Mentoring and Coaching Assignment 2023

For understanding the difference in between the process of mentoring and
coaching is not straightforward as there is high confusion about the definitions in
between the practitioners. The difference in between these two processes is not
clear as of the fact that most might believe. A mentor might make use of
different approaches and one of them is coaching. It could be claimed that all
these areas occupy the same space of development. Notwithstanding this fact,
one of the most significant difference in between coaching and mentoring is the
relation that is forged among two people. Although mentoring and coaching
make use of the same approach and skills, coaching is a very short-task based
but mentoring is a long-term based.
It is to note that the main focus of coaching is performance and task. Role
of a coach is basically to provide feedback on his observed performance. It
usually takes place at the workplace of a person. With the same, it is also
claimed that a coach is possibly to set goals for the learners and measure their
performance periodically unless the learner successful develops new skills and
this calls for a good relationship in between the coach and the learner. One of
the most important roles that coaching plays is the promotion of business
objectives. It guides the professional development from the managers and
leaders as well as in between the peers and from the external consultants. It
helps people in improving their awareness for setting and achieving goals for
improving a specific behavioural performance. It comprise of one-to-one
development discussions and provides people with effective feedback on both
their weaknesses and strengths. It is aimed at some issues and generally focuses
on the improvement of the performance and enhancement of individual skills.
The activities related to coaching have both the individual and organisational
goals.
On the other hand, mentoring helps in shaping the values and beliefs of
the individual in positive manner. It is often considered to be a long term career
relation. It is a long standing form of development, learning and training as well
as an increasingly famous for supporting the personal development. With the
same, it also focuses on the assisting the individual in managing their career as
well as improving their skills. Furthermore, unlike coaching, personal issues could
be productively discussed at the time of mentoring. However, like coaching,
mentoring also have individual and organisational goals. Following are some of
the differentiators in between mentoring and coaching:
a) Coaching is highly task oriented and is focused on some concrete issues like
managing more effectively, learning to think tactically as well as speaking
articulately. It further needs an expert coach who is capable of developing
these skills. On the other hand, mentoring is relationship oriented and it calls
for providing a safe environment where issues are shared and this further
influence the personal and professional issues.
b) Secondly, coaching is short term but mentoring is long term. The coach is
involved with the coaches for very short period of time and it could last just
for few seconds. On the other hand, mentoring requires huge amount of time
and in this process, both the partners involved could learn about one another
and develop a climate of trust that further results in an environment where
the mentee could feel safe in sharing the true problems which impact their
success.

c) Thirdly, mentoring is developing driven and its main purpose is preparing a
person for his or her current job but also for their future. This difference
differentiates the role of immediate manager as well as that of the mentor.
On the other hand, coaching is performance driven. The main purpose of
coaching here is to improve the performance of person at his job.
d) Fourthly, mentoring requires design phase, whereas coaching does not
require design. It can be easily conducted immediately on any of the topic.
e) In terms of mentoring, the immediate manager is indirectly involved.
Although they offer significant suggestions to the employee on how to usage
the experience of mentoring the best or might provide a recommendation to
the matching committee on what would comprise of a good match, the
manager has no relation to the mentor and at the same time, they do not
communicate at all at the time of mentoring relationships. On the other hand,
the coach is a significant part in the process of coaching. They often offer the
coach with the feedback on the different areas in which their employee is in
the need of coaching.
Both mentoring and coaching encourage and enhance and the ethos of CPD
(Continuous Professional Development) as well as lifelong learning. It promoted
the objectives of the business by encouraging the team to build on their own
strengths. Both could add to the culture of learning and meeting the objectives
of the business by means of encouraging employees to take the advantage of
the assets of the other people. Furthermore, both mentoring and coaching
promote the requirements of the business and the group like working to meet
the standards of the Ministry of Education and Sharjah Private Education Council.
With the same, it also build high level of commitment of the employee that
results in low staff turnover. Providing learning support the increase of skills
within the people and at the same time, they would be able to face the diverse
issues and challenges which are highly task related. Moreover, through the
Developing Key Performance (KPIs) staff challenges themselves and at the same
time, develop in their career and meeting the business objectives. When the staff
begins to test themselves, they explore more number of options for developing
their careers and improving the objectives of the setting. Both the coaching and
mentoring could strengthen the quality of performance as well as employee
accountability.
The main characteristics of the appointed mentor comprise of the following:
a) Committed
b) Experienced
c) Non-judgemental
d) Effective skills of communication
e) Building good rapport
f) Highly professional
g) Potential of offering fresh perspectives on the different issues
It is to mention that mentoring is one of the many kinds of learning support
that could be described as a short term help or guidance that is organised in a
particular situation and at the same time, could be highly supervising in nature
as a significant approach for helping the staff to gain the new skills and
overcoming some specific challenges.