Mentoring vs. Coaching

Workplace coaching seems like it's all over the news right now. We're always seeing articles about using coaching for team relationships, for executives, and for behavioral issues at all levels of a company. But what about mentoring—an ongoing relationship that can last a long time and focuses on career and personal development.

According to David Pardey, a senior policy research manager at the Institute of Leadership and Management, coaching's ability to sell itself is pushing mentoring into the background. Mentoring is a valuable learning and development tool and reverse mentoring (younger workers mentoring older workers) is gaining steam in many companies because of the technology boom. An article in trainingzone.co.uk examines this issue in greater detail.

Do you use coaches in your organizations? Do you have a mentor?

Comments

[Marguerite Inscoe]

Voluntary mentoring appears to be a dwindling practice. Perhaps it's because if you haven't had a mentor you are unlikely to gravitate towards mentoring others. Also in this age of information and self-help (i.e. Internet), we believe we can find answers and make decisions on our own. I believe bringing it back to the workplace is important and can done most successfully by simply setting an example from the top down.