term professional and personal development. It involves receiving guidance and advice from a more experienced individual.
Coaching is perfect for improving performance and achieving goals through structured questioning and self-reflection.
Training is best suited for short-term skill acquisition initiatives, where knowledge is imparted by an instructor in a structured group format.

You can distinguish between the roles of mentors, trainers, and coaches. This will allow you to tailor your approach to each of them based on the specific goals of your clients or team members, creating a more effective and supportive environment for their development. Are you interested in learning more about mentoring? Contact us, and we will help you with your questions.