Respond to…

Coaching and mentoring are two different forms of career development. Baack (2012) defined mentoring as a supportive relationship between a newer employee and an experienced employee. Mentoring can be a formal or informal relationship where an experienced employee shares development advice and organizational insight with a newer or less experienced employee. Baack (2012) defined coaching as a relationship between an expert and a trainee with a focus on continuous feedback and guidance with a goal to improve. Coaching is a form of training and provides a consistent and systematic relationship for the trainee. While both mentoring and coaching are forms of development for an employee, they have one main difference. Mentoring is a relationship established for an employee to seek out on an as-needed basis. Coaching is an assigned relationship, that may be shorter, but is consistent and there every step of the way. Both relationships are there to support an employee.

In my past role, I had both a coach and a mentor. My mentorship relationship was very successful. Our relationship eventually lead me to my current role. As a claim representative, I had a goal to eventually get into learning and development. My mentor worked in learning and development. Because of our relationship, I was able to make connections with other learning and development specialists, observe and lead training, and learn more about the potential role. The relationship eventually lead to a fellowship where I got to experience the job first hand and when a role became available, I was able to leverage my relationship with my mentor and my fellowship as strengths that lead me to my current role.

Resources

Baack, D. (2012). Organizational Behavior. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.