#1 Mentoring and Coaching
Mentoring and coaching are popular in our work environments, and people use the terms when referring to individual professional growth and development. After discussing with my peers and direct reports, I noticed that things get fuzzy when people define and distinguish between mentoring and coaching.
Brief definitions found online don’t help much. They tend to overlap a lot, and that is probably because mentoring and coaching have plenty in common. Both processes aim for personal development through guidance and influence from a mentor or a coach. The difference is in the way that guidance and influence are delivered.
Mentoring is when a more experienced individual advises, guides, and teaches somebody by sharing knowledge and experience to help the other individual learn and grow. This involves teaching and showing solutions to specific problems. It is a type of one-to-one relationship like master-apprentice and teacher-student.
One example that comes to mind is the relationship between two software engineers, one senior and a junior. The senior engineer will mentor the junior to develop the skill to be proficient in a specific technology. That would involve a lot of teaching and showing how things get done correctly.
Coaching is when an individual helps another explore, reach their conclusions, and find the solution themselves. The coach doesn’t have to be more experienced in a particular area than the coachee. The coach guides the coachee by listening, questioning, and challenging the coachee’s views and conclusions without giving them the answers.
One example of such a relationship that comes to mind is from sports - between the coach and the trainee. Imagine the number one tennis player and his coach. Due to better physical shape and skills, the number one tennis player would probably win most matches against his coach, but that would not stop the coach from helping the tennis player reach his full potential.
Both processes are a one-to-one type of relationship between two individuals. Both require mutual trust and respect. Mentoring is usually a longer-term process than coaching, but both can be long-lived relationships.
The topic of mentoring and coaching is covered extensively by James Stanier in his book “Becoming an Effective Software Engineering Manager”. The book is an excellent read full of insights for software engineering managers and individual contributors (I highly recommend his blog, “The Engineering Manager”). Another resource is the article “Coaching vs. Mentoring: What’s the Difference?“which describes the two processes in-depth.
As a software engineering manager, I’m involved in relationships of both kinds, either as a mentor or a coach. I often switch between the two roles in my relationship with the same person. I find coaching more complex and challenging between the two because a big slice of it is listening and understanding and finding the right questions that will challenge the coachee while refraining from giving solutions.
My advice for engineers is to seek out mentors and coaches and engage in such a relationship. The process can accelerate your development, and it is also gratifying for mentors and coaches - both parties have much to gain.