When it comes to personal and professional growth, both Mentoring and Coaching play pivotal roles, yet the difference between what these two modalities offer often isn’t too clear. While both involve guidance and support, the approach, goals, and outcomes can be quite different. Understanding the differences can help you ask for the right kind of support for your particular wants and goals.
What is Coaching?
Coaching is a structured process where the Coach partners with the client to help them navigate and/or achieve specific personal or professional goals. The coach’s role is not to provide direct advice but to facilitate the client’s own self-discovery towards the achievement of their goals and outcomes. This is done through effective brainstorming and support as well as goal setting and accountability. A coach can also serve as a sounding board for ideas. Coaching sessions are generally more structured and focused on measurable outcomes.
Types of Coaching
There are many types of coaching, each tailored to specific needs:
Career Coaching: Helps individuals navigate career transitions, set professional goals, and develop strategies to achieve them. This could also include support with workplace communication, bullying, interview skills, and assistance with resumes and cover letters.
Business Coaching: Focuses on helping entrepreneurs or business executives make decisions related to either starting a business or maintaining its success. This could also include brainstorming ideas on marketing and advertising. Ultimately, the goal of the person looking for this kind of coaching is to increase productivity within their business.
Relationship Coaching: Aims to improve interpersonal skills, resolve conflicts, and enhance personal or professional relationships. It could include marriage counseling, Narcissistic abuse, or general assistance navigating the complexities of interpersonal romantic or non-romantic relationships.
Health Coaching: Assists clients in achieving health-related goals, whether it’s improving fitness, managing stress, or adopting healthier dietary habits.
Life Coaching: A broad category that covers various aspects of personal growth and life satisfaction, including setting life goals and overcoming personal challenges.
What is Mentoring?
Mentoring is where the Mentor provides more direct assistance with whatever goal their client has. Of course, the Mentor has to have experience in that field in order to effectively assist their client. One of the main areas of assistance as a Mentor is where the person would like to start a business or side hustle and needs one-on-one assistance walking them through the process. This is a much more hands-on approach than Coaching, where the person is being more closely assisted throughout the process to achieve their desired goal.
Key Differences Between Coaching and Mentoring
Approach: Coaching is more goal-oriented and focused on the client’s current situation and future goals, while Mentoring includes sharing personal expertise to guide the mentee in their aims.
Focus: Coaching focuses more on helping set and achieve goals, while Mentoring is more focused on walking the person through the steps towards reaching their goals.
Expertise: A Coach does not necessarily need to be an expert in the client’s field; they facilitate the client’s journey. A Mentor, however, should have significant experience in the area their client is seeking help with.
How Do You Find a Coaching or Mentoring Service Right for You?
We suggest you do your own due diligence when seeking out either one of these two modalities. A lot of times, people go by recommendations but not always. If you come across one advertised or listed on the internet under the relevant category and what they advertise resonates with you, then you can always give them a call or write them an email asking what they offer based on your needs. One company that we came across, called “You’ve Got a Friend Chat and Mentor Service,” seems like a good prospect as it combines both Mentoring and Coaching. Not only that, but their rates are extremely reasonable. They also offer pricing packages geared towards letting people access support more often than your standard once-a-week sessions at $100+ per hour. At You’ve Got a Friend, they offer chatting/coaching/mentoring packages up to 25 hours in a month. It is also designed so that the larger the package, the lower the price per session.
At You’ve Got a Friend, they offer a unique combination of Mentoring, Coaching, and/or just plain emotional support if you are just needing someone to talk to. With You’ve Got a Friend, your Coach Lisa has direct experience in starting a business from scratch, building it up to a successful full-time venture within one year, and maintaining its success for a whole seven years until she decided to switch industries and become a Life Coach. She also has a certificate from college called Career Development Practitioner and worked in the employment industry coaching job seekers looking for work. After a significantly damaging relationship in 2017, Lisa found out that her partner was a Narcissist. After that, Lisa delved deeply and heavily into the topic of Narcissism. After watching hundreds of videos as well as reading books and articles, Lisa is now very well-versed to assist you with Narcissistic abuse issues.
Conclusion
Whether you need a coach to help you brainstorm ideas, set goals, and keep you accountable, or a Mentor to walk you through, for example, starting your business or side hustle, step-by-step, You’ve Got a Friend has you covered.
Ready to Transform Your Life?
Your Coach Lisa at You’ve Got a Friend Chat and Mentor Service is extremely compassionate and understanding. Rest assured, she knows and understands your challenges considering she herself came from a background of Narcissistic abuse and many career changes. Lisa’s spiritual gift is encouragement, so this means she will never grow tired of supporting you through your trials. She truly wants to see her clients change their lives for the better.
So what are you waiting for? Give You’ve Got a Friend Chat and Mentor Service a try. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Book your first session with You’ve Got a Friend Chat and Mentor Service today. Your Coach Lisa is standing by to help you change your life for the better!