What’s the Difference Between Coaching and Mentoring? (And Which is Right for Your Business?)

Mentoring and coaching can help employees and leaders with their professional development.

But there are key differences between coaching and mentoring that will influence what the right one for you and your business is.

Before we dive into the difference between coaching and mentoring, let’s define them:

What is mentoring?

A good mentor shares their experience on a specific subject, role, topic, or skill with a mentee. They act as a guide who’s walked the path ahead of their coachee and can point out shortcuts, obstacles, and insights based on their own journey. They’re subject matter experts who help employees navigate a particular field or domain.

It’s a one-on-one relationship that focuses on career development in particular areas such as women in the workplace or leadership development. They can help an employee find the right path to achieving a specific goal, such as becoming partner.

At Sanctus Mentoring, we understand how challenging it is to find the right mentor. That’s why we have a unique mentor matching algorithm to connect mentees with the person best suited to helping them find solutions, whether that’s an internal or external mentor.

What is coaching?

A certified coach is an expert in human development and growth. Instead of giving answers, a coach asks powerful questions and facilitates change within the coachee. They’re less like a guide and more like a mirror or a gardener. They help employees uncover their potential, nurture growth, and develop the skills to navigate any path, not just one specific to their experience.

The business coaching process can identify areas for career development, meaning coaches can offer personalized guidance to employees.

Our unique Sanctus Coaching model means that our programs are bespoke and scalable. We have structured programs led by professional coaches (certified by places like the International Coaching Federation) to help employees with everything from interpersonal skills, to communication skills, to career progression, mental health, and so much more.

We also take into account how an employee’s unique situation and challenges influence each other. Tackling them as parts of the same whole, rather than individual parts, means that our professional coaches can support employees’ long-term development from every angle, ensuring they can perform at their best every day.

What are the similarities between coaching vs mentoring?

Both coaching and mentoring can help with employee development, supporting them with skill development and, where appropriate, leadership development. There’s a place for both in business, with them playing vital roles in skill enhancement to help every employee perform at their best and progress in their careers.

83% of employees see learning and development as “vital”, while 66% would consider quitting within a year if their career development was cut. So however you plan to support your employee development, offering some sort of employee training initiative is imperative to your retention efforts.

What’s the difference between coaching and mentoring?

Think of it this way: a coach holds up a mirror to help employees see themselves more clearly and make more informed choices that align with their values. A mentor holds up a map and tells them how they walked the path and which route they took.

Coaching is more about self-exploration, while mentoring is more about guidance. This is why they complement each other so well. Mentoring helps employees find the path, while coaching gives them the tools to navigate it to the best of their abilities.

Sanctus Coach Dr Albert Viljoen summed it up perfectly:

A mentor can show you: I did it this way, I recommend you do this, and watch out for that.

A coach then goes: “Given what you do know about yourself, how would YOU do it? How are you similar and different from your mentor? How do you make the learnings your own, and embed it in a way that aligns with who you are?”

What makes an effective coach?

A skilled coach helps employees reflect on their decisions and why they do them so that they can make more effective decisions. 

In-house coaches can only do so much. Employees won’t always feel comfortable being honest with them because they both work for the same organization. Employees will assume their coach’s ulterior motive is to the business and that they’ll report back anything the employee says, meaning they won’t feel as comfortable being honest. And so won’t be able to fully work through the challenges they face.

Our Sanctus Listening statistics show how much employees prefer to be unidentified when raising issues or asking questions: 90% of posts are published anonymougly. Junior staff post anonymously 93% of the time, and women received 31% more replies when posting anonymously. 

This also shows the power of objective, confidential coaching (and employee listening). Employees are far more likely to want to talk about things when they’re certain things can’t be traced back to them, whether their fears are legitimate or unfounded.

Our unique Sanctus Coaching model means employees can discuss what matters to them and what’s affecting their work. It supports them in their growth and development in whatever direction they want to go in, free from judgement, fear of reprisals, or cynicism about ulterior motives.

Employees can choose between a one-off or drop-in coaching session—for instance, if they have a particular problem they want to address—or a structured coaching program designed to help them tackle professional development in areas such as executive leadership or returning to work after becoming a parent.

What makes an effective mentor?

An effective mentor has already achieved something that the mentee wants to achieve. This could be a particular role or specialism.

Mentors are willing to share their knowledge and time to pass on their learnings to the next cohort so that they can grow faster and avoid the same mistakes.

What are the benefits of coaching?

As coaches hold up a mirror, coaching can teach self-awareness, making people better communicators and problem solvers. The more questions a coach asks, the more solutions employees can find.

Our certified Sanctus Coaches go one step further by taking a wholebeing approach. This means we take a person’s whole situation into account, from their worklife to what’s happening at home and everything in between. Our coaches use this to help your employees manage their work-life balance and mental health to become their happiest, most productive selves.

This can have a ripple effect throughout your organization, not just benefitting the people who’ve experienced coaching, but their direct reports and colleagues, too. When leaders are better, more empathetic communicators, it creates a more positive, psychologically safe work environment.

When employees can share their concerns with an objective coach, it releases some of the strain that comes from bottling up our emotions, whether those are caused by redundancies, workplace relationships, or something happening at home. A problem shared is a problem halved, as they say.

What are the benefits of mentoring?

79% of millennial employees see mentoring as crucial to helping them have a successful career, yet only 37% of employees have a mentor.

Mentoring can also help employees develop their confidence and communication skills, as well as opening up networking opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t have had access to.

Supporting your employees with coaching and mentoring also boosts retention, as they receive the support and development that they want from you—making them less likely to seek it elsewhere.

Mentoring is particularly useful in supporting DEI initiatives, as mentors can understand the unique workplace challenges that come with being a woman in the workplace, employee of color, disabled employee, etc. The mentee can then use these learnings to help them navigate their unique challenges.

When Humberside Police used Pushfar (now Sanctus Mentoring) to support candidates from disadvantaged backgrounds—as they were more likely to progress through the recruitment stages if they had a mentor—it resulted in a reduction in admin time managing the program and improved pass rates for candidates. In total, 654 hours were spent on the platform between 53 mentors and mentees.

How to tell if your employees need coaching or mentoring

Employees crave more growth opportunities. Providing them with these learning and development opportunities is vital to attracting and retaining talent. Failing to offer it can have a dramatic impact on your retention efforts as your high performers leave for businesses that do support their career growth. If you haven’t already got something in place, it’s time to start considering coaching and/or mentoring solutions for your business.

Employee engagement and morale can tell you a lot about your employees and if they need additional support. For instance, before working with us, Evoluted tried several solutions to improve employee morale as the decline was affecting deliverables and client relationships.

It wasn’t until they reached out to us, and embraced employee coaching, that things began to change. Find out more about how coaching helped them turn things around in our Evoluted case study.

Still not sure whether coaching or mentoring is the right solution for you? Why not get in touch to talk to one of our team members? They can recommend the right fit for your needs and offer a tailored, scalable solution for you and your employees.