Much of the training and development world is confused about the difference between coaching and mentoring, and a wide range of other ‘helping’ roles.\u00a0 I would contend that the world of enterprise support and entrepreneurship is more confused than most.\u00a0 We label different types of helping intervention carelessly and frequently bastardise and corrupt subtle, powerful and transformational learning relationships.\u00a0 We deploy mentors and coaches who are poorly trained and frequently lack the right experience to help.\u00a0 It may come as a horrible truth but a middle manager from a ‘blue chip’ does not necessarily make for a great mentor – especially if\u00a0 they have not been trained.<\/p>\n
And this matters because a good understanding of the type of helping relationship that you are trying to offer is essential to making it work well, to developing your professional practice and to helping the learner to develop a support team that covers all of the right bases.\u00a0 How to choose and use a team of helpers is perhaps one of the most powerful things we can teach.\u00a0 If we confuse the type of helping relationships that we provide we are unlikely to make them as effective as they could be – and more importantly we are unlikely to inculcate good learning habits.<\/p>\n
So what are the helping roles that we get confused and how can we start the job of clarifying them and improving their efficacy?<\/p>\n
Coach <\/strong>– a relationship usually characterised by frequent and intense sessions designed to help the learner to raise their awareness of the current situation, generate options, take decisions and act.\u00a0 Frequently coaching will involve goal setting and clarification and the development of formal action plans.\u00a0 Coaches are usually expert in the process of personal development rather than the ‘content’ of what has to be learned.\u00a0 Successful coaching does depend to a high degree on rapport, personal ‘chemistry’ if you like, so to be most effective it is important that learners are able to choose their preferred coach.\u00a0 Coaching relationships usually run for months and occasionally years.\u00a0 However good coaches teach learners to coach themselves effectively and it should be rare for a coaching relationship to extend beyond 12-18 months without the nature of the relationship evolving significantly.<\/p>\n Mentor <\/strong>– A mentor is perceived by the learner to be a senior practitioner in a field that the learner has identified as critical to their own development.\u00a0 Mentors usually have ‘been there, done that and got the T-shirt’.\u00a0 This means that it is highly beneficial if the learner is able to identify and recruit mentors (they may have more than one) that they respect and are hungry to learn from.\u00a0 Appointing mentors to learners unless done with immense care usually results in ineffective mentoring, and means that the learner is denied the opportunity to learn about how to identify, recruit and use mentors.\u00a0 Mentoring relationships are usually characterised by less frequent but longer meetings (perhaps 2-3 a year).\u00a0 Mentoring relationship are usually driven by the learner, who takes responsibility for scheduling meetings and developing the agenda.\u00a0 Learning to chose and use mentors effectively is a relatively advanced skill and is one that shold be explicitly taught.\u00a0 Similarly it helps tremendously if mentors have had some training in what it means to be\u00a0 a mentor and to establish some of the boundaries and practices of effective mentoring.\u00a0 However if learners are encouraged to source their own mentors then mentor training becomes difficult.\u00a0 In these circumstances it is even more helpful if learners have been effectively trained in choosing and using mentors.\u00a0 Good mentoring relationship often run over a number of years, if not decades.\u00a0 However they often have a high failure rate.\u00a0 Learners have to be prepared to kiss a few frogs in pursuit of a powerful mentor.<\/p>\n Peer <\/strong>– Many learners gain great benefits from peer learning processes where they explore problems and solutions with fellow learners.\u00a0\u00a0 Peer learning is characterised by enquiry, reflection and exchange of experiences.\u00a0 Because there is no ‘expert’ in the relationship peer learning promotes independence and critical thinking.\u00a0 Again peer learning processes can be significantly improved if those involved are given some basic training in what makes peer learning work.\u00a0 Buddy systems<\/a> are a form of peer learning<\/a>. More advanced forms of peer learning can involve co-counselling<\/a>, co-coaching<\/a> and action learning<\/a>.\u00a0 Effective peer learning processes, that move beyond support into transformational learning, can be difficult to establish.\u00a0 However once a learner knows how to use peer learning in their own professional and personal development it becomes a powerful and transformative force in their lives.<\/p>\n Adviser <\/strong>– an adviser typically brings expertise, experience and, if you are lucky, wisdom to bring to bear on a speciifc problem or opportunity.\u00a0 Learners should be careful about using advisers to help identify problems and opportunities as they are likely to find something in their area of expertise rather than in the learners area of greatest need.\u00a0 Some advisers will simply solve problems.\u00a0 Others will teach you how to solve the problem when it crops up again in the future.\u00a0 If the task is likely to recur then working with an adviser with a strong track record of supporting learning and independence matters.\u00a0 If the issue is a ‘one off’ then this is much less of an issue.\u00a0 The role of an adviser is usually short term and project based.<\/p>\n