How does coaching differ from mentoring?
An equally popular management development process, and one which is often confused with developmental coaching, is mentoring. Eric Parsloe, in his book “Coaching, Mentoring and Assessing” defines both terms in a way that is echoed by many other writers in this field. Coaching, he says, is; “…directly concerned with the immediate improvement of performance and development of skills by a form of tutoring or instruction. ” By contrast, mentoring, he says, is, “… always one step removed and is concerned with the longer-term acquisition of skills in a developing career by a form of advising and counseling.” The widely accepted distinction between coaching and mentoring, thereby, can be seen in two ways: They have different purposes, coaching being short-term performance improvement, and mentoring being long-term career development; they require different methods – coaches ‘instruct’ and mentors ‘counsel’ In fact, the way in which Parsloe defines the purpose and methodology of mentoring
