On mentoring and coaching

As I embarked on my coaching certification journey 2 years ago, I was often unable to crisply articulate my motivation for doing so. After all, throughout my career, I have gravitated towards roles which were rich in human connection - customer/partner facing or otherwise navigating intra-company human systems. This exposure provided me with a lot of opportunities to engage with my colleagues in richer and richer ways. However, it was all mentoring and grooming - in my own image oftentimes, with ‘leading questions’ masquerading as coaching. After a few practice coaching sessions, the difference began to sink in.

Coaching is truly a different realm of interaction - domain independent, knowledge independent, dynamic, alive, alert to every moment. A lovely interplay between the client and coach, sometimes a dance, sometimes a voyage, sometimes a tour de force. And sometimes just shared silence - a pause, a break from the endless stream of consciousness.

A gap emerges - a conscious breath, a moment - and in this gap, true understanding, true knowing is possible. 

Does that mean mentoring is bad or inferior? Not at all! They each have a role to play depending on the circumstances! For very specific, immediate concerns, if it's possible to help a client with targeted pointers, classical mentoring/guiding techniques come to the fore. However, for long term resilience and holistic growth of the client, coaching goes a long way.

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