Mentoring vs. Coaching

People often ask me about the differences between mentoring and coaching. Robert Clinton - a mentoring guru would say that coaching is a form of mentoring. This makes “mentoring” the genre and “coaching” a subset of mentoring. I appreciate Clinton’s theoretical thinking, but practically most of us treat mentoring and coaching as subsets of "personal growth relationships” With that in mind I want to respond to the genuine question, "What's the difference between mentoring and coaching.

Mentoring vs. Coaching
What's the difference?

Mentoring

1. Focus on formation
2. Agenda / content often set by the mentor
3. Mentor is very transparent and shares a lot of themselves
4. Mentor offers wisdom and resources
5. Accountability is to the mentor

Coaching

1. Focus on goals or outcomes
2. Agenda set by the “player” or the context
3. Coach constantly redirects the focus onto the “player”
4. Coach assists “player” in identifying need and locating resources.
5. Accountability is to the “players” action plan

At a practical level most of our personal growth relationships are a blend of mentoring and coaching. Sometimes this blend is intentional. More often this blend is lazy. The question I want to pose is “What do you really need, a Mentor or a Coach?”