Leaders get confused about training, coaching, and mentoring. Mentoring and coaching sound “sexier” than training, but all are important. Cut through the fog. Get what you need.
Use each the intended way:
- Training – learning a new skill to a next level of proficiency.
- Coaching – getting better at using skill(s) to reach a new level of effectiveness in a direction you want to go.
- Mentoring – life-on-life story-sharing, query & discussion
You need combinations of training, coaching, and mentoring over time. Study the gaps between the Now and the Needed, then decide which to reduce. Don’t discount training. There is no substitute when you simply must learn a new skill. Don’t bring in a coach when you need a trainer first. Mentoring is wonderful but incomplete without training and coaching.
Consider what individuals in your team and circle of influence need to get to where they want to go. Include a mix of specific training and coaching. Everyone benefits from mentoring but help people get the right mentors.
Great punchy post, Glenn. There are different seasons of life that require each one. Training is important because we should never stop learning, coaching is important because we should always be refining, and mentoring is important because we are never beyond the point of allowing people in our lives.
I think that, as with the concept of a sports coach, the lines sometimes blur (a basketball coach in high school is teaching new skills as well as mentoring at times); but I love how succinctly you delineated the difference in the ROLE (even if the same person happens to be filling more than one role in a certain setting, phase of life or area of growth).