You're a project manager with a new team. How do you decide whether to coach or mentor your employees?

1 Coaching vs. mentoring

Coaching is a short-term, goal-oriented process that focuses on improving specific skills or behaviors. A coach helps the employee identify their strengths and weaknesses, set SMART goals, and create action plans to achieve them. A coach also provides feedback, guidance, and support along the way. Coaching is useful when the employee needs to learn a new skill, overcome a challenge, or improve their performance.

Mentoring is a long-term, relationship-based process that focuses on developing the whole person. A mentor shares their knowledge, experience, and insights with the employee, and helps them navigate their career path and personal growth. A mentor also offers advice, encouragement, and inspiration. Mentoring is useful when the employee needs to explore their interests, values, and aspirations, or when they face a major transition or change.

2 Assessing your team members

Before you decide whether to coach or mentor your team members, it is essential to assess their needs and preferences. This can be done by asking them questions, observing their behavior, and reviewing their feedback. You should take into account their level of competence and confidence in their role, learning style and motivation, short-term and long-term goals and challenges, personality and communication style, as well as expectations and preferences for feedback and support. Based on your assessment, you can then determine if coaching or mentoring is more suitable for each team member, or if a combination of both is necessary.

3 Coaching best practices

If you decide to coach your team members, it is important to establish a clear and mutual agreement on the coaching objectives, process, and outcomes. Open-ended questions, active listening, and reflection techniques can help the employee discover their own solutions. The GROW model (Goal, Reality, Options, Will) can be used to structure your coaching sessions and guide the employee through goal setting and action planning. You should also provide constructive and timely feedback that is specific, balanced, and actionable. Additionally, you should monitor and measure the progress and results of the coaching to celebrate achievements and improvements.

4 Mentoring best practices

If you decide to mentor your team members, there are some best practices to consider. Start by building a trusting and respectful relationship with the employee, and showing genuine interest in their development. Share your stories, lessons learned, and best practices that are relevant and helpful. The SAGE model (Share, Advise, Guide, Encourage) can be used to structure mentoring sessions and provide different types of support. Additionally, provide honest and supportive feedback that is empathetic, positive, and developmental. Finally, encourage and challenge the employee to explore new opportunities, perspectives, and possibilities. Coaching and mentoring are both valuable ways of developing your team members; by understanding the difference between them and assessing your team members' needs and preferences, you can decide whether to coach or mentor them effectively.