The Coaching Banalization Part II - Definitions

Last week we talked about the process that led to the banalization of coaching and distrust in the profession(check it here). In this post, I would like to define some terms related to people development which are often misunderstood: guiding, teaching mentoring, coaching and counseling.

In his book "From Coach to Awakener," Robert Dilts defines the different activities as follows:

Guiding: the process of directing an individual or a group along the path leading from present state to a desired state.

Coaching: helping another person to improve awareness, to set and achieve goals in order to improve a particular behavioral performance.

Teaching: helping an individual or group develop cognitive skills and capabilities.

Mentoring: helping to shape an individual’s beliefs and values in a positive way; often a longer term career relationship from someone who has ‘done it before’.

Counselling: helping an individual to improve performance by resolving situations from the past.

As you can see, there are well-defined boundaries between these activities. Coaching has been confused, especially with mentoring. The CIPD - Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, a London-based organization that brings together certified personal development professionals, differentiates mentoring and coaching as shown in the table below:

Brefi Group

As you can see, many people are doing mentoring and considering as coaching or doing coaching and considering as mentoring. So what is the problem of mixing the terminologies? At first, it may seem like no problem. However, the big question is to mix the two things up and not do any of them correctly or worst worse?, setting expectations that cannot achieve. The main point to understand is that coaching is specific and focused on particular problems and not aimed at holistically developing people, which task must involve other professionals, such as mentors and even psychologists.

Next week we will talk about some critical points that every coach, or who wants to be one, should consider and reflect before performing his activity. We cannot underestimate all care demanded when we are dealing with people development, and it is fundamental to do it with responsibility and transparency. See you there!