You want to improve your leadership skills. How can you tell if mentorship or coaching is the right path?

Deciding between mentorship and coaching to improve your leadership skills depends on your specific needs, preferences, and goals. Personal Connection: Mentorship: Success in mentorship often relies on building a personal connection with your mentor. It's a relationship that may extend beyond professional development. Coaching: Coaching is generally more task-oriented, emphasizing professional growth without necessarily delving into personal aspects. Consider these factors and weigh your preferences and goals to determine whether mentorship or coaching aligns better with your leadership development needs. In some cases, a combination of both approaches may be beneficial.

Mentorship is a mechanism by which mentee takes the advantage of experience of mentor or in other words, mentor helps the mentee facilitate to learn the subject, facts, situations, process etc which are the need of mentee for problem solving. Through the process, the mentee develop the faculty to carry out the tasks in guided manner without hassles of reinventing the wheel or experiencing on their own. Though the role of mentor could be formal or informal in nature at individual level or at organisational level but it is just like a relationship of teacher and disciple in a limited sense. A trait, any mentor should have, is to coach the mentee and encourage, probe and discuss the situation or the subject as a lead.

A mentor can be a more-experienced individual in within your industry or company. An advantage of mentors is that they often have first-hand experience of challenges you may be facing in your career. (They probably faced similar challenges before.) And if they work at your company or industry, they may also have insight into things like "unwritten rules" or corporate politics at your company. That can be hugely helpful! One risk of mentors is they may be biased toward how they handled similar situations in their own past rather than being objective with you and your current situation.

Mentorship is a transfer of a skill and share of experience from someone which is an expert in the area you want to learn. With a mentor there is an inequality and a hierarchy of competency. Coaching is a partnership, a neutral approach. With a coach you work of the self, since the self has all the answers. A coach will bring you where you need to go, by supporting you tap into the self, since often this is only possible in a conversation with another. A coach will work with you on your mindset so you can close the gap by helping you gain the right perspective and defining your own actions towards the target.

Both coaching and mentorship is like two sides of a coin. Each side has its own unique character that, together w/ the other side, makes the coin specific. Leadership is a skill & each skill needs sharpening all the time as set of skills required to accomplish a task keeps changing in line w/ the highly volatile & fast pacing world we live in. For a leader who believes in life long learning, having a good mentor should be part of the leader's journey as the informal relationship, the role modeling, the support is crucial for his/her continuous growth and development. As a leader moves the ladder and climbs high, a structured, short term & formal learning (i.e coaching) becomes vital for optimal effectiveness and avoidance of mediocrity.

Understanding my reasons for offering mentoring and coaching as separate services may help you. I am a certified life, career and confidence coach. I help people to discover more about 'themselves' by asking high-quality reflective and self-discovery questions. I share my experiences in a way that helps you to bring out your vulnerability and potential. I have frameworks which guide you to achieve personal transformation, but I am not an expert in 'your' situation - you are. As a business/monetisation mentor. I use my frameworks and corporate revenue-driving expertise. Here, I am a subject matter expert. I've walked the path and I've helped many others to achieve success. I 'show' you how to get results and give specific actions to take.

In my experience, in the area of Alternative Basic Education for out of school/never been to school adolescent highly marginalized pastoralist girls’ including girls with disability - ‘Leave No Girl Behind’ project where primary focus was on retraining and mentoring of local teachers in tandem with community mobilization on gender issues and importance of literacy and numeracy. It worked and transformed the communities and the girls Coaching was applied on education supervisors to reshaping their attitudes towards gender equality and access to equitable quality education, and is work in progress. In summary, mentoring and coaching are different but share common goal in terms of supporting individuals or or groups for empowerment

A simple framework that can guide your decision when choosing between mentoring and coaching: Are you seeking industry-specific knowledge or guidance from someone who has been on the path? Mentorship might be the perfect fit. Are you ready to unlock your full potential, refine your own style, and achieve lasting behavioural change, embracing and enhancing your uniqueness? Coaching is likely to be the perfect fit.

Mentorship and coaching are not "either/or" propositions. They can be a "both/and" choice! Personally, I've worked with both mentors and coaches in my past corporate career. Both brought valuable perspectives. Mentors may have direct experience in your industry or job role. But coaches have an amazing ability to dig deeper and help you move forward REGARDLESS of your industry or job. A coach's ability to dig deep with the client and to be objective (rather than offer advice) makes them a powerful resource to help you reach your goals.

A skilled coach can guide you to explore the depths of your thoughts and identities. You may get to see parts of your inner self that you haven't yet seen; like a black box. Their art of reflective questioning also facilitates introspection as you wander between the past and present; the future etc. This process of self-discovery can be very transformative. It empowers you to tap into your inner wisdom and make meaningful changes in your life; all without one-size-fits-all answers or directives by the coach.

Reflect on how you prefer to learn and receive feedback. If you thrive on one-on-one interactions and value personalized guidance tailored to your unique circumstances, coaching may be the preferred option. On the other hand, if you benefit from the wisdom, experience, and insights of a more seasoned professional who can serve as a role model and advisor, mentorship might be more suitable.