Wise Leaders Coach and Mentor

 The wisest leaders I know are both coaches and mentors.

Some people like myself have a go to methodology. 

In my case this is mentoring. 

I have three processes that I use in my work with clients to help them to move to where they want to be in their own best way. 

I also provide coaching.

Learn more here. 

I am often asked “what is the difference between a coach and a mentor?” My answer is that there doesn’t need to be a difference in terms of labels, yet making a distinction can be very useful in terms of roles.

For me Coaching is concerned with competency: the skills needed to perform at optimum levels. Good coaching is about maximizing skills.

Mentoring is concerned with commitment: the will we need to perform at our best. Good mentoring is about maximizing will.

Mentoring is very different to coaching. Here’s how I overview the differences on page 172 in my Changing What’s Normal book.

Good Coaching requires

• Ability to articulate how performance should be.
• Ability to share knowledge clearly and succinctly. 
• Ability to create diverse, fun, practice methodologies. 
• Ability to be tough yet fair. 
• Ability to challenge people respectfully. 
• Ability to separate problems from personality. 
• Ability to be general with praise and specific with criticism.

Good Mentoring requires 

• Willingness to influence others regarding the steps necessary to lift performance yet allow others to make their own decisions. 
• Willingness to listen more than speak. 
• Willingness to give advice but more to encourage people to find their own way. 
• Willingness to experience delayed gratification.
• Willingness to give away hard earned wisdom. 

Are you a good coach and a good mentor? Your people, including your children if you are a parent, need you to be.

As mentioned I personally play the role of mentor more than that of a coach.

I’m with Seth Godin who says:

“Good advice is priceless. Not what you want to hear, but what you need to hear. Not imaginary, but practical. Not based on fear, but on possibility. Not designed to make you feel better, designed to make you better. 

Seek it out and embrace the true friends that care enough to risk sharing it.

I’m not sure what takes more guts—giving it or getting it.”

For many years I have valued, used and helped my clients to use the following adaption from the Situational Leadership Model.

There's a post and podcast here about learning and development that references coaching and mentoring that you will find valuable too.

Should you value some coaching and/or mentoring in developing your own unique methodologies please reach out to me on +61 418 807 898.

Become the wise leader you want to be.

Ian