Coaching or Mentoring?

Coaching is used in performance improvement. Mentoring is used in career development. A mentor is a more experienced person who is formally authorised to guide a less experienced person in developing their career in the context of their organisation.

For example, an experienced programme manager will mentor a new programme manager in how to manage their project managers and change managers, how to relate to the programme steering group, how to lead the programme executive, how to relate to the sponsor and so on...Experience is the critical factor.

The skills of mentoring can be learned in a day or two, and can be performed by a colleague. Mentoring is not confidential in nature.

The skills of coaching and NLP take months and years to acquire. I strongly recommend that performance coaching is totally confidential and performed by an impartial external coach, rather than a line manager.

I can coach anyone. And, because of my experience as a portfolio, programme, project and change manager, I can also mentor project people. I can coach HR Directors or doctors, for example, but I would not attempt to mentor them, because I have no experience as an HR Director or as a doctor.