Coaching Vs the Rest

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Coaching vs the Rest

Employee training and development has emerged as a major educational enterprise over the past three decades. And Organizational Development has also become a focus in the new era. Few of the main aids guiding it are coaching, Mentoring and Training. Each of which plays an essential role in the process.


Training is defined as the systematic acquisition of skills, rules, concepts or attitudes that results in improved performance in another environment. (Goldstein& Ford, 2002)


Coaching is “A collaborative, solution focused, result-oriented and systematic process in which the coach facilitates the enhancement of work performance, life experience, self-directed learning and person growth of the coachee” (Association for Coaching,2005). Coaching is mainly concerned with performance and the development of certain skills. It usually takes place on a one-to-one basis and has a very specific purpose. There is usually a planned programme with a much shorter timeframe than in mentoring, so the learning goals are usually determined in advance.


Mentoring on the other hand is ‘a dyadic relationship between a more experienced member of an organization with a less experienced individual’ (Ismail & Arokiasamy, 2007) which helps in building ‘a relationship which gives people the opportunity to share their professional and personal skills and experiences, and to grow and develop in the process’ (Spencer, 2004)


Coaching Vs the Rest

Mentoring

  • Focus on individual.
  • Could have/not have an agenda.
  • Can be biased on one´s favor.
  • Returns in the form of value addition could/could not be assessed.

Coaching

  • Focus on performance.
  • Has a very focused agenda.
  • Is impartial, is focused on improvement in behavior.
  • Returns in terms of value addition is specific; team harmony, job performance etc.

Coaching Vs Training

Training

  • Need not necessarily be co-active
  • Results need not necessarily be apparent.
  • Could advise the participant on past experience and hypothesis.
  • Returns in the form of value addition could/could not be assessed.

Coaching

  • Has to be co-active.
  • Results need to be apparent.
  • Works on the clients´ requirement by incessantly asking questions than giving "answers"

Coaching Vs Therapy

Therapy

  • Assumes the client needs clinical intervention and healing.
  • Focus on feelings and past events, past orientation.
  • Works to bring in the unconscious to consciousness.

Coaching

  • Assumes the client is high driven and highly functional
  • Focus on action and the future, goal orientation.
  • Works with a conscious mind.

An anology to understand the defferences better!

Let´s assume you wanted to learn to dance. If you took into account a:

Therapist:

Would help you find out what might be holding you back from dancing. They would probe into your past to discover what kinds of fear or phobias you have had with dancing and suggest remedy.


Mentor:

Would share her experiences of dancing and the wisdom and lessons she had learnt to become richer in the subject.


Trainer:

Would tell you how to dance by showing it to you. The trainer has perfect the art herself and you could do that too if you follow her footsteps.


Coach:

Would accompany you on an exciting journey that will help you set inspiring goals by being aware of your current dancing steps. She will encourage you to take action and will help you build new skills in the area of your choice by exploiting your natural talent