One of the questions we often get is –do I need a coach or a mentor? The short answer is you may well need both. To some this may seem like overkill, but it all depends on where you are right now and what it is you want to achieve.
The obvious extension to the question is – what is the difference? Our definition describes a mentor as someone who has a specific skill or knowledge you would like to learn. While a coach is someone who can assist you in upgrading the way you think to an updated more current or appropriate way of thinking. Albert Einstein in one of his speeches declared; “the thinking that has got us this far has created some problems that this very thinking cannot solve”. A coach then is someone who helps us re-design the way in which we think and this may be applied to various aspects of our life such as business, education, children, relationships, and so forth.
Some coaches even specialise in one or more of these areas. Consequently you get a variety of coaches, for example; executive, business, life, teen, retirement coaches and even for spiritual matters. At this point it would be prudent to issue the “health warning”, meaning that one must make sure that your definition of the kind of coach you are looking for matches up with the coach’s definition of what they do before you engage them.
The extent to which a coach who you might engage is a generalist or a specialist is entirely your call. If you want to deal with various aspects of your life, a life coach might be the best option. There is however one fallacy I would like to challenge, which is: “I do not bring my home to work and I do not bring my work to home”. This premise is often used when people select a coach, leading to; “I only need a life coach and do not need business coach”. I am yet to meet a person who can compartmentalise their life to this extent. Therefore, should you select a business coach, select one that can also deal with more ‘domestic’ applications although this may not be the main focus of the coaching intervention, and vice-versa.
A mentor on the other hand is usually selected because they possess a particular skill, skill set, or some expertise you would like to tap into. In a way it is less formal one-on-one learning. I have specifically used the word learning rather than training as the whole process is usually driven by the “mentee” rather than the mentor. There are times when the mentor will make large deposits of information; the secret is to keep it to the point or the topic at hand depending on your specific requirements, you may find that you will have more than one mentor at any time. |
