25, What do the mentor and a coach really do, and do they add any value

The newsletter on Human Resource expert opinion, for the Indian context

Mentoring and coaching are certain topics that are used quite interchangeably, and they are also an important buzzword that are necessary.

From an organisation standpoint, they are necessary. Why? Because in the organisation journey of building future people to take care of the organisation, or in the organisation journey of succession, or the CEOs or MD's personal journey to succeed and take the organisation from one level to the other, the roles that the mentoring and the coaching programs, or the role that a mentor and a coach plays, is one of the most fundamental and paramount essential topics that needs to be looked at.

Any organization which does not have a strong mentoring and a coaching program, or any individual who does not have a strong mentor and a coach contributing to them, are very rarely going to progress the way they can. Very rarely they can progress to their ability.

As a result of time, as a result of environment, and as a result of push, there is obviously going to be some kind of progress. But a mentor and a coach really help accomplish the organisation and the individual, their ability and their potential.

a mentor and a coach really help accomplish the organisation and the individual, their ability and their potential.

So, if we were to discuss about this topic, broadly speaking, we are saying that if growth is required, you need a certain support system, and that support system comes in the form of a coach and a mentor.

So let's first try and understand what is a mentor.

A mentor is a person who is going to be involved in trying to guide you on certain aspects that you choose that you need assistance on. That can be any area, whether it's technical, non-technical, behavioural, psychological, whatever area, but it's an area which you're going to be saying that I'm going to be needing certain support on.

A coach

A coach is also somebody who's going to be guiding you on certain key areas on which you need assistance.

So the difference is,

a mentor is someone who is going to help you make the decisions, which means they're going to discuss with you, they're going to do pros and cons, they're going to say that option A will have this kind of a path, option B will have this kind of a path, option C will have this kind of a path, they're going to do war-gaming with you, they're going to do brainstorming with you, and then they're going to take you to a level where you take a decision that, okay, I'm going to walk the path of this.

A coach is somebody who's going to obviously try and work with you in terms of the areas that you need guidance and assistance on, but they are the ones who are going to tell you, given the situations, I have option A, B and C for you, and I recommend you take option A. It's they who are telling you what is best suitable and what needs to be done.

So the guidance is coming from them or from there, which is directing you, whereas mentoring, it is not directing you, it is telling you to choose because you are the best judge of your environment.

So that takes us to a little deeper understanding of what a mentor and a coach are.

A mentor is somebody who would be very strong in the area of that topic, which means they will be very strong in the knowledge. The degree of knowledge that they will have in the area in which you're taking assistance is going to be very strong. They're at the expert level. They're going to have knowledge at the intellectual level, which is going to be far superior than anybody, including you.

Whereas a coach is a person who is going to be a person who is themselves succeeded in the role for which they are coaching you. So a coach is somebody who is going to be able to tell you that I am successful in this area, and I'm going to be coaching you on that.

So a mentor and a coach, therefore, are differentiated in this way.

A coach is a person who has themselves been successful in that.

So if you find a career coach, basically means a person who has been successful in their own careers and now are trying to help others build their careers.

Whereas a career mentor is going to be somebody who is very knowledgeable in terms of how careers are made, the pitfalls that people fall into. They are the ones who are going to have multiple researches, multiple knowledge banks up their sleeve. They would know a lot about what CEOs do, what leaders do and those kind of inferences they will be able to draw.

That's one of the difference.

Now, any individual to be successful in the professional world needs support of both kinds, which means a mentor and coach.

It is okay for you to decide whether you need this support for a behavioral trait, whether you need it for a skill or whether you need it for a shorter duration or a long duration.

It's okay to decide a specific topic for which this assistance is required.

It is also okay to decide whether you need this support as a mixture, which means you may be taking mentoring as well as coaching for the same topic. Or you may be taking only coaching for something or you may be taking only mentoring for something.

It's also to be known that not all areas can be supported by both of them. There are certain areas which will only be supported by coaching, and there are certain areas which can only be supported by mentoring.

So, not only is it necessary for an individual or an organization to decide that whether I need to support a mentor or a coach, we also need to be very clear about what kind of solutioning we need to do to build our future leaders or to build a succession plan.

Whether this person is capable of being a mentor, if yes, then in which all areas?

Whether this person needs to be successful to be a coach, if yes, in which all areas?

And as I said, every organization and every individual who needs to go up the value chain to achieve their potential needs necessarily a mentor and a coach. And every organization needs a mentorship program and coaching program to be able to reach their true potential.

India HR Guide is aimed at discussing and shedding light on aspects in a crisp manner that organisations in India follow in the area of Human Resources. It is aimed at CEO's, MD's and line managers to understand how various aspects of Human Resources can help shape their organisations journey in India. Our industry leading expert, Mandeep Singh, offers years of accumulated knowledge from having advised clients across sectors, and spread across the remotest corner of the country. Let's make the workplace, a better place.

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