Difference & Similarities Between a Mentor & a Coach. And why you need both
(4 min read) A two-punch combo to accelerate your journey towards your goal.
The last two posts I wrote, focussed on why you need a mentor and why you need a coach. In today’s post, I summarize how they are similar and differ from each other. And finally we summarize with why we need both. Here is a handy table of differences.
Now, let's look at how they are similar.
Similarities between coaches and mentors:
Accountability: Both will keep you accountable towards your goals.
Great listeners: Both are great listeners. They listen to the challenges you are encountering and before offering advice, they ask you about what you have done to address the issue.
Support: You can lean on both of them for support, whether it's emotional support or support with a change. Mentors and coaches are great sources to lean on.
Perspective and insight: Both will provide great perspective and insight as they are more experienced than you. This is something that can help you progress faster towards your short and long-term goals.
I have highlighted the key similarities and differences between coaches and mentors. There could be many more which I haven’t captured. Please leave them in the comments.
My goal in highlighting the above is to convey that we are not trying to pick between a mentor or a coach. We need to have both in our lives if we want to achieve our full potential. This post is an attempt to highlight the different value they bring to our lives. Remember our mantra:
If you find this post interesting, here our other posts that I think you will
If you are interested in this topic and would like to get following post in the series of mentorship and coaching, please subscribe. Here are few of the upcoming:
How to Mentor
10 Mistakes Mentees Make During Mentorship