Three Components Of Mentoring

As a matter of fact, mentoring, as well as coaching, constitute two out of three components of the developmental relationships; and although it seems as if they hold similar meanings, however, they are slightly different from one another. Unlike mentoring, in which the main role of the mentor is to help his or her mentee identify what he or she is good at in order to achieve success, coaching is considered to be “a process whereby a coach works with clients to achieve speedy, increased and sustainable effectiveness in their lives and careers through focused learning” (McGuire, 2014, p.131). In fact, coaches, on the contrary of mentors, do not have to be more experienced that their coachees, however, they need to have skills in listening and

On the other hand, mentoring is both past and future-oriented; it can be cross-organizational, cross-departmental, and virtual (McGuire, 2014, p.132). In fact, in his own experience of being a mentor, Dr. David McGuire used to ask his mentees about their career goals and assisted them to determine those goals if not yet fully known; he also used to give them homework at the end of every mentoring session such as asking them to figure out what they plan on becoming in the next three years. Another difference between mentoring and coaching is the fact that a mentor can be a role model, a teacher, and a senior guide from whom the mentee receives career and psychological support, and expands his or her knowledge, experience, and performance. The mentor also helps the mentee identify what he or she is good at, because that way, they will be more likely to succeed. In opposition to that, the relationship between the coach and the coachee is an equals’ partnership whereby the coach helps in the development of the coachee, improving his or her learning, and enhancing his or her performance (McGuire, 2014,

Therefore, in order for them to maintain its key employees, meet the challenges of global competition and social change, improve the quality and incorporate technological advances and changes in work design, many organizations provide coaching practices by HRD professionals, supervisors and managers, internal mentors and coaches, or external HRD and management development consultants (Baek-Kyou, Sushko, McLean, 2012, p. 19-20). Moreover, coaching can also be seen as the interventions that an organization makes so as to extend the knowledge of its executives, managers, or senior staff members. It is usually a short-term program and is focused on specific performance issues that employees face in a certain domain. In fact, the success of coaching is dependent on whether the working relationship between the coach and the coachee was effective or not; coaches might use techniques such as asking concise questions, using sophisticated communication tools, as well as encouraging coachees and providing them with positive feedback. On the other hand, mentoring is an ongoing professional relationship whereby mentors are more likely to share their knowledge and professional experience with the mentee in order to deepen his or her understanding and enhance his or her effectiveness. In other words, mentors can also do the