RAPPORT
Issue 5 (August 2020)
achieve for whatever reasons.
Mentors, on the other hand, are
more likely to have followed a career
path similar to the one on which you
are embarking. They are, therefore,
charged with passing on their
knowledge and expertise.
Importantly, the knowledge
transmitted in this way will contain
invaluable details about
organisational values, beliefs and
culture that are hard to acquire
through formal training.’
Elsewhere Management Mentors, a
consultancy based in Boston, USA,
identifies five key differentiators between
Coaching and Mentoring. These are
presented in tabular form below 1 :
Coaching
Coaching is task
oriented,
requiring a
content expert.
Coaching is short
term
Coaching is
performance
driven.
Coaching does
not require
design.
Mentoring
Mentoring is
relationship
oriented, seeking to
provide a safe
environment for
discussion.
Mentoring is always
long term.
Mentoring is
development driven.
Mentoring requires a
design phase to
determine the
strategic purpose,
focal areas, specific
mentoring models,
The coachee's
immediate
manager is a
critical partner in
coaching. 2
and the specific
components that will
guide the
relationship.
The manager has no
link to the mentor
It should be noted that the emphasis upon
mentor as expert in the relevant
field/discipline in the first illustration
appears somewhat at variance with the
focus upon mentoring as relationshipcentred
in the second. Furthermore, even
within material produced by the CIMA, it is
arguable whether this position is
consistently maintained; it does not
necessarily co-exist well with other
perspectives which explicitly align the
terms. For example:
‘The role of mentors and coaches is
to ask their protégé the right
questions to promote greater selfawareness
and more informed
decision making. The role of mentors
and coaches is not to solve
problems, but to question how the
best solutions might be found.’ CIMA
(2008: 4) (my emphasis).
Such diversity in business and
professional settings, allied to the
distinctive context(s) and culture(s) of
1
See also for a similar example, Clutterbuck
(1998:18).
2
This fourth category may not be easy to apply in
an HE context; rather relating particularly to
business contexts where there is likely to be a
three-way relationship - the coach, the
employee or coachee and the employer/
manager who is the sponsor; with the coach
responsible to the manager for agreeing the
coaching objectives. Within an HE context the
coachee might be in this three-way situation or
they may have sought individual coaching from
a service provided by HR.
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