In practice, when coaching, mentoring may sometimes be needed. Why is that?
Coaching, since Tim Gallwey, is perceived universally as a facilitative process, whereby the coach attends to the coachee and their learning. This attention to the coachee and their learning leads to the use of just three principle instruments of coaching, namely: questions, challenge and (Self-reflective; SR) Silence.
In mentoring, we are permitted to offer ideas, choices, stories and examples but ideally, we only do this when the coach has insufficient knowledge, experience and context to work things out for themselves.
The McLeod Managament Model offers a simple & practical guide to the use of: coaching, mentoring or support/information. In general, unless something is urgent, we stay stay with coaching/facilitation as this will produce independent performance in your staff and concurrently, will advance the speed of your own learning.
See more articles and short, new, FREE videos as they come up: